La dolce vita (1960)

La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (1960) is an Italian-French satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who, over seven days and nights, journeys through the 'sweet life' of Rome in a fruitless search for love and happiness. La dolce vita was both a scandal, a critical success and A worldwide commercial hit. The filmwon the Palme d'Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Costumes. It was nominated for three more Oscars, including Best Director for Federico Fellini and Best Original Screenplay. Today, La dolce vita is considered one of Fellini's masterpieces and one of the most famous films in cinema history.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 159. Anouk Aimée and Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1703. Photo: Cineriz. Magali Noël in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard in the Collection Magie Noire by Editions Hazan, Paris, no. 6323. Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Swiss postcard by News Productions. Photo: Cinémathèque Suisse. Yvonne Furneaux as Emma and Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello at the Via Colombo outside Rome, after Emma's suicide attempt, in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).

Swept away by the sweet life of high society.

La dolce vita marks the first of several acclaimed collaborations between director Federico Fellini and actor Marcello Mastroianni, who came to represent Fellini’s alter ego. Mastroianni plays Marcello Rubini, a reporter in Rome during the late 1950s who is always on the lookout for a scoop. He covers the gossip news of foreign movie stars, religious visions and the decadent aristocracy. That's why he spends his evenings among Rome's upper class. He tends to get quite close to his subjects, especially when they're beautiful women like the local heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimée), and Swedish film star Sylvia (Anita Ekberg). He has affairs with both, although he is engaged to Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), a clingy, insecure woman. Rubini dreams of becoming a literary author, but he abandons those ideals for a career in the lucrative tabloid press. Although he recognises its superficiality and immorality, he allows himself to be swept away by the sweet life of high society. Fellini follows the handsome, weary, desperate Marcello during a week and reveals the emptiness, boredom and destructiveness of 'la dolce vita' while at the same time making it highly glamorous and seductive.

Dino De Laurentiis was the film's original producer. He wanted a famous American or French actor, such as Paul Newman or Gérard Philipe, to play Rubini to guarantee international marketability. According to rumours, Newman was keen to take part, but Fellini wanted an Italian actor. The rift between Fellini and De Laurentiis occurred precisely over the name of Marcello Mastroianni: unlike Fellini, De Laurentiis did not consider him suitable for the part. Another reason for the rift between De Laurentiis and Fellini was the screenplay, which the producer considered too chaotic. The screenplay was written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi.

The script was provisional, as was often the case with Fellini's productions. He stated that the film would only find its true form on the screen. During filming, the script underwent considerable changes. Two scenes, absent from the original screenplay, were completely 'improvised': the party of the nobles at the castle, filmed in the Giustiniani-Odescalchi palace in Bassano Romano in the province of Viterbo, and the 'miracle' that the two children claim to have witnessed, with the participation of a crowd of faithful, law enforcement officers and military personnel. The episode was inspired by a report by the Roman reporter Tazio Secchiaroli in June 1958: the subject of the report was the apparition of the Virgin Mary to two children in a farm at Maratta Alta, near Terni. Secchiaroli participated in the filming of the fake miracle scene and said that the atmosphere of the episode in the film was similar to what the photographer saw when he arrived in the small Umbrian town. The character of Paparazzo in the film was inspired by Tazio Secchiaroli.

Another choice made by Fellini was to hire Anita Ekberg for the part of Sylvia. The various changes in dates led to the withdrawal of many actors. Among them was Maurice Chevalier, who was to play the father of Marcello, a travelling salesman who joins Marcello on a tour of the night. After considering many names, Fellini eventually gave the part to Annibale Ninchi. The impressed Mastroianni found him very credible in the role of his father. The character of Steiner was given to Alain Cuny after about fifty actors were considered for the part. Steiner was to be played by Henry Fonda, but the actor dropped out, much to the disappointment of Fellini. Many names were mentioned, and auditions were held for Emma's part. Gina Lollobrigida stated that she was offered the part and that she would have gladly accepted, but that her husband, out of jealousy, hid the script that the production sent her, and so the offer fell through due to Lollobrigida's failure to respond, who in turn thought that the production had changed its mind. The director then opted for Yvonne Furneaux. The film also features young artists like Laura Betti in a vaguely autobiographical role, model and singer Nico (Christa Päffgen) and a very young Adriano Celentano performing Little Richard's 'Ready Teddy.

La dolce vita was shot between spring and summer 1959. Most of the film was shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Set designer Piero Gherardi created over eighty locations, including the Via Veneto, the dome of Saint Peter's with the staircase leading up to it, and various nightclubs. The structure of the film consists of a prologue, followed by seven chapters interrupted once by an intermezzo, and an epilogue. Throughout, seven dawn sequences, seven day sequences, and eight night sequences are interwoven. The relationship between Fellini and the new producers, Angelo Rizzoli and Giuseppe Amato, was relaxed and cordial, despite the budget being exceeded. One of the most substantial costs incurred in the production was that of reconstructing Via Veneto, the Roman street of nightclubs, sidewalk cafes and the parade of the night, in the studio. According to official sources, the film cost no more than 540 million lire, which was not an excessive amount for an ambitious production such as La dolce vita.


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Saint-Dié, no. CI 4. Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Vintage photo. Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Small Czechoslovakian card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 83/7, 1965. Retail price: 0,50 Kcs. Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Small Romanian collector card. Photo: Marcello Mastroianni and Anouk Aimée in La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Italian postcard by Modric, Editoria d'arte, Ancona, no. MX 099. Photo: Pierluigi Praturlon. Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni during the filming of La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).

Boos, insults and applause

Dino De Laurentiis described La dolce vita as ’incoherent, false and pessimistic' and predicted that it would prove to be a disaster. Four hours were edited and then reduced to three with cuts. On 5 February 1960, the national premiere took place at the Capitol cinema in Milan. The film was booed. Fellini was stopped by a woman who accused him of handing the country over to the Bolsheviks and was spat on for being a detractor of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Mastroianni was also insulted. It was reported that the film had been seized for reasons of public order. Fellini received 400 telegrams in a single day in Milan, accusing him of being a communist, a traitor and an atheist. The aristocracy had allowed Fellini to film in their homes and castles and then felt exposed.

Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti, cousin of Luchino Visconti, was present at the Milan premiere and states that 'The boos and insults that evening made more news than the applause. In the event of the seizure, the next morning at the Capitol, there was already a queue at the box office. The appeal of the forbidden.‘ The Vatican saw the scene in which a statue of Christ is transported through the air by helicopter as a parody of the return of Christ. In Spain, La dolce vita was banned until the death of General Franco in 1975. However, after fifteen days of screening, the film had already covered the producer's expenses. Despite the claims of De Laurentiis, La dolce vita managed to recoup the budget in just the first fifteen days of screening. The film's commercial success was aided by an intense advertising campaign and the heated climate of criticism.

After three or four weeks, La dolce vita was on track to reach one billion lire, and after two months of screening, the box office takings exceeded one and a half billion. IMDb reports box office takings in the United States of $19,571,000 at the time, plus another $8,000,000 from rentals. At the end of the 1959-1960 film season, La dolce vita was the highest-grossing film of the year in Italy, with takings of 2,271,000,000 lire at the time. Currently, it ranks thirteenth in the list of the most watched Italian films of all time, with 13,617,148 paying viewers. Worldwide, the film has grossed over $82.5 million.

La dolce vita influenced customs and language. The scene at the Trevi Fountain with Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni has become a symbolic scene of 20th-century cinema. The title of the film itself has become a common expression used to describe a rich and luxurious lifestyle, often with excesses such as those shown in the film. The film also gave its name to an item of clothing, namely the high-necked jumper, known as the 'dolce vita' jumper, as worn by Mastroianni in the film. Thanks to this film, the term 'paparazzi' entered general usage. The word refers to the surname of the intrusive press photographer Paparazzo. The character of Paparazzo, the news photographer, is portrayed by Walter Santesso. Philip French writes in The Guardian that today the film has lost its ability to shock, but not its ability to fascinate, stimulate and provoke, and remains a work of great moral and visual impact. Bosley Crowther, in his review for The New York Times, writes that the modern lifestyle represented by Fellini, hallucinatory and almost circus-like in style, is the first to have earned the adjective 'Fellinian'.

Roger Ebert stated that if asked, 'What is your favourite film?', he would answer 'La dolce vita', adding that it is a film that never ages. In his 1961 review, he stated that the technical excellence with which the film was made surpassed any production he had seen before, except for a few classics by Ingmar Bergman, and that the cinematography and soundtrack are as important as the dialogue in bringing the attack on 'La dolce vita' to life. This attack is also created by the frequent symbolism, although it becomes too obvious to fit into the fluidity of the plot. Ebert surmised that it was precisely the film's very understandable symbolism that contributed to its success. "The movie is made with boundless energy. Fellini stood here at the dividing point between the neorealism of his earlier films (like La Strada) and the carnival visuals of his extravagant later ones (Juliet of the Spirits, Amarcord). His autobiographical 8 1/2, made three years after La dolce vita, is a companion-piece, but more knowing: There the hero is already a filmmaker, but here he is a young newspaperman on the make." In 2010, a new restoration of La dolce vita was carried out with the collaboration of Ennio Guarneri, assistant to Otello Martelli, director of photography at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.


Italian postcard by Modric, Editoria d'arte, Ancona, no. MX 103. Photo: Pierluigi Praturlon. Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg during the filming of La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Italian postcard by Modric, Editoria d'arte, Ancona, no. MX 104. Photo: Pierluigi Praturlon. Marcello Mastroianni during the filming of La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Vintage poster postcard, no. XX 900 / 34. Italian poster by Cineriz for La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960), starring Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni. Design: Giorgio Olivetti.


Italian poster postcard in the Federico Fellini series by Gruppo Prospettive. Italian poster by Cineriz for La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960), starring Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni. Design: Sandro Simeoni.


French postcard. Caption: Cannes 2014. 67e Festival de Cannes 14-25 Mai. Photo: Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).

Sources: Roger Ebert (Rogerebert.com), Philip French (The Guardian), Bosley Crowther (The New York Times), Wikipedia (Italian, Dutch and English), Britannica and IMDb.

Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) was Italy's favourite leading man of the second half of the 20th century. In his long and prolific career, he almost singlehandedly defined the contemporary type of Latin lover, then proceeded to redefine it a dozen times and finally parodied it and played it against type.


American postcard by Fotofolio, no. Z860. Photo: Milton H. Greene. Caption: Marcello Mastroianni, Rome, 1963.


Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 76.


Italian postcard by Rotal Foto, Milano (Milan), no. 250.


Franco-German postcard by Ufa AG, Berlin / Editions P.I., Paris. Photo: Betzler / Bavaria / Schorcht Film.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3486. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Publicity still for Le notti bianche / White Nights (Luchino Visconti, 1957) with Maria Schell.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 159. Anouk Aimée and Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Chinese postcard. Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau in La Notte / The Night (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961).


French postcard by Edition La Malibran, Paris, no. MC 38, 1990. Photo: Claude Schwartz. Publicity still for Otto e Mezzo / 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) with Claudia Cardinale.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, no. 1445. Photo: Cineriz.


Russian postcard from 1987. Collection: Pierre sur le Ciel.

Forced-labour camp

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines, in 1924. He was the son of Ida (née Irolle) and Ottone Mastroianni, who ran a carpentry shop. Marcello grew up in Turin and Rome. He appeared as an uncredited extra in Marionette (Carmine Gallone, 1939) and later appeared as an extra in Una storia d'amore / Love Story (Mario Camerini, 1942) and I bambini ci guardano / The Children Are Watching Us (Vittorio De Sica, 1944). He worked in his father's carpentry shop, but during World War II he was put to work by the Germans drawing maps. From 1943 to 1944 he was imprisoned in a forced labour camp, but he escaped and hid in Venice.

In 1944, Mastroianni started working as a cashier for the film company Eagle Lion (Rank) in Rome. He began taking acting lessons and acted with the University of Rome dramatic group. In the university's production of Angelica (1948), he appeared with Giulietta Masina. His first real film credit was in I Miserabili / Les misérables (Riccardo Freda, 1948) with Gino Cervi. That year Mastroianni joined Luchino Visconti's repertory company, which was bringing to Italy a new kind of theatre and novel ideas of staging. The young actor played Mitch in 'A Streetcar Named Desire', Happy in 'Death of a Salesman', Stanley Kowalski in Visconti's second staging of Streetcar, and roles in Anton Chekhov's 'Three Sisters' and 'Uncle Vanya'.

He also acted in radio plays and he had his first substantial film role in the comedy Una domenica d'agosto / Sunday in August (Luciano Emmer, 1949). In 1955 Mastroianni co-starred with Vittorio De Sica and Sophia Loren - an actress with whom he would frequently be paired in the years to come - in the Screwball comedy Peccato che Sia una Canaglia / Too Bad She's Bad (Alessandro Blasetti, 1955) and later worked with De Sica again on the comedy Padri e Figli / Like Father, Like Son (Mario Monicelli, 1957).

His roles gradually increased in importance, but for the most part, both the casts and crews of his projects were undistinguished, and he remained unknown outside of Italy. Mastroianni permanently sealed his stardom in Italy, playing a timid clerk whose love is not reciprocated by Maria Schell, in Le notti bianche/White Nights (Luchino Visconti, 1957). He soon became a major international star appearing in films like I soliti ignoti/Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli, 1958) with Vittorio Gassman. In this classic crime caper, he displayed a light touch of comedy, playing the exasperated member of an inept group of burglars.

In 1960 he played his most famous role as a disillusioned and world-weary tabloid columnist who spends his days and nights exploring Rome's high society in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (1960) with Anita Ekberg. La dolce vita changed the look and direction of the Italian cinema. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams, fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him. With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like depictions of modern life first earned the adjective 'Felliniesque' in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the idea of Rome as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival."


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 460. Photo: Atlantis Film. Marcello Mastroianni in Febbre di vivere / Eager to Live (Claudio Gora, 1953).


Spanish postcard by F.A.G. Marcello Mastroianni and Marina Vlady in Giorni d'amore / Days of Love (Giuseppe De Santis, 1954).


Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 94.


Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 68/72. Photo: Steffen.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3163. Photo: Titanus. Publicity still for La Bella Mugnaia / The Miller's Beautiful Wife (Mario Camerini, 1955).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, no. AX 3203. Photo: Standaardfilms. Publicity still for Padri e figli... / Fathers and Sons (Mario Monicelli, 1957).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden / Westf., no. 2361. Photo: Bavaria / Schorcht / Vogelmann. Publicity still for Mädchen und Männer / La ragazza della salina / Sand, Love and Salt (1957).


Italian postcard. Marcello Mastroianni in I soliti ignoti/ Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli, 1958). The old man in the back is Carlo Pisacane.


Vintage photo. Marcello Mastroianni and Rosanna Schiaffino in Un ettaro di cielo / Piece of the Sky (Aglauco Casadio, 1958).


Italian postcard by Nuova Arti Grafiche Ricordi S.R.L. / Cinisello Balsamo, no. 2996, 1998. Photo: publicity still for Il bell' Antonio/Bell' Antonio (Mauro Bolognini, 1960).


Small Czechoslovakian card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 83/7, 1965. Retail price: 0,50 Kcs. Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Small Czech collector card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), 1965, no. S 83/6. Stefania Sandrelli and Marcello Mastroianni in Divorzio all'italiana / Divorce, Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 1961).

Not one-dimensional pretty boys

During the 1960s Marcello Mastroianni played in many great films and regularly worked with top Italian and French filmmakers. He appeared as the title character in Il bell'Antonio / Bell' Antonio (Mauro Bolognini, 1960) and starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece La notte / The Night (1961), where again his distanced, expressionless demeanour fit perfectly into the film's air of alienation and remote emotionality. He appeared in interesting films like L'assassino / The Assassin (Elio Petri, 1961), La Vie Privée / A Very Private Affair (Louis Malle, 1962) with Brigitte Bardot, and Cronaca familiare / Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini, 1962) with Jacques Perrin.

Mastroianni followed La dolce vita with another signature role for Fellini, that of Fellini’s alter-ego, a film director who, amidst self-doubt and troubled love affairs, finds himself in a creative block while making a film in Otto e Mezzo / 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1962). The film won two Academy Awards. Mastroianni won the British BAFTA award twice for his roles in the black comedy Divorzio all'Italiana / Divorce, Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 1963) and the deliciously funny three-part sex farce Ieri, oggi, domani / Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Vittorio De Sica, 1963) costarring with Sophia Loren. He and Loren starred together again in the equally amusing sex comedy Matrimonio all'italiana/Marriage Italian Style (Vittorio De Sica, 1964).

According to Elaine Mancini on Film Reference “Mastroianni's masculinity blends perfectly with Loren's exuberant earthy personality” in both these films. While he was to become known for playing Latin lover roles (which he spoofed in Casanova 70 (Mario Monicelli, 1965), his characters often were far more complexly drawn. They were not one-dimensional pretty boys; rather, beneath their handsome exteriors they were lazy, world-weary, and doubt-ridden. Other films were La decima vittima/The Tenth Victim (Elio Petri, 1965) with Ursula Andress and the Albert Camus adaptation Lo Straniero/The Stranger (Luchino Visconti, 1967) with Anna Karina.

Mastroianni won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for Dramma della gelosia - tutti i particolari in cronaca/Drama of Jealousy (Ettore Scola, 1970). In 1987 he would win the award again for Oci ciornie/Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987). Mastroianni, Dean Stockwell and Jack Lemmon are the only actors to have won the award twice. During the 1970s Mastroianni continued to work in interesting films by prolific directors like Leo the Last (John Boorman, 1970), Permette? Rocco Papaleo/My Name Is Rocco Papaleo (Ettore Scola, 1971) with Lauren Hutton, Che?/What? (Roman Polanski, 1972) with Sydne Rome and La donna della domenica/The Sunday Woman (Luigi Comencini, 1975) with Jacqueline Bisset.

He often worked with controversial director Marco Ferreri at Liza (Marco Ferreri, 1972) with Catherine Deneuve, La Grande Bouffe/Blow Out (Marco Ferreri, 1973), Touche pas à la femme blanche/ Don't Touch the White Woman! (Marco Ferreri, 1974), and Ciao maschio/Bye Bye Monkey (Marco Ferreri, 1978) with Gérard Depardieu.Other interesting films are Così come sei/Stay as You Are (Alberto Lattuada, 1978) with Nastassja Kinski, L'ingorgo - Una storia impossibile/Traffic Jam (Luigi Comencini, 1979) with Annie Girardot, and La terrazza/The Terrace (Ettore Scola, 1980) with Vittorio Gassman. He played against his Latin lover image in Scola’s Una giornata particolare/A Special Day (Ettore Scola, 1977), in which Mastroianni's homosexual and Sophia Loren's oppressed housewife come together on the day in 1938 when Adolph Hitler was cheered on the streets of Rome during his visit to Benito Mussolini. His seemingly detached air was perfectly suited to satire as well, as he demonstrated in films as diverse as the historical drama Allonsanfàn (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 1974), and La città delle donne / City of Women (Federico Fellini, 1980).


Small Czechoslovakian card by Presseojo, Praha (Prague), no. 83/9, 1965. Retail price: 0,50 Kcs. Marcello Mastroianni in 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963).


Small Czechoslovakian card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 83/8, 1965. Retail price: 0,50 Kcs. Marcello Mastroianni in I compagni/The Organiser (Mario Monicelli, 1963).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2634. Photo: publicity still for Matrimonio all'italiana / Marriage Italian Style (Vittorio De Sica, 1964).


German postcard by Friedrich W. Sander Verlag, Minden. Photo: Inter Film. Still for Casanova 70 (Mario Monicelli, 1965).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Marcello Mastroianni in Lo Straniero / The Stranger (Luchino Visconti, 1967).


German postcard by pwe Verlag, München (Munich). Photo: publicity still for La moglie del prete / The Priest's Wife (Dino Risi, 1970) with Sophia Loren.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 4881.


Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 3624, 1975. This postcard was printed in an edition of 200.000 cards. Retail price: 5 kop.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for La terrazza (Ettore Scola, 1980) with Marie Trintignant.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Enrico IV / Henry IV (Marco Bellocchio, 1984).


Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 1020. Jack Lemmon and Marcello Mastroianni in Maccheroni / Macaroni (Ettore Scola, 1985).


German press photo, no. 5. Photo: Tobis. Publicity still for Ginger e Fred (Federico Fellini, 1986).


French postcard in the Collection Magie Noire by Éditions Hazan, Paris, 1997, no. 6521. Photo: Constant Anée. Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren in Prêt-à-Porter (Robert Altman, 1994).

Wonderfully nostalgic

In the latter stages of his career, Marcello Mastroianni continued to take serious dramatic roles. For instance, he played the senior citizen who simply looks back on his past. In Stanno tutti bene / Everybody's Fine (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1990), he is an elderly man who is absorbed in his memories, and who travels through Italy to call on his five adult children. In Oci ciornie / Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987), he gives a tour-de-force performance as a once young and idealistic aspiring architect who married a banker's daughter, fell into a lifestyle of afternoon snoozes and philandering, and proved incapable of holding onto what was important to him.

His on-screen presence has also been directly linked to his earlier screen characterisations. In Prêt-à-Porter / Ready to Wear (Robert Altman, 1994), he was reunited with Sophia Loren, and at one point in the scenario, she recreated her famous steamy striptease sequence from Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Loren was as beguiling as she had been 30 years earlier but Mastroianni was no longer the attentive young lover, so Sophia's seductive moves only put him to sleep. Mastroianni's appearance in two of Fellini's final features is especially sentimental. Ginger e Fred / Ginger and Fred (Federico Fellini, 1996) is sweetly nostalgic for its union of Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina, two of the maestro's then-ageing but still vibrant stars of the past.

In Intervista (Federico Fellini, 1987), he appears as himself with Anita Ekberg, with whom he had starred decades before in La dolce vita. Mastroianni's entrance is especially magical; the sequence in which he and Ekberg (who, he remarks, he has not seen since making La dolce vita) observe their younger selves in some famous clips from that film is wonderfully nostalgic. with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Film Awards. He kept appearing in critically acclaimed films like To meteoro vima tou pelargou / The Suspended Step of the Stork (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1991), in which he was quietly poignant as an obscure man who may have once been an important Greek politician who had disappeared years earlier.

Other films were Al di là delle nuvole / Beyond the Clouds (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1995) and Trois vies et une seule mort / Three Lives and Only One Death (Raúl Ruiz, 1996) with Anna Galiena. His final film was Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo / Voyage to the Beginning of the World (Manoel de Oliveira, 1997). Marcello Mastroianni was married to Italian actress Flora Carabella (1926-1999) from 1948 until his death. They had one child together, Barbara. Mastroianni also had a daughter, actress Chiara Mastroianni, with French film star Catherine Deneuve, his longtime lover during the 1970s.

Both Flora and Catherine were at his bedside in Paris when he died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72, as was his partner at the time, author and filmmaker Anna Maria Tatò. According to Christopher Wiegand and Paul Duncan in their book Federico Fellini, when Mastroianni died in 1996, the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain), which is so famously associated with him due to his role in Fellini's La dolce vita, was symbolically turned off and draped in black as a tribute. His brother Ruggero Mastroianni (1929-1996) was a highly regarded film editor who edited several of Marcello's films directed by Federico Fellini and appeared alongside Marcello in Scipione detto anche l'Africano / Scipio the African (Luigi Magni, 1971), a comedic take on the once popular Peplum, the Sword and Sandal film genre. Marcello Mastroianni has held starring roles in about 120 films throughout his long career.


Trailer for Domenica d'agosto (1950). Source: Ugo Tramontano (YouTube).


The classic Trevi Fountain scene in La dolce vita/The Sweet Life (1960) with Anita Ekberg. Source: רונן אברהם (YouTube).


Trailer for 8 1/2 (1961). Source: BFI (YouTube).


Trailer for La Notte (1961). Source: Hadalat (YouTube).


Trailer for Ieri, oggi, domain / Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963). Source: Jeffrey M. Anderson (YouTube).


Trailer for La Grande Bouffe/Blow Out (1973). Source: Arrow Video (YouTube).


Trailer for Una giornata particulate / A Special Day (1977). Source: Argent Films (YouTube).


Trailer for La città delle done / City of Women (1980). Source: Das Film Feuilleton (YouTube).


Trailer for Ginger e Fred / Ginger and Fred (1986). Source: Movieclips Trailer Vault (YouTube).


Spanish poster postcard. Marcello Mastroianni in the Franco-Portuguese film Voyage to the Beginning of the World / Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo / Voyage au début du Monde (Manoel de Oliveira, 1997). It was Mastroianni's final film.

Sources: Elaine Mancini (Film Reference; updated by Rob Edelman), Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Jason Ankeny (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.