The biggest hit from the most popular Italian filmmaker of all time, La Dolce Vita rocketed Federico Fellini (8½) to international mainstream success ironically, by offering a damning critique of the culture of stardom. A look at the darkness beneath the seductive lifestyles of Rome's rich and glamorous, the film follows a notorious celebrity journalist played by a sublimely cool Marcello Mastroianni (8½) during a hectic week spent on the peripheries of the spotlight. This mordant picture was an incisive commentary on the deepening decadence of the European 1960s, and it provided a prescient glimpse of just how gossip- and fame-obsessed our society would become.
Extras
New 4K digital restoration by the Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New visual essay by : : kogonada
New interview with filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, who worked as assistant director on the film.
Scholar David Forgacs discusses the period in Italy’s history when the film was made
New interview with Italian film journalist Antonello Sarno about the outlandish fashions seen in the film
Audio interview with actor Marcello Mastroianni from the early 1960s, conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann
Felliniana, a presentation of ephemera related to La dolce vita from the collection of Don Young
