La Dolce Vita Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

La Dolce Vita Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 27, 2014

Winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and Oscar Award for Best Costume Design, Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Nouveaux Pictures. The supplemental features on the disc include an archival interview with Swedish actress Anita Ekberg and original trailers. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The American star

The film is set in the Eternal City and chronicles a series of seemingly random events as seen and experienced by a successful but jaded reporter named Marcello (the great Marcello Mastroianni, 8½, Divorce Italian Style). It begins and ends abruptly, like a documentary feature.

The camera follows Marcello as he moves from one location to another and talks to aging movie stars, wealthy businessmen, playboys, dignitaries and their lackeys. These are his people -- the men and women with the juicy stories the masses want to read about. They know Marcello and he knows them. Some are cautious when they talk to him, but others are careless and eager to impress him.

Like his colorful friends, Marcello has learned to wear different masks and utter half-truths. He tells his suicidal fiancee (Yvonne Furneaux, Le Amiche, Repulsion) that he cares for her, but secretly sees a wealthy socialite (Anouk Aimee, Lola, A Man and a Woman) who wants to marry him. When his father visits him he tells him that he has settled down, but deep inside he still feels like a tree without roots.

The arrival of a sexy movie star (Anita Ekberg, Boccaccio '70, Killer Nun) has a profound impact on the way Marcello sees the world he lives in. Initially her beauty overwhelms him and driven by sexual desire he does his best to seduce her, but when she rejects his advances he suddenly realizes how shallow and empty she is. Then gradually he begins to question his admiration for the sweet life.

Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita is about a country in transition and its people trying to fit in a strangely chaotic reality. It takes place over the course of only a few days and nights, but it manages to capture the spirit of a transformation that lasted more than a decade.

The film is built upon a series of symbolic sequences which carefully satirize traditional Italian values and beliefs. Additionally, the upper class, the media, and even the Catholic Church all become targets whose roles and credibility are essentially reevaluated as Mastroianni’s journalist wanders the Eternal City’s busiest streets, visits the most popular restaurants and clubs and mingles with their guests.

At times it may seem like there is too much noise and chatter that amount to nothing, but the attitudes behind them are very important. They reveal a massive class division, point to the acceptance of new media standards (see the easiness with which the paparazzi behavior is tolerated), and even the erosion of the traditional trust between the two sexes (see Marcello’s polarizing relationships with the promiscuous socialite and his fiancee).

The film’s framing is as unique as the structure of its narrative. For example, space and character/object placement constantly evolve, making various sequences look either under or overpopulated. There are a number of atypical tracking and traveling shots as well.

Fellini shot La Dolce Vita with cinematographer Otello Martelli (La Strada, Il Bidone) on location in Rome and Cinecitta Studios. It was a long, very expensive and closely monitored and covered by the Italian media production.

The soundtrack for the film was created by legendary composer Nino Rota (The Godfather, Rocco And His Brothers).

La Dolce Vita Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Nouveaux Pictures.

The release uses as a foundation the recent 4K restoration of La Dolce Vita by Cineteca di Bologna - Laboratorio L'Immagine Ritrovata, which Criterion and Pathe also accessed when they prepared their Blu-ray releases for the U.S. and French markets (you can see our listings of these releases here and here).

The film looks healthy and very beautiful in high-definition. When one compares the Blu-ray release to previous DVD releases depth and clarity are indeed dramatically improved, while color balance and stability are far more satisfying. Especially during sequences where light is restricted clarity is drastically better -- the flatness and blockiness from the DVD releases are completely eliminated. The improved color balance mentioned above also enhances fluidity (see screencapture #12). Some traces of extremely light noise corrections are visible, but grain is retained. There are no traces of problematic sharpening adjustments. As a result, from start to finish the film has a solid organic appearance. Debris, cuts, scratches, stains, and damage marks have been carefully removed. Overall image stability is excellent, but some minor density fluctuations remain during select transitions. A few other minor age-related imperfections also remain -- for example, a few highlights pop up in the right corner of the frame around the 01.41.28 mark, where Marcello, his father and one of his coworkers are seen in the Cha-Cha night club -- but they never become distracting. All in all, this is a wonderful presentation of the 4K restoration of La Dolce Vita which will more than likely remain the film's definitive presentation on the home video market. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

La Dolce Vita Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Italian LPCM 2.0. (with some very small portions of English). For the record, Nouveaux Pictures have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

While viewing the new restoration of La Dolce Vita it was very easy for me to tell that different balance and stabilization enhancement have been performed -- the audio is far better rounded and the high-frequencies more even (on the R1 DVD release there are sporadic fluctuations that occasionally create the impression that the sound is too 'thin'). The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow, while Nino Rota's score easily breathes throughout the entire film. The English translation is excellent.

La Dolce Vita Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "My Dolce Vita" Interview with Anita Ekberg - presented here is an archival interview with Anita Ekberg which initially appeared on Nouveaux Pictures' R2 DVD release of La Dolce Vita. In it the Swedish actress recalls how she was contracted by Universal Pictures in the United States, and discusses her work with Federico Fellini on La Dolce Vita as well as the Italian director's working methods, the shooting of the famous sequence with the Trevi Fountain, her work with Marcello Mastroianni (who at the time did not speak English and she did not speak Italian), the film's success, etc. In English, not subtitled. (19 min).

• Trailers -
  
  1. 8½
  
  2. Juliet of the Spirits
  
  3. I Vitelloni
  
  4. Umberto D.
  
  5. More trailers for Argent Films releases

La Dolce Vita Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This recent release of Federico Fellini's legendary La Dolce Vita is a good alternative for fans of the film residing in the United Kingdom. It features the recent 4K restoration of the film by Cineteca di Bologna - Laboratorio L'Immagine Ritrovata and the technical presentation is very good. This being said, folks looking for a better selection of supplemental features should consider Criterion's release, as Nouveaux Pictures' release has only an archival interview with Anita Ekberg. RECOMMENDED.