FAITH & FILM: "La Dolce Vita"

 Frederico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" is an epic tale of Rome's "predominantly cafe society, the diverse and glittery world rebuilt upon the ruins and poverty" of the Italian postwar period. A contrast of hedonistic worldly decadence reminiscent of Nero, and the religious morality of the Vatican. Fellini's films are often rife with religious iconography, a nod to his own inner struggle with the divine.

In the opening of "La Dolce Vita", a helicopter carries a statue of Jesus Christ over St. Peter's Square in Rome. A clever depiction of the Second Coming of Christ. The statue is pursued by spectators almost metaphorical of humanity's search for God. The religiosity of the moment is contrasted with the profane symbolism of modernity- the film's protagonist Marcello, a tabloid journalist follows in a news helicopter only to be distracted by bikini-clad sunbathers on a rooftop.  

The film is divided into Seven episodes, much like the Seven Sacraments from Fellini's Roman Catholic upbringing. Marcello exists in a  metaphorical purgatory of decadence and heresy as he falls from grace. He is in constant pursuit of the superficial.

Marcello is sent to do a story on American actress Sylvia. In one scene she jumps into Rome's famed Trevi fountain, and sprinkles water on his head as though she is baptizing him. Marcello is the definitive man-child forever trapped in a state of arrested development. Writer Lawrence Russell put it best: "Marcello is the Modern Man, unable to believe, unable to commit, a lost child in the body of a monster." He is cynical, and apathetic to the world around him. His ambivalence is a disease, but affluent parties, movie stars, and his many trysts with beautiful women are no cure. He discusses the meaning of life with an old friend Steiner, whom he is envious of in a certain regard for having stability and a family. But Steiner later commits suicide and kills his two children. The ultimate act of a man detached from God. 

Two children claim to have seen an apparition of the Madonna. In true populist fashion a crowd, including Marcello gathers to follow them finding no miracles at the end of their trek but instead a man is trampled to death in the stampede. Fellini's commentary on crowd mentality and religion which is reinforced with other scenes throughout the film- from chasing the statue of Jesus, to following Sylvia up the stairs of St. Peter's Cathedral. 

Professor Andrew McKenna who published "Fellini's Crowds and the Remains of Religion" concluded that: "it is not religion as such that is mocked, but the post-religious enthusiasms...that succeed Christianity's withdrawal, where-upon we witness a grotesque parody of sacred rites, degraded fragments of a pagan world."

The film consistently offers Marcello a path to redemption, but he constantly turns his back on faith. The innocent young waitress at the cafe he frequents, Paola is symbolic of a path to moral righteousness which Marcello denies content with his cynical ways. 

The final scenes of the film occur at a drunken party at a seaside villa. Infantile debauchery ensues. Mimicking a confessional, Maddalena his mistress speaks with incredible candor with him through a stone fountain, each separated by a stone facade but she is lead astray by temptation mirroring Marcello's ambivalence. The next morning the party-goers end up on the beach disheveled before a sea monster- a dead stingray that has washed ashore. It's glassy blank stare mimicking Marcello's dead eyes. From down the beach Paola, the waitress shouts to him gesturing, but he can't understand her. In a final turn away from faith and salvation he returns to the party as she watches him disappear.