Each decade produces a handful of movies which seem to define the spirit of that time. Casablanca did it for the 1940s, with its tale of cynicism being taken over by quiet, understated heroism. The 1950s gave us the rage of youth, with Blackboard Jungle showing there were new kids on the block.
La Dolce Vita did it for the 1960s. It was in fact made in the final year of the previous decade, but its mood of desperate seeking for life amidst decay and its headlong rush towards submersion in ephemeral glitter and glamour seemed to sum up the 1960s to perfection. It still stands as a well-nigh perfect summary of that amazing decade.
The film is set in the Eternal City, Rome. And it stars the actor who himself seemed the eternal Italian, the sophisticated, suave Marcello Mastroanni, Italy's answer to Cary Grant. Playing alongside him were the very glamorous Anouk Aimee and the blonde bombshell Anita Ekberg - but the real star is the director, Federico Fellini, who made this his own very personal statement about life and surrender.
The film rushes towards its conclusion in a torrent of chaotic parties, paparazzi chasing film stars (the term paparazzi came in fact from a character in this movie, a photographer named Paparazzo), midnight dips in Roman fountains and other steps in an empty life. There is a sense of possible redemption towards the end, represented by the relative innocence of youth - but that seems a possible redemption for society, not for Marcello.
This is a deeply personal movie, and different viewers can extract quite different meanings. It seems as valid today as when I first saw it many years ago as a teenager - some of Fellini's movies seem dated now, but this movie is as timeless as Mother Rome itself. In the hands of a lesser director its theme could be grimly depressing, but Fellini is a master of style; this is as well-cut as Armani and as timelessly fashionable as Valentino.
This is not an anamorphic transfer, but is letterboxed within a 4.3 ratio. The film is letterboxed with a small black band at top and a larger one at bottom, and the burnt-on English subtitles are placed in the larger bottom band.
This means that not only are we not getting the superior definition of an anamorphic transfer, but people with widescreen televisions will not be able to see the subtitles if they wish to view in widescreen mode.
This sort of presentation would have been fine in the old days of video, but is hopelessly inadequate for DVD. The film quality is medium only - it's not dreadful, but the shimmer and shake is pretty bad. The opening credits are almost unviewable, and while things improve after that, there is a lot of aliasing and shimmering throughout.
The transfer looks absolutely identical to the Region 2 release from Britain, and would seem to have been sourced from that release.
The sound is basic two-channel mono; it has been cleaned up well and dialogue is clear.
There are no synchronisation problems and although this is certainly not high-fidelity, there is no obvious sound degradation.
This film should be in every collection, but not necessarily this edition of the movie. Rent it instead, and wait until a decent anamorphic transfer becomes available.
