Offical TL:DVD club selection and procedures
 

Everyone-

With nearly 50 percent of the vote the 1st selection of the club is:

"La Dolce Vita"-Frederico Fellini

In order to give everyone time to netflix/rent/acquire somehow a copy of this discussion should begin in two or three days and will last as long as everyone likes. However, the process of selecting a new film-beginning with selecting a member at random-will occur early next week.

For the moment I'm thinking it should go something like this:

-Select person at random
(1 day)
-Person submits pics and we vote
(2 days)
-Everyone is allowed time to get a copy of the film
(2-3 days)
-Discussion
(1 week)

Re: Offical TL:DVD club selection and procedures
 

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In order to give everyone time to netflix/rent/acquire somehow a copy of this discussion should begin in two or three days and will last as long as everyone likes.

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woahhh, we should have at least a week, probably two, from the time a selection is announced before discussion begins. It can take a week just to get something from netflix at times. Then again I guess there's no harm in discussion starting early for those that are able to watch it right away.

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Sorry if that sounded antagonistic, btw. I'm thankful you volunteered to run it.

Just got my copy today, but at 3 hours I probably won't get a chance to watch it til Sunday night or Monday.

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Blockbuster online just shipped my copy today. I'll try and fit it in this weekend.

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For real, 3 hours yo?!

I will try to get to it soon. I received it yesterday along with 2 other movies. I watched the other two. One of which was Mr. Smith goes to Washington. The other was some trashy horror called Room 6. Heh.

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k, got netflix and it should be here tommorrow

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Got my La Dolce Vita today and will watch it sometime this weekend.

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Got my copy today too. Very excited. Yay.

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for those of you who have cable and are finding the film hard to acquire, it'll be on TCM Monday, 13 Nov.

http://www.imdb.com/tvgrid/2006-11-13/TCM/

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for those of you who have cable and are finding the film hard to acquire, it'll be on TCM Monday, 13 Nov.

http://www.imdb.com/tvgrid/2006-11-13/TCM/

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Cool. Thanks Pryor.
I did just sign up for blockbuster online so we shall see when I actually get it. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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I've just watched it. I think I'll hold off discussion till after the 13th though, as I'm guessing a lot of the DVD Club will watch that one.

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As the TCM showing has come and gone-you can now begin discussing "La Dolce Vita"

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I just got it in the mail today due to Veteran's Day. So I will try and watch it this weekend.

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Tennenbaum, did you get one disc or two? I got mine in the mail a few days back. Either I'm a dumb ass who can't figure out a dvd or else they sent me the wrong disc. It says disc 2 on it. It has these weird shorts on it and his biography and filmography. Is that what yours has on it?

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Tennenbaum, did you get one disc or two? I got mine in the mail a few days back. Either I'm a dumb ass who can't figure out a dvd or else they sent me the wrong disc. It says disc 2 on it. It has these weird shorts on it and his biography and filmography. Is that what yours has on it?

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yea, you messed up and got the extras disc. I did the same thing with two of the other films I got from netflix

Re: Offical TL:DVD club selection and procedures
 

Only one disc in mine. I didnt look to see if it said 2 disc. Maybe you got my 2nd disc and I got your 1st :P

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Hmmm. La Dolce Vita.


** SPOILERS (Isn't that obvious?) ***

I watched it about 5 days ago for the first time. I wasn't that impressed actually, given the build up I'd been given. It did have some impressive scenes and imagery however, and while I came away from it reasonably happy but a little unsatisfied, I have found myself thinking about it a lot since watching. This is usually a sign that the film has made a deeper impression than I'm consciously aware of. I think I might watch it again at the weekend.


MY first thoughts were that it was essentially a set of disconnected episodes illustrating the empty lives of the individuals, and intended to build so that at first it seemed like a fun lifestyle, and gradually becomes clearly vacuous and empty. However, maybe because I'm relatively old (41), it seemed vacuous and empty right from the outset to me, so I don't think I felt the same impact possibly younger watchers might get? I'm wishing I saw it 20 years ago now, ust so I'd have some idea. I'm interested in what the younger members of the club think.

I also was impressed at the prescient take on the intrusive 'paperazzi' - particularly them snapping the woman who was happy and flustered to be the center of attention, just before finding out it's because she's the mother of murdered children. Gutting.

I've got more to say on this film - maybe a lot more - but wanted to get the ball rolling, so will wait for others to give their views.

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MY first thoughts were that it was essentially a set of disconnected episodes illustrating the empty lives of the individuals, and intended to build so that at first it seemed like a fun lifestyle, and gradually becomes clearly vacuous and empty.

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i just watched it last night for the first time, and had been trying to deal with the cut from the friend dying to the party, and i think you might be on the mark with that.

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MY first thoughts were that it was essentially a set of disconnected episodes illustrating the empty lives of the individuals, and intended to build so that at first it seemed like a fun lifestyle, and gradually becomes clearly vacuous and empty.

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i just watched it last night for the first time, and had been trying to deal with the cut from the friend dying to the party, and i think you might be on the mark with that.

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I liked when Flounder killed the horse by giving it a heart attack.

...okay, I haven't seen yet. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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I started this last night but fell asleep less than an hour in. Plan to finish it tonight.

edit: Iron, think we could go ahead and get the vote rolling for the next one?

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I started this last night but fell asleep less than an hour in. Plan to finish it tonight.

edit: Iron, think we could go ahead and get the vote rolling for the next one?

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I-or better yet Excel- will make the selection tomorrow.

I haven't gotten around to "La Dolce Vita" myself b/c I've been going through a lot of rough [censored] but should have it done by the end of the weekend.

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A bit late on the go, but I'll be, ahem, obtaining it within the next 24 hours. Will be watching it shortly afterwards.

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Well La Dolce Vita was my first Fellini film, and it pretty much floored me. A bit exhausting, I need to time to digest and cogitate now. Diebitter, I think your general analysis is spot on, but feel there is a lot more depth here and it will take multiple viewings to fully appreciate this one. Will write more later.

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Frankie Stout

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Wondered what other DVDs people have watched lately? Im doing a lot of travelling by train lately, and have a trusty portable videoplayer to fill in the 3 hours of commuting...

so this week, it's been so far:

- Firefly (opening episode): Pretty darn good - sort of a space western/frontiersman sci-fi series. Nice setup, nice dialogue (a little cheesy here and there, but that suits me just fine), nice cast, nice premise, nice universe. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series, and then the follow-up movie 'Serenity'.

- 'The Night Stalker' - Investigator Carl Kolchak investigating an apparent vampire in Vegas. It's an early 1970's TV movie, and probably one of the best TV movies ever made. Darren McGavin (looking like Tommy Lee Jones after ironing) is fabulous as the confident, smartalec, idiosyncratic reporter telling everyone their jobs and setting out what he thinks is going on with no regard to how people think of him.

- 'The Night Strangler - Kolchak again in a follow-up and slightly inferior TV movie to the first, this time investigating a possibly 'dead' strangler in Seattle. I thought I remembered this movie, but it was a shock to see the guy that become OScar Goldman in the Six Million Dollar Man as the bad guy. Worth a look if you liked the first one.


I have the Kolchak TV series to follow up after these two, BTW...


- The Descent - Very effective little horror from the director of one of my recent favourites 'Dog Soldiers'. It concerns a group of feisty young ladies who go caving in the Appalachians, and realise they are in a new system, and are lost in it. If that isn't bad enough, there's some very, very bad things down there with them, and the things have teeth... Gory, full on horror here. Recommended. (I might give this a full review very soon actually).

- Streets of Fire ('A Rock N Roll Fable') - sort of a fun 1980's film, made by Walter Hill (the director of the great 'The Warriors' and 'Southern Comfort'). It's sort of cool, like the 1950's filtered through the 80s, with bikers, Jim Steinman songs, Ry Cooder licks, and suchlike, but ultimately a bit of fluff. Good fight at the end between the head of the bikers (Willem Defoe) and our hero, where they start with jackhammers and end up with fists. The dialogue is deliberately stilted an cheesy, so be aware of that.

- Vamp - a very, very nice little 1980s horrorCom about college kids trying to get a stripper for a frat initiation, and ending up finding the strip club is a home for a vampre queen (fantastic casting of Grace Jones there). Liked this a lot, and the leads are young, energetic and very likeable characters. Lots of little touches here and there make this a much better movie than a casual glance would show. Oh, and Michelle Pfeiffer's little sister is hot. Recommended.

(would make a good double bill with Fright Night for lovers of that certain 1980's horror-comedy thing)

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Finally got my copy of this. I'm going to try to watch it tonight. (although diebitter's review that it was vacuous and empty is not exciting me a lot right now)

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The film isn't vacuous and empty, what is shows is. But I think you meant that anyway. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Well, if this is going to be the discussion thread, here are my thoughts.

First, I've been wanting to see this movie for a really long time. I'd never seen any Fellini's films and for some reason this one appealed to me more then 8 1/2, which I will probably now see soon.


I really liked this film.

RE: Diebitter's review

I thought it was a lot more then a bunch of disconnected episodes showing people with empty lives. These episodes showed a glimpse into Marcello's life as he searched for meaning in his work and in his life. He wants to be a serious writer, but is just floating through life writing meaningless journalism about people with empty lives. The difference between him and them, at least at the beginning, is that he is looking in on this lifestyle from the outside, his participation in it seems like the exception. At this point, he still has ambitions of living a more meaningful life.

The scene where Steiner has just killed himself seems to be the deciding point for him. He sees that his friend who is a serious writer was so afraid of the world that he killed himself and his children and basically gives up on his search for meaning.

In the final scene he has now become part of the society that before, he had been observing from the outside. When he sees Paola in that final scene, he is separated from her and can't hear what she is trying to tell him. She is young, innocent and full of life and he has become as empty as the people he once wrote about and loathes himself for it. He is completely lost and there isn't any hope or even desire in him now to live a meaningful, "moral" life.

There were a couple of things that I didn't really "get."

The second scene with Maddalena (and then the ghost hunt?) didn't make a whole lot of sense for me.

And there are two things I think I'm missing about the final scene. First, what did the dead (stingray?) represent? It had to be more then just a reason for them to go to the beach.

Second, are we supposed to take something specific from the final shot of Paola staring directly into the camera? Or is he just trying to show the beauty of innocence? The difference between her and Marcello?

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First, what did the dead (stingray?) represent? It had to be more then just a reason for them to go to the beach.

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I'll give this one a shot. Throughout the film, Fellini paints a distorted view of christianity - the Jesus statue being flown in during the opening sequence (with one helicopter stopping to flirt with girls), the false miracle, etc. The fish is, of course, a major symbol of christianity. Note that each episode starts in the evening and resolves itself at dawn. After a night of orgiastic partying, it's only fitting to end the movie with Marcello and the sweet lifers casually staring at a big, ugly, dead fish.

Re: Offical TL:DVD club selection and procedures
 

I read it more like those seeking something better - and in a Christian society, finding Jesus would fit that bill - take on the attributes of what they seek; they are capable of being the fisher of men, like Jesus is said to be.

But these corrupt people - all they can fish for successfully are monsters - as they themselves are monstrous.

Re: Offical TL:DVD club selection and procedures
 

hmm, interesting. I didn't find them monstrous, just vacuous and confused.

Was just reading Ebert's re-review, and found this bit interesting:

"The famous opening scene, as a statue of Christ is carried above Rome by a helicopter, is matched with the close, in which fisherman on the beach find a sea monster in their nets. Two Christ symbols: the statue "beautiful'' but false, the fish "ugly'' but real. During both scenes there are failures of communication. The helicopter circles as Marcello tries to get the phone numbers of three sunbathing beauties. At the end, across a beach, he sees the shy girl he met one day when he went to the country in search of peace to write his novel. She makes typing motions to remind him, but he does not remember, shrugs, and turns away."

Not only is the symbol of Christ more "real" in the ending scene, the girl Marcello fails to communicate with is too. Marcello begins as a man idolizing false gods, with his perceived sweet life just out of reach. In the end, he's living that life, but no closer to happiness, and a genuine sweet life is further out of reach.

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I just today found out that my university has quite a large collection of videos and DVDs and I just booked La Dolce Vita for Monday, so yes I'm late and all that but at least I'm gonna watch this and try to find something interesting to say about it.

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The great thing about the Lounge is that stuff moves slow enough to be able to come late to topics and it still be reasonably active and around.

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MY first thoughts were that it was essentially a set of disconnected episodes illustrating the empty lives of the individuals, and intended to build so that at first it seemed like a fun lifestyle, and gradually becomes clearly vacuous and empty. However, maybe because I'm relatively old (41), it seemed vacuous and empty right from the outset to me, so I don't think I felt the same impact possibly younger watchers might get?

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I agree completely with these comments. I really didn't like or completely dislike this movie. It did have some great scenes and images. I really liked seeing 1960 Rome. And having personally taken that trip up to the top of St. Peters I found some personal nostalgia. The narrowness of that staircase as it winds around the dome is hard to imagine and had to be difficult to film. But overall? If I never saw it I don't think I'd be lacking anything and I can't think that I'll ever be drawn to watch it again. It was way too long and as prevously mentioned seemed very disjointed. Plus the need to concentrate on subtitles always makes my personal enjoyment a little bit less as I can't pay as close attention as I'd like to the visuals. I'm a movie watcher and not a film viewer. I found a lot of this movie to be long and drawn out and unentertaining however there were parts that were beautiful and fascinating. As it began to drag on (for me) I was eagerly awaiting a big payoff ending which never really materialized. I would be hard pressed to ever recommend anyone to watch it other than for Anita Ekbergs massive rack.

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Wow! I Love the fashions! This is the kind of movie that gets me excited because of the ladies’ dresses. Pretty damn awesome if you’re into that kind of thing.


My review –

Man this is a long film! I agree a lot with what SL_72 wrote. I didn’t understand the ghost hunt sequence and was getting sort of sick of the film by that point. Was anyone else disappointed that there wasn’t a good sex scene in this movie? I mean what’s the point of sitting through a 3 hour foreign film with subtitles if there isn’t going to be a good sex scene?


A lot of this has already been touched on already but here’s what I got:

Marcello is searching for happiness and meaning in his life, convinced it is right there in front of him if only he could just figure it out. He yearns for a lot of things: talent, fame, his father’s love, the ideal woman...but they are all out of his grasp. It’s most obvious when he chases the "gifted" Sylvia up the steps of the tower and she is running on ahead, just out of reach. For some stupid reason he is so carried away with emotion for her that he even refers to her as “Home”. This is pretty ridiculous as she seems paper thin and ignores him completely while the one who loves him most, Emma, is actually waiting at home, wanting to cook for him. Yet he is not content with Emma. He rejects her.

This movie was very sad to me. Marcello never gets what he wants. He is a sweet guy who turns into a miserable jerk and also a sell out.

I interpret this film as saying that Man will never find what he is looking for because he is always chasing the wrong things, worshipping the wrong idols. Seriously, what on earth did he see in Sylvia? She was always looking right past him. She was self-absorbed and hollow. Is physical beauty so enticing that it wipes out all common sense in men?! Likewise, what was Emma thinking? She had placed all her hopes and dreams in Marcello, a false idol for her, a man who would never make her happy. How pathetic. She clung to a hopeless dream.


Was Fellini trying to say that Christianity is a hollow, man-made construct? Or, was he trying to say (as I prefer) that Christianity and God are real, they are just beyond man’s grasp because man is too stupid and self-absorbed to pursue them correctly? I think Fellini was trying to say that happiness truly does exist somewhere, it just eludes the characters in the film because they are chasing false ideals just like those people were chasing the false vision in the field.

I’m pretty confused at how the vision of Madonna in the field fits into all of this actually. This is too deep for me I think [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] My mind is a mush right now trying to make sense of it all.


Anyway, when Steiner dies, Marcello just becomes a complete lost soul because he had invested so much idealism in Steiner and his lifestyle. To me, he was like a walking dead man after that. So, a rather depressing ending and I totally didn’t get the dead fish on the beach either. I hate to think that the dead fish was Fellini’s way of saying that Christ and God don’t exist at all. Hm. I prefer diebitter's interpretation of this ending.


I think that Paola looks into the camera at the end because Fellini is asking us how we will decide our destinies. Will we recognize the “Paolas” in our lives and move towards goodness and innocence? Or will we choose to move towards corruption and indulgence like Marcello?

Cool film. I liked it overall, but man does it drag towards the end.

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This was my first Fellini, and I must say, he blew my friggin mind. I hadn't read much about the movie beforehand, all I knew was that it was supposed to be good and that Fellini is considered one of the best. Well now I know that this Fellini guy is for real, and this film is better than good. Every scene seemed to be working on several different levels at once, and I didn't find the length or lack of traditional narative to be negatives for this film at all. Here's some of my quick observations:

Christianity - This I was tipped off to by this thread, and I'm glad I was. I beleive religion works in two different ways in the film. One of the major themes of the film is people searching for deeper personal relationships in love, life, and career. Our main characters however are always ignoring the deeper personal relationship with god, even though most of the situations are hinting at one (flying statue, church hospital, playing organ in church, ghost hunting in a decaying ex-residence of a pope). So it's a constant reminder of a more spiritual goal that is always just out of reach for everybody.

Another major theme is people destroying the very ideals you're searching by following the false idols. In love, Marcello follows the many, many false idols of love when he has one true one waiting at home. In religion, you're presented with statues, fish, and madonna trees which are symbols of religion, but not actually any understanding of god. I thought the film was trying to represent how organized religion was actually keeping people distracted away from an understanding of god by focusing them on symbols, rules, and traditions of the religion. In that way the false idols of organized religion are actually destroying the ideals of god. I think this is most obvious in the Madonna scene where the people who are desperate to believe actually start ripping apart the tree to get a peice of it for themselves. Nothing like beleiving so much in the miracle of the tree that you help destroy it.

I didn't quite understand the motives behind Steiner killing his kids, them himself. Someone in this thread said it was something about being afraid of the outside world, but I think I might need another viewing to fully understand his thinking. The effects of this event on Marcello (seeing this idealized version of himself succumb to the world) are obvious, and it's the point of no return for him in the movie. I will say that it is a very powerful moment, especially the extremely chilling paparrazi circle around the unknowing newly widowed and childless woman.

Did anybody else think that Paolo (the young girl from the restaurant, and on the beach at the end) was Marcello's personal Madonna siting? She represented innocence, beauty, and everything good that Marcello was desperately needing in his life. And he was on his knees on the beach looking over at her looking very much like he was one of the beleivers praying around the tree. At the false Madonna siting, the priest said that it had to be a fake because real miracles didn't happen for profits and they changed the people involved (from memory, not exact quotes). Paolo was there trying to change Marcello's life for the better (at least she represented that betterment), but at the end he was far too gone to even hear her words. In that way I thought she might be like a real "madonna siting" that went unnoticed, and therefore left everyone unchanged. Feel free to tell me that I'm reading way too much into a relatively minor character.

I also enjoyed the day/night dynamic. All of the action and the "fun" for the characters happened at night, and everytime the sun was up something bad was happening. Fountain turning off at dawn then the fight, sick guy wanting miracle from tree dead the next day, his dad leaving in a taxi when the sun came up, being at the crime scene in his dead buddy's apartment, etc. I know this was fairly obvious, but I love those little cinematic clues as to what the mood of the scenes were going to be.

I often bust on my wife for reading her US Weekly. These people are rich and famous, so their lives must be so much more important that we MUST find out the divorce details of these C list pop singers with silicone chests. In essence, Fellini is making the same argument about the vacuos nature of these paparazzi targets' lives, but in a much more artistic way than I could. Also, I don't think even Fellini could get my wife to stop reading these trash magazines.

Anyway, I just say this a couple hours ago for the first time, so I'm sure in the next couple days I'll have some other thoughts and scenes that stick with me and fester and become a new thought or insight. All in all, I absolutely loved this film. I didn't even get to mention how great I thought the acting and direction was, because I was too busy trying to read all the different levels that it was working on. Great film, and I hope to find somebody who wants to watch it again with me!

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Barcalounger, awesome post.

I also didn't really get the reason behind Steiner's murder/suicide. Doesn't Marcello say something about being afraid of himself, not the world?

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Did anybody else think that Paolo (the young girl from the restaurant, and on the beach at the end) was Marcello's personal Madonna siting? She represented innocence, beauty, and everything good that Marcello was desperately needing in his life. And he was on his knees on the beach looking over at her looking very much like he was one of the beleivers praying around the tree. At the false Madonna siting, the priest said that it had to be a fake because real miracles didn't happen for profits and they changed the people involved (from memory, not exact quotes). Paolo was there trying to change Marcello's life for the better (at least she represented that betterment), but at the end he was far too gone to even hear her words. In that way I thought she might be like a real "madonna siting" that went unnoticed, and therefore left everyone unchanged. Feel free to tell me that I'm reading way too much into a relatively minor character.

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Great insight. I just thought of her as a symbol of innocence and sweetness, but the idea of a potential miracle is interesting. I'm pretty sure Fellini bought into miracles (from what little I've read he rejected the church but remained a sort of Catholic and was into psychics and astrology and all kinds of weird stuff), so this could be intentional. I prefer to think of Paolo not as part of a miracle in the sense of divine intervention, but just as a real person, an everyday, secular miracle, the real kind.

It seems weird now how controversial this film was, btw. How could anyone actually see it as an endorsement of hedonism? What was all the fuss about really?

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The girl as a visitation of the Madonna is an interesting take that hadn't occurred to me. It does make sense, and insights like this show what a deep work of art this film actually is, I think. I'm still thinking on it, it is very striking.

She makes a striking contrast to the kids leading the photographers on a merry dance in replicating their visitation of the Madonna. In effect, the paperazzi and Marcello chase their false idols, but ignore those right in front of them. In Marcello's case, both the young girl and Emma. And thw ghost hunt is an obv metaphor for the chasing of empty goals (a little too obv maybe?)


It's quite a haunting film, isn't it. I keep thinking about bits of it in quiet moments. But still, I don't love it. I appreciate it, but I don't love it, like I love say 'Plan 9 from Outer Space'. lol.


In many respects, this film and my reaction to it is the same as that to the critically acclaimed but more obscure French movie 'The Rules of the Game'. But that's for another time.

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It's quite a haunting film, isn't it. I keep thinking about bits of it in quiet moments. But still, I don't love it. I appreciate it, but I don't love it

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This is pretty much how I feel. Since I watched it I have been thinking about it a lot. Still it isn't something I loved as much as you say appreciated.

I pulled a couple of interesting tidbits off the the little booklet that came with it. The initial producer demanded that the Marcello role go to Paul Newman but Fellini wouldn't budge saying the role had to be an unfamiliar face. I need to rewatch that party scene where Paul Newman is mentioned as the subtitles where fast an furious at that point. Also Fellini wanted Henry Fonda for the role of Steiner. Just wondering what this would have been like with Newman and Fonda? Probably at least in english [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I think I was the one who said something about Steiner being afraid of the world. I was basing that mostly on his monologue earlier in the film:

"I fear what will know
my children.

One says that the world
will be marvelous.

How?

Whereas the tooting of a telephone
can announce the end of all..?

It is necessary to live outside
of the passions, of the feelings...

in the harmony of a work
of succeeded art.

A magic order.

It would be necessary to like itself/themselves so much...

and to live thus outside
of the time, detached,

detached... "

Another theory I have read, which makes a lot of sense, is that Steiner was a self-loathing homosexual and that his interest in Marcello really didn't have anything to do with his writing. If true, that would mean Steiner, who acts as sort of a father figure to Marcello, had the same problem as everyone else in the film. For him though, the false idol was the kind of life society said was right, or good. If this is true, it adds another level of complexity to Fellini's message.

It means that while he is showing us how empty all these people's lives are, he is being careful to say that he isn't necessarily telling everyone that a beautiful wife, 2 kids, a good job and a nice home is the path to happiness. Everyone needs to find their own path, not just try to live up to the things society values.

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Well, I can't really think of anything intelligent to say that hasn't already been mentioned in this thread, so I'll just say wow that was long. To be honest I didn't really like it a whole lot, but then again it's not like I disliked it. I agree with diebitter's comment "I appreciate it, but I don't love it."

It's only been about 20 minutes since I finished watching it so maybe I have to give a bit more time to sink in but I highly doubt I'll ever watch this again.

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Another theory I have read, which makes a lot of sense, is that Steiner was a self-loathing homosexual and that his interest in Marcello really didn't have anything to do with his writing.

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I agree this could be interesting but at least I didn't notice anything in the movie to back up this theory.