| Notes | Criterion Collection Blu-ray Edition
The biggest hit from the most popular Italian filmmaker of all time, La dolce vita rocketed Federico Fellini 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 (a sublimely cool Marcello Mastroianni) during a hectic week spent on the peripheries of the spotlight. This mordant picture was an incisive commentary on the deepening decadence of contemporary Europe, and it provided a prescient glimpse of just how gossip- and fame-obsessed our society would become.
New 4K digital restoration by The Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New interview with filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, an assistant director on the film
New interview with scholar David Forgacs about the period in Italian history when the film was made
New interview with Italian journalist Antonello Sarno
Interview with director Federico Fellini from 1965
Audio interview with actor Marcello Mastroianni from the early 1960s
Felliniana, a presentation of La dolce vita ephemera from the collection of Don Young
New visual essay by filmmaker : : kogonada
PLUS: An essay by critic Gary Giddins
New cover by Eric Skillman |
