Capital Celluloid 2014 - Day 260: Thu Sep 18

La Dolce Vita (Fellini, 1960): Genesis Cinema, 6pm


This Roma Bellazza doubl-bill (the cinema are also screening The Great Beauty) is part of the Scalarama season which runs throughout September. Full details here.

Time Out review:
The opening shot shows a helicopter lifting a statue of Christ into the skies and out of Rome. God departs and paves the way for Fellini's extraordinarily prophetic vision of a generation's spiritual and moral decay. The depravity is gauged against the exploits of Marcello (Mastroianni), a playboy hack who seeks out sensationalist stories by bedding socialites and going to parties. Marcello is both repelled by and drawn to the lifestyles he records: he becomes besotted with a fleshy, dimwit starlet (Ekberg), he joins in the media hysteria surrounding a child's alleged sighting of the Virgin Mary, yet he longs for the bohemian life of his intellectual friend Steiner (Cuny). There are perhaps a couple of party scenes too many, and the peripheral characters can be unconvincing, but the stylish cinematography and Fellini's bizarre, extravagant visuals are absolutely riveting.
Elaine Patterson

Here is an excerpt.

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