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I am surprised by the mostly lukewarm reaction here. This is the first time I said Holy Shit when I heard the news since the announcement for Nashville. La Dolce Vita and Criterion...come on now. A landmark film, one of the most essential films in the history of cinema, being welcomed by Criterion is a celebration. It's not even my favorite Fellini.

Michael wrote:I am surprised by the mostly lukewarm reaction here. This is the first time I said Holy Shit when I heard the news since the announcement for Nashville. La Dolce Vita and Criterion...come on now.

I am too. I think it's a huge deal. Since moving into a tiny NYC apartment about a year ago, I've actually held off buying Criterions but La dolce vita will be a pre-order title.

I think, and this is just my limited view because I haven't been following blu-ray sites much as of lately, that blu-ray releases overall appear not to generate the same excitement as they once did even a year ago. It seems to me that blu-rays are entering(have entered?) an almost laserdisc era where it's great for the collectors but the populous is glued to another medium-streaming. Maybe I've jumped the gun but I like to think the tepid reaction of Criterion releasing La dolce vita is not for the film itself but because of the current state of blu-rays.

Michael wrote:I am surprised by the mostly lukewarm reaction here.

I've been holding off commenting because this is my favorite film of all time. It's also been one of the most requested titles on Criterion's Facebook page, so the announcement itself wasn't really a surprise (given Criterion's past relationship with Paramount) and I've been expecting the release (it's also a companion piece to 8 1/2 ever since the lawsuit was settled. For me the issue is that it's coming out on a single disc. If there was ever a release that deserves a 2-disc, special edition treatment, this is it. Also a bit disappointed this got released after the switch over to single format. If there's one release I would have wanted on both formats, this is it. But, after the blowback over my kvetching that Marketa Lazarova (another 3 hour film w/ all the extras shoved on to one disc), I just thought I'd hold off complaining before it was released.

criterionsnob wrote:Beaver
Video Bitrate: 22.00 Mbps

Too bad the Criterion is the only blu-ray reviewed, it would have been nice to see how the image stacks up against the other blu-ray releases.

It's certainly the same source than the French or the Italian BD. But then, maybe Criterion has slightly adjusted the contrast (as usual) for their release.

I don't recall the bitrate being much higher on the French BD.

The screen-caps look stunning on my laptop

Koukol wrote:The screen-caps look stunning on my laptop

My guess is that it'll probably be like Nashville, while not as high a bit rate as other releases, no discernable difference from any of the other available releases. I will still pick it up, but can't say I'm not a bit disappoiinted that this release isn't filled to the gills with excellent supplements (on a 2nd disc) - no commentary, no thing from Paolo Sorrentino, nothing from the 1960s, only Fellini extra is an audio interview...

Familiarity and evolving tastes have dulled its appeal just a little bit - I lean strongly towards 8 1/2 and I Vitelloni as my two favorite Fellini films - but I was glad to see this, especially after all the lawsuits and ownership disputes over the past decade.

It was one of my favorites in high school and the first Fellini film that really engaged me - I remember it being cited as one of Roger Ebert's absolute favorites, and that prompted me to check it out. While it was out-of-print, it seemed like it was frequently screened in 35mm around NY, so I've seen it at least four, maybe five times in the past six years.

Lowry_Sam wrote:

Koukol wrote:The screen-caps look stunning on my laptop

...no discernable difference from any of the other available releases....

Then you're not seeing what I'm seeing.

Not only is the contrast better but there's more detail and more info on every side of Criterion's frame.

I consider myself a Fellini fan.
Think 8.5 and I Vitelloni are masterpieces.
But actively dislike La Dolce Vita.
Find it a real chore to try to sit through.

Interesting to see that LDV is rather polarizing here.

Dave Kehr has always been down on it. His archival review from his time at the Chicago Reader (1974-1985):

The film was hugely successful and widely praised in its time, though it's really nothing more than the old C.B. De Mille formula of titillation and moralizing—Roman orgies and Christian martyrs—with only a fraction of De Mille's showmanship. With Anita Ekberg as the Flesh (too much) and Anouk Aimee as the Spirit (too little).

That Reader blurb has continued to run ever since when LDV has a revival screening in town. I love the film and besides all the magnificent spectacle, the argument that it's too decadent seems um...obvious? Mastroianni's descent is the counterpoint to the organist friend

Spoiler

who fucking kills his entire family because of the evils of humanity

. Also yeah, if the decadence wasn't attractive, it wouldn't make any sense. Besides being a feast for the senses, the themes here are pretty nicely laid out, and Fellini doesn't make it obvious, or hyper-critical It's his milieu after all, and he's filled with self-loathing.

It's not just Dave Kehr, there were a few major critics at the time that didn't like La Dolce Vita: Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, John Simon. I also seem to remember that the Cahiers crowd also didn't think much of it.

The blu looks amazing from the screen captures...

Zot! wrote:It's his milieu after all, and he's filled with self-loathing.

He pretty much spent his lifetime in a self loathing mode. If you read I, Fellini by charlotte Chandler, it's all there for everyone to see.

FrauBlucher wrote:

Zot! wrote:It's his milieu after all, and he's filled with self-loathing.

He pretty much spent his lifetime in a self loathing mode. If you read I, Fellini by charlotte Chandler, it's all there for everyone to see.

I think that's one of the remarkable things about him. Usually artists with such a vivid imagination tend to be self-assured or defensive (Godard, Tarkovsky, Salavador Dali), but Fellini was constantly trying to question the value of his own philosophy and talent. I think both he and Bergman made a real effort to examine themselves as artists and people, which is something that I appreciate, and I believe added a lot of humility and humanity to otherwise very strong perspectives and bold ideas.

One of the things he constantly beat himself up about was his own perception of how he treated his wife, Giulietta Masina. Which is very obvious in his films when it comes to the female characters, particularly the women who are married to the protagonists or if they are the protagonists themseleves, as in Juliet of the Spirits.

I really can't wait to see La dolce vita again, and in 1080p will be the sweet life.

Stunning BD

I noticed something odd I hadn't seen before. When Marcelo and Maddalena pull up the prostitute's apartment block early in the film to have sex, there is a shot from the shadows from behind the car. In this shot you can see what I guess can be best described as a gas hose coming from the gas tank and dragging almost eight feet behind the car. Apparently, this is common at gas stations for people to drive off forgetting they hadn't returned the hose to the pump. Then, it rips off the pump and drags behind the car. Could there have been a deleted scene here? Doesn't seem like a gag Fellini would even indulge in.

aox wrote: ...I noticed something odd I hadn't seen before. When Marcelo and Maddalena pull up the prostitute's apartment block early in the film to have sex, there is a shot from the shadows from behind the car. In this shot you can see what I guess can be best described as a gas hose coming from the gas tank and dragging almost eight feet behind the car. Apparently, this is common at gas stations for people to drive off forgetting they hadn't returned the hose to the pump. Then, it rips off the pump and drags behind the car. Could there have been a deleted scene here? Doesn't seem like a gag Fellini would even indulge in.

The shot in question begins at the 14 minute mark in this video. I believe it is an electrical cord supplying power to a light hidden in the vehicle which helps illuminate the actors (the light seems to be placed at the right of the rear seat). They must have thought the figures in the car weren't defined enough without the light. Normally, the effect would be accomplished using a battery-powered light, but the gaffers apparently didn't have one available.

By the way, in total agreement over the beauty of the BD. My appreciation of this film has grown considerably over the past few years and I only wish there was a scholarly commentary track on this new edition. As it is, I find the kogonada visual essay to be very haunting.

The effort they put into this restoration paid off; the Blu-ray looks absolutely gorgeous, as others here have noted. They clearly put a lot of effort into the grading stage.

I received the Blu-ray of L'AVVENTURA at the same time and thought it looked slightly weaker than LA DOLCE VITA at first glance. Mainly, I wondered whether digital clean-up tools hadn't been applied just a touch to heavily on that film compared to LA DOLCE VITA. But I watched the Blu-ray under better conditions again and I'm happy with it as well.

Roger Ryan wrote:

aox wrote: ...I noticed something odd I hadn't seen before. When Marcelo and Maddalena pull up the prostitute's apartment block early in the film to have sex, there is a shot from the shadows from behind the car. In this shot you can see what I guess can be best described as a gas hose coming from the gas tank and dragging almost eight feet behind the car. Apparently, this is common at gas stations for people to drive off forgetting they hadn't returned the hose to the pump. Then, it rips off the pump and drags behind the car. Could there have been a deleted scene here? Doesn't seem like a gag Fellini would even indulge in.

The shot in question begins at the 14 minute mark in this video. I believe it is an electrical cord supplying power to a light hidden in the vehicle which helps illuminate the actors (the light seems to be placed at the right of the rear seat). They must have thought the figures in the car weren't defined enough without the light. Normally, the effect would be accomplished using a battery-powered light, but the gaffers apparently didn't have one available.

Thanks for your insight. It was so odd to me, but that makes so much more sense now.

By the way, in total agreement over the beauty of the BD. My appreciation of this film has grown considerably over the past few years and I only wish there was a scholarly commentary track on this new edition. As it is, I find the kogonada visual essay to be very haunting.

Agreed. I really wish this had a scholarly commentary. I listened to the Youngblood commentary once again on the new L'avventura BD and was reminded once again how fantastic a good commentary can be.

New visual essay by : : kogonada

I should have added another category to the Criterion Forum Awards: Worst Supplement. Wow. I have not watched any of the other "essays" he's done for the label or elsewhere, but this is some excruciating stretching of one minute of material to fit a ten minute extra, with extemporaneous equivalencies and an inflated sense of self-importance and "insight" so obvious to anyone who knows how to watch a film that I felt some real second-hand embarrassment. Is it possible anyone, ever, in the history of movie-watching, missed the "POV break" during Steiner's party? So why belabor the point with at least a half dozen replays as the Kranky label music drones on, as though we were getting an apocalyptic revelation and not just an A-to-B-and then all the way to-R half-assed amateur theoretic? I do hope Criterion at least paid the essay-maker fifty bucks so he can buy a better mic for future essays exploring the deep insights of the most surface-level Freshman year observations so he at least won't sound like he recorded said easy lobs via magic Anouk Aimee acoustics in the process.

Tonight is the night I'll watch the new Criterion BD.
RIP, Anita