La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)

La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
by Federico Fellini

La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aim?e, Magali No?l, Marcello Mastroianni, Yvonne Furneaux
Director: Federico Fellini
Brand: Koch International
Writer: Federico Fellini
Producer: Angelo Rizzoli
Producer: Franco Magli
Writer: Brunello Rondi
Writer: Ennio Flaiano
Writer: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Writer: Tullio Pinelli
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Collector's Edition, DVD-Video, Enhanced, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Restored, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 174 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Koch Lorber Films

Movie Reviews of La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)

Movie Review: Legendary Film; Severely Disappointing Features
Summary: 3 Stars

I won't attempt to outdo the first rate reviews of "La Vita Dolce" that are already posted here (except to say that a film about shallow, meaningless lives in 1960s Italian society sounded like the last thing I wanted to watch until I bore witness to it and was in tears by the end), but I feel it necessary to comment upon the unusual and disappointing choice of features attached to this 2 Disc Collector's edition.

One would imagine that a two disc set (one of them entirely devoted to supplemental materials) would contain everything you ever wanted to know about this staggering, bewildering monument of a film. I had so many questions when the film ended, as well as so many mental notes to compare against the authoritative opinions of a supplemental documentary, but none were to be found. While the second disc contains a number of features that wax nostalgic for the film's actors and (most prominently) it's director, there is absolutely no supplemental information about the film itself, aside from an insultingly light introduction to the film given by a man who outright admits to know very little about Fellini. Even the optional audio commentary to the film was frustratingly deficient, failing to apply any insight beyond the obvious at too many critical points in the film.

A film like this one deserves more -- even just an audio track of a critical essay written on the film while stills are displayed on the screen. A 2 Disc Collector's Edition suggests a full and well rounded collection of supplemental features, but I doubt anyone other than completest Fellini fanatics will find much value in the supplemental features here. Where's Criterion when you need them?

Summary of La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)

Studio: Koch International Release Date: 09/21/2004 Run time: 167 minutes Rating: Nr
At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in an m?nage ? trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically, with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title, The Sweet Life), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties, or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, are merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life. --Dave McCoy

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