Details

The biggest hit from the most popular Italian filmmaker of all time, La Dolce Vita rocketed Federico Fellini (8½) to international mainstream success - ironically, by offering a damning critique of the culture of stardom.

A look at the darkness beneath the seductive lifestyles of Rome's rich and glamorous, the film follows a notorious celebrity journalist - played by a sublimely cool Marcello Mastroianni (8½) - during a hectic week spent on the peripheries of the spotlight.

This mordant picture was an incisive commentary on the deepening decadence of the European 1960s, and it provided a prescient glimpse of just how gossip - and fame-obsessed our society would become.

La Dolce Vita is given the Criterion treatment and released on 18th October 2021 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Blu-Ray Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration by the Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New visual essay by kogonada
  • New interview with filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, who worked as assistant director on the film
  • Scholar David Forgacs discusses the period in Italy's history when the film was made
  • New interview with Italian film journalist Antonello Sarno about the outlandish fashions seen in the film
  • Audio interview with actor Marcello Mastroianni from the early 1960s, conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann
  • Felliniana, a presentation of ephemera related to La dolce vita from the collection of Don Young
  • An essay by critic Gary Giddins