- Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) is a journalist. Well, a writer for an Italian gossip magazine. Actually, we never really see him getting much work done, but he definitely owns a typewriter and is often spotted in the orbit of very the rich and famous. His wife Emma (Yvonne Furneaux) is miserable because he ignores her and pursues affairs, although Rubini would probably argue that he ignores her and pursues affairs because she is miserable. The closest thing Rubini has to a stable relationship is with the wealthy Maddalena (Anouk Aimée), but casual encounters with other random women (Audrey McDonald, Magali Noël) abound.
- The funny thing about Rubini is that people might naturally assume that he has a sweet life, as La Dolce Vita's title suggests. Nothing could be further from the truth. When he's not chasing playful Swedish models (Anita Ekberg) through the cathedrals and fountains of Rome, Rubini often hides a deeply concerned look behind his trademark dark sunglasses. Obviously, the reporter is aware of the absurdity of the Italian leisure class and the associated media circus in which he is deeply embedded. He isn't so much worried that his life is meaningless -- a foregone conclusion, in his mind -- but rather that everyone else's life may be meaningless, too.
- At times, Rubini lives vicariously through his friend Steiner (Alain Cuny) who has everything that Rubini does not, including a happy wife and two adorable children. Steiner is quietly introverted and enjoys playing Bach on a church pipe organ and recording the sounds of nature. Again, the real situation is not how it appears. In a completely jarring sequence of events, Steiner kills himself after murdering his two kids. Rubini gets called to the grisly crime scene and rushes to intercept Steiner's wife at a bus station. Groups of what we would today label "papparazzi" (named after Walter Santesso's character in this film!) swarm the widow before she can even be told the tragic news.
- Although La Dolce Vita features many deservedly famous scenes, including the helicopter transporting a statue of Jesus, Anita Ekberg cavorting in a fountain, the witnessing of a country miracle, and the bizarre beached sea creature near the film's end, my favorite may be Rubini's seemingly innocuous visit to an out-of-fashion nightclub with his father (Annibale Ninchi). During the course of a pleasant enough meal accompanied by some laughable entertainment, it comes out that Rubini never really knew his father growing up, and one quickly infers that the older man's frequent business trips may have involved nightclubs and dancers. Still, Rubini tries to help his father relive his youth, but things take a terrifying turn when his father falls ill. The man is well enough to catch a cab ride back home, but the entire experience leaves everyone (including the audience!) badly shaken indeed.
- Although there are plenty of sophisticated interpretations of the film's seven-tiered structure for those who worship at the throne of numerology, I honestly believe that La Dolce Vita is best enjoyed as a series of vignettes. The unifying theme, it seems to me, is Rubini's quest to find a modicum of meaning in a world overflowing with decadence and misfortune. The film's final scenes, in which he nearly connects with a young waitress named Paola (Valeria Ciangottini), can either be taken as a hopeful sign that there are joy and decency in the world or a tragic missed opportunity for Rubini, who cannot hear Paola over the waves hitting the beach. In either case, director Federico Fellini succeeds in forcing the audience to wrestle with what may be the most important question of all: what does life mean to you?
