La Dolce Vita

Italy   d/ Fellini

His magnum opus from 1960. Marcello Mastroianni is a cynical, jaded reporter who hangs around with rich and nouveau riche fools and writes about them. We follow him from party to party whilst they all drink, fight and make disgusting fools of themselves...why?...because they can.

There were several sequences that shone...most notably the madonna scenes with the two small children...but mostly this was a good example of a wildly creative director at the peak of his abilities with no adult around to stop his excesses. At three hours this was an hour and a half too long and by the time it ended I was so sick of ALL these people I felt physically ill.

A grueling ordeal...much better done in last year's The Great Beauty.

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