La dolce vita
1960 Italy Black/White 174 Minutes
Release date: February 3, 1960
The movie was shot on sets at Cinecitta Studios outside Rome (Italy). The fountain scene was shot at the Trevi fountain in Rome.
The film introduced the term Paparazzo to the language. In Italian it means sparrow.
The film was a big financiel succes. Fellini however did not become a wealthy man as a result. He renounced the percentage of the profits his original contract specified.Source / More (Book)
Annibale Ninchi plays Marcello Mastroianni’s father in this film and in Otto e mezzo (1963).
Many conservative opponents called for censorship of the film, believing it was an attack upon Italian culture in general, while others even suggested that Fellini be arrested for “outrage or derision of the Catholic religion”.Source / More (Book)
Fellini:“ La dolce vita is simply the story of the adventures, by day and by night, of a hack journalist.”
Producer Dino de Laurentiis left the project when director Federico Fellini refused to cast Paul Newman in the lead.
Fellini to Mastroianni: “I have chosen you because you have an everyday face, very normal in a movie-star kind of way”.Source / More (Book)
When Marcello Mastroianni died in 1996 the famous Trevi Fountain, in which he waded with Sylvia, was symbolically switched off and draped in black as a tribute.Source / More (Book)
The encyclopedia on Paparazzo:
A freelance photographer who pursues celebrities trying to take candid photographs of them to sell to newspapers or magazines.
Marcello made over 100 films but he said that only ten of them are really good.
September 28, 1924
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni
December 19, 1996
Marcello was born in Fontana Liri, Italy, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. He enrolled at the University of Rome after World War II.
Mastroianni performed with a local drama troupe, earning raves for an appearance in Angelica which brought him to the attention of director Luchino Visconti , who subsequently cast him in his theater production of As you like it.
In 1960 Marcello became a sensation with La Dolce Vita (The sweet life) by Federico Fellini. It was followed by other classic pictures e.g., La notte (The Night)(1960), Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce—Italian Style)(1961) and 8½ (1963). His reputation worldwide was now as strong as in his native country.
In the late sixties Marcello travelled to Britain to star in Diamonds for Breakfast (1968) , the first of his English-language films in which his performance was not overdubbed.
After several critical and commercial disappointments he returned to form in Una Giornata particolare (1977) as a sensitive homosexual in love with a housewife (Sophia Loren). Mastroianni continued to act until his death and held starring roles in about 120 films over the course of his long career.
1988 Nominated Best Actor for: Oci ciornie (1987)
1978 Nominated Best Actor for: Una giornata particolare (1977)
1963 Nominated Best Actor for: Divorzio all'italiana (1961)