Life just got a little sweeter
First loves are quick to romance and often quick to lose. But impossible to forget. Fall in love with Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita all over again by watching the modern revamping of the film trailer recently released.
After rewatching La Dolce Vita this past week, I fell back in love with Marcello Mastroianni, who plays the iconic Federico in the film. Although he is a playboy and parties throughout the night, every night, there is something relatable about him. He is a lover, a friend, a dreamer. The expressions on his face cannot lie. Federico seeks the sweet life, this life that often beckons us in our dreams but a life that many do not dare search for when they wake up in the morning. As the late Steiner, who ends up killing his children and himself, says in the film: “One should be able to live beyond all passions and feelings. One should find the harmony that lives in a fine piece of art.”
It is up to you to decide if Federico fails or succeeds in his quest for meaning in life; what happens after Federico rejoins his gang of friends at Passoscuro beach (west of Rome)? Many believe that Paola, the young blonde girl who calls out to Federico on the beach, is a symbol of heaven, and is telling Marcello: save yourself, save your soul, come with me. Viene prima che sia troppo tardi!
Many of us are still in quarantine in this unusual period in time. But take heart, there are more new and beautiful versions of the master Fellini’s films: 8½, Nights of Cabiria, and La Strada, so you can travel to Italy from the comfort of your couch.
Fellini’s films are a bit like walking through a strange, marvelous, and haunting lucid dream. You are not certain how you arrived there, but you are certain that you do not want to leave. Scenes blur into each other like one dream after the other, and it is not until the end of the dream (or film) is nearing that you can begin to explain how they are interconnected. But Fellini’s films are the kind of lucid dreams that you want to have every night. They are classics, no matter what country you live in.
Info
Remastered trailers of 8½, Nights of Cabiria, and La Strada are all available on YouTube.
The full HD version of La Dolce Vita is also available on YouTube for free.
8½, Nights of Cabiria, and La Strada can be bought on YouTube or other streaming sites such as Amazon Prime or Vudu.
Written by Sarah James, Los Angeles, California