51 years ago today, on April 19th 1961, Federico Fellini's masterpiece "La Dolce Vita" arrived in U.S. theaters. The film was already a phenomenon; it had premiered in Italy the previous February, was instantly condemned by the Catholic Church (it was banned entirely in Spain until 1975), and won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960. On its U.S. release, it was widely acclaimed by critics, became a huge box office hit, and picked up four Oscar nominations the following year, including director and screenplay, and won for costume design.
To mark the anniversary of the much copied, but never equalled film which follows a journalist, played by Marcello Mastroianni over the course of a tumultous week in Rome, we've assembled a selection of five pieces of info that even the biggest Fellini fans might not be aware of. Check them out below.
1. Paul Newman and Henry Fonda were considered for roles.
To mark the anniversary of the much copied, but never equalled film which follows a journalist, played by Marcello Mastroianni over the course of a tumultous week in Rome, we've assembled a selection of five pieces of info that even the biggest Fellini fans might not be aware of. Check them out below.
1. Paul Newman and Henry Fonda were considered for roles.
- 4/18/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
This week the Criterion Collection releases the Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy on DVD, filling an important gap in DVD libraries everywhere. The first and third movies in the trilogy, Open City (1945) and Germany Year Zero (1948), were available in shoddy editions that did not do justice to the films, and the second, Paisan (1946), has been on the hard-to-find list for some time. These movies are notable for establishing the "Italian Neorealism" movement that cropped up just after WWII. Italy was devastated, and several young filmmakers realized that making glossy entertainments felt false under the circumstances. So they grabbed some cameras, some short ends and some inexperienced actors and hit the streets.
The odd thing about Open City is how much of it takes place indoors, and how much it resembles a standard-issue melodrama. But it still contains moments of genuine invention and power -- especially the performance of Anna Magnani --...
The odd thing about Open City is how much of it takes place indoors, and how much it resembles a standard-issue melodrama. But it still contains moments of genuine invention and power -- especially the performance of Anna Magnani --...
- 1/26/2010
- by Jeffrey M. Anderson
- Cinematical
By Michael Atkinson
Every now and then, the natural world and the massive self-satisfying erections of man provide filmmakers with ready-made metaphors of massive torque and resonance. Werner Herzog is an expert at locating these visual/thematic El Dorados; Marker, Kiarostami and Ghobadi are current explorers of the paradigm, which necessitates an embrace of documentary reality. (Slavic artists are just beginning to make use out of the ex-Soviet landscape of unfinished and derelict public projects, from decommissioned nuclear power plants to entire cities left abandoned after infrastructure support dried up.) But Jia Zhang-ke is the filmmaker bringing new life and commitment to the idea of finding universalized meanings in real-life monstrosities. Jia's "Platform" used its traveling theater troupe as a stand-in for the average citizen watching Chinese history pass chaotically before them, but it was with "The World" that Jia discovered the surreal significances that emanated organically from the titular,...
Every now and then, the natural world and the massive self-satisfying erections of man provide filmmakers with ready-made metaphors of massive torque and resonance. Werner Herzog is an expert at locating these visual/thematic El Dorados; Marker, Kiarostami and Ghobadi are current explorers of the paradigm, which necessitates an embrace of documentary reality. (Slavic artists are just beginning to make use out of the ex-Soviet landscape of unfinished and derelict public projects, from decommissioned nuclear power plants to entire cities left abandoned after infrastructure support dried up.) But Jia Zhang-ke is the filmmaker bringing new life and commitment to the idea of finding universalized meanings in real-life monstrosities. Jia's "Platform" used its traveling theater troupe as a stand-in for the average citizen watching Chinese history pass chaotically before them, but it was with "The World" that Jia discovered the surreal significances that emanated organically from the titular,...
- 12/12/2008
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
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