Lumière Movies has an ever growing collection of Contemporary Movies. Browse through our movies for new additions. Explore movie details, photo galleries, reviews, specials and more...
Few films have indelibly defined society as caustically and honestly as Federico Fellini''s 1960 classic La Dolce Vita, a classic and highly controversial commentary on modern hedonism and anomy (condition of malaise in individuals by an absence of standards or values). Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Fellini favourite Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He spends every evening at the Via Veneto—the venerable hotspot for people who want to be seen—vicariously awaiting the next scandal, party invitation, or sexual proposition. While his girlfriend contemplates suicidal at his betrayals, Marcello flits from one kind of company to another: from streetside flirtations with beautiful women to fireside flirtations with intellectuals. The empty evenings seem to weave together into a decadent rhythm, punctuated only by the hazy regret of the following morning. This is a soul-searching portrait of a celebrity-obsessed culture, the chronicle of a decadent society where there are no values higher than the seeking of pleasure, and no solutions beyond suicide. The glimmer of faith in family and intellectualism that pushes Marcello to continue his attempts to write seriously is abruptly extinguished by the suicide of a man. A young girl whom he runs into accidentally becomes the symbol of an innocence he can never hope to attain.
This fascinating classic with a strongly bitter edge won the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes in 1960 Best Director at the David di Donatello Awards the same year.
