“The story of a young man who is moving from the provinces to Rome in order to become a journalist. One of these journalists a society craving for sensations is creating: a muckraker enjoying himself for giving up his former ideals.” This diary note of Italian writer Ennio Flaiano was the original idea for Federico Fellini’s three-hour masterpiece “La Dolce Vita” (the sweet life) which depicts the eternal city as a modern Babylon. It was also the initial spark for Marcello Mastroianni’s international career.
Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini: a smart celebrity reporter and womanizer who once wanted to serve the world as ambitious writer of the cultural renaissance after war and fascism. But at the end of the 1950s, amidst the social changes towards the economical boom era, he willingly becomes captured by the mileu that he despised in past days. He is mixing with wannabe-celebrities in the cafés of Via Veneto, he’s enjoying wild parties at night with louche aristocrats and bored noveau riches. Excesses, affairs, loudly painted existential dreariness.
When Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), an American starlet and the typical “sex bomb”, arrives into town, Marcello sticks to her heels. This is eventually leading to the most famous scene of the film: Sylvia’s bath in the Trevi fountain.
Against the magnificent backdrop of this fountain with its cliff scenery, statues of deities and the waterfall the luscious blonde in her black gown suddenly looks like a mermaid. Marcello chases her into the water, besets her with melodramatic compliments: “You are like the first woman on the first day of creation!” And he wants to kiss her.
Fellini is giving Sylvia’s character an intriguing ambiguity. Introducing her as a party girl, she soon gains the shape of a nature spirit against the backdrop of mythic wilderness, and after that she is dipping into the symbolism of the Aqua Virgo well water: this is quoting purification, baptism, fountain of youth, and innocence. This is hardly surprising, because all of Fellini’s films are moving around one important theme: the woman as a mythical entity between angel and demon. Thus the Sylvia character changes into a magical being.
And even if they were not made for the big screen you can feel the same magic when watching Ruby Day’s videos Veggie Picnic, Morning Coffee, and Candle Light Bath to name but a few (all links for members only, so what are you waiting for!) The spirit is still alive!
Stay curious,
Mason Squelch
Post Image Source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dolce_vita.gif
