Dolce Vita

what's the point of this

The main theme I can grasp I think is the criticism of journalism. How photographers are vultures and how journalists can make or destroy someone as they please
But then what? This movie feels fucking all over the place and sometimes it's hard to keep up with what is being said
Also what's so special about the foutain scene? Is it because it features a beautiful titcow?
And is this a thing among liberals to fill your home with strangers and have them spout nonsense for the sake of seeking attention and "really make you think"?
At least the women were hot I guess, posting best girl

each vignette is like a further entry into debauchery, marcello's shame is bubbling under the surface in every scene yet he's also too far gone to be able to implement any change into his life. one of the best interpretations I've ever heard was that the girl at the end calling to him is his own innocence lost in confusion and apathy

Sounds pretty faggy.

>the girl at the end calling to him is his own innocence lost in confusion and apathy

now you unironically make me think
how the fuck was I supposed to get that? kino is ruthless. Fellini might just be too smart for me

more like criticism of decadent upper class

you've missed the satire

the main "theme" is the dual emptiness and addictiveness of hedonistic bourgeois culture

marcello's path is as the other user suggested, a descent, until in the end he finds hismelf literally a world apart from your 'best girl' - no communication, he endlessly parties with the rest of the zombie elite- so much for 'the good life'!

mostly the film is a visual experience though, the first of fellini's films to completely display his mad carnival aesthetic. the larger than life environments, the bruegelesque parades of grotesque characters and caricatures

i didn't much like the movie when i first saw it. it's not fellini at his best, but it is/was a spectacle of an inviting world of glamour sin, i think the indulgence of it all worked with audiences. you watch this with your grandparents or your little siblings and they get it.

try La Strada for a folk-taleish Fellini, i vitelloni for a coming of age bohemian fellini, Nights of Cabiria for something between new wave and neo-realism, and 8 1/2 for the self reflexive proto-kaufman/allen industry satire. or: don't bother with any of them.

La strada is a nightmare

I never thought of it as a critique into journalism, it's much more than that, it's about decadent life as a whole. The term "paparazzi" came from this film.

This. Notice how every characters go to elegeant and interesting parties then go back home to what can't even be called a modest apartment.

I did watch 8 1/2 before that and thought that it was a fucking mess. I think I'm done with italian cinema, it's just as much bullshit as our nouvelle vague

fellini's not for everyone but writing off a whole nation because you didn't like one director's two films is retarded...

do you like zack snyder? guess american film's not for you

I really dislike Italian cinema too and I've seen all the big name directors.

>decadent life as a whole

it didn't strike me because the main character willingly engage into this kind of universe and seems fine with it. While you can clearly see he is irritated by all the photographers even though he has to work along with them, and assume he shows remorse doing the job he does

I don't know much about italian cinema desu but it wouldn't surprise that it's all chaotic movies because it's inherent to the italian character anyway.

Can you name a few? I avoided those movies for a long time now and rightfully I think. I have yet to see l'avventura for example.

You shouldn't avoid them because I don't like them you stupid fuck

that's not what I said, but I often fall into the trap and end up watching some masturbatory garbage, then again it's my opinion and it doesn't have much value

>I don't know much about italian cinema desu but it wouldn't surprise that it's all chaotic movies

try antonioni's Lavventura or rosselini's Voyage to Italy. italy can be just as meditative as anywhere else.

50-70's Italian cinema is my favorite, 60's Italian is the pinnacle of cinema imo
I love everything about it, the politics, the exploitation, the arthouse, the comedies. American cinema just seems bland by comparison.

40-60's Japanese cinema
then 70's Hollywood, which had a strong Italian flavor
40-50's Hollywood
40-60's French cinema

Don't knock it off until you're sampled all the flavors it has to offer.

Listing one film per essential filmmaker, google names if you want more. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.

Arthouse masters:
Pasolini: Mamma Roma
Fellini: Satyricon
Visconti: The Leopard
Antonioni: L'avventura
Bertolucci: The Conformist

Comedies:
Risi: The Monsters
Monicelli: Big Deal on Madonna Street
Scola: We All Loved Each Other So Much
Germi: The Birds, the Bees and the Italians

Politics/society:
Rosi: Hands Over The City
Petri: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Pontecorvo: The Battle of Algiers
Ferreri: La Grande Bouffe
Jacopetti: Mondo Cane

Crime/poliziottesco:
Lizzani: Bandits in Milan
Castellari: The Big Racket
Di Leo: Caliber 9

Westerns:
Leone: Fistful of Dollars
Corbucci: The Great Silence
Sollima: Face to Face
Petroni: Death Rides a Horse
Valerii: Day of Anger

Scifi:
Barbarella
Planet of the Vampires

Horror:
Bava: Black Sunday
Argento: Suspiria
Fulci: A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
Bazzoni: The Fifth Cord
Martino: Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

>Visconti: The Leopard
god I disliked this film so much, con fuckign gratys u can have budget for suits but forgot rest of the film

Italy also produced Sturaro, possibly the greatest cinematographer of all time

>what's the point of this
Honestly it was one of these movies that called my attention because of the craft and really never cared much for content and politics as these can vary pretty much from any film. I'm aware that the movement of cinema prior was heavily influenced by politics but i really didn't care lol. Though what I wanted to see in this movie was the flow of the frames, the position of the actors (also mise en scene) and the optical effects behind every scene

I guess that symbolism is subjective, just like yojr feelings toward the scene, in the end film is pretty complicated. I guess you can say its a bittersweet statement about the life of the protagonist which is probably accurate

There's more to it than costumes and expensive sets, it's such a beautifully and delicately directed film about change and the death of an era. Perhaps try revising it in a few years, it's one of those films that makes more sense and connects with you more the older you get.

I admit. I know nothing about the intricacies of Italian history. I admit that probably reading about it, even the general Wikipedia page would've helped with the film but I didn't like it until towards the end where Burt Lancaster's character completely takes over the film. In general, the film got increasingly better in the final hour-45 minutes of its runtime.

If you're a typical pleb with teenage sensibilities, you probably have a boner for Scorsese so watch his Voyage to Italy documentary. He's so passionate and eloquent about Italian cinema, it's a great intro for plebs.

...

did she ever show her knockers? thicc goddess

the main character is given 2 choices. Either settle with his gf and lead a safe but boring life, or keep fucking around in those parties

moreover he thrives to be a writer but is reluctant to do so, even more so since the guy who could help him make his breakthrough killed himself (Steiner)

he might hate his job but at least he has a network and made good enough connections to participate in those parties he likes (+ financial security while becoming a writer is risky af)

in the end he is incapable of making a choice. He did make up with his gf but it collides with his lifestyle and in the long run it won't work, so the guy is basically back to square one

Am I over reading things or is this analysis ok? OP btw

SOMEONE ANSWER I WANNA KNOW IF I'M INTELLIGENT ENOUGH FOR KINO OR NOT

Helpless dependence -- complete devotion: the ultimate form of selfishness.

Emptiness, alienation, ennui.

The closer Marcelo gets to people, the more he understands that they are all as empty as he.

Yeah boi you got it basically. I love this movie. Marcello is a fucking god

>it didn't strike me because the main character willingly engage into this kind of universe and seems fine with it.

The film is a relentless polemic against Marcelo. Just because he's the main character doesn't mean he's portrayed sympathetically.

Not who you're responding to but I think the film, if not sympathetic to Marcello, shows us he has the potential to find his way out of his struggle, and the intelligence to see that path, and thus we all have these things