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Screening: 'La Dolce Vita' (Federico Fellini, 1960)

When:
Venue: Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square

No booking required

Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) is a critique of decadence in 1960s Rome, yet it is simultaneously suffused with a wistful longing for the "sweet life" it portrays. The jaded gossip columnist Marcello, played by Marcello Mastroianni, embarks on a series of night-time and dawn encounters, which include a meeting with a promiscuous society beauty (Anouk Aimée) and the mesmerising Anita Ekberg. Rather than use conventional cinematic narrative, Fellini wanted to construct numerous sequences, each dominated by key images. Fellini's Rome is a world of mass celebrity culture and the paparazzi - indeed, this is the film that gave us that word, named after the character Paparazzo - and Marcello's life epitomizes this : he is a man without a centre. In the world of La Dolce Vita religious rites are empty and whispered confessions of love end in the failure of communication. Yet in Fellini's own words, "decadence is indispensable to rebirth". In La Dolce Vita images of alienation are interwoven with images that suggest hope, such as in the final, mysterious scene when the angelic Paola smiles at Marcello on the beach. Beautiful and seductive, La Dolce Vita was shot in a pre-digital age when celluloid film was seen as a magical material of light and shadow. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the iconic Trevi Fountain scene, which has quite rightly been called the symbolic image of postwar cinema. La Dolce Vita caused huge controversy upon its release in Italy and changed cinematic history. Come and experience its full magic in the Birkbeck cinema with us!

As taught by Dr Nicolette David on "Italian Film from Neorealism to Fellini". Stay after the film and find out more about our Italian programmes at Birkbeck.
The screening is free, but please reserve your place using our online booking form.