Film/Reading Response - Movie Review Example

Film/Reading Response: La dolce vita “La Dolce Vita’ is a film by Federico Fellini which gained popularity in the year 1960 in Europe. The story features Marcello Rubini, who is the main character. Marcello is a gossip columnist who tries to explore the ultra-sophisticated Rome. He makes money by writing about scandalous stories in Rome. The character’s actions help in developing the theme of gender in the film. It is worth affirming that Italian movies focused on social themes as evident in “neorealist films stressed social themes” (Bondanella 120).

Through Marcello, the audience realizes the similarity between the film and those that portrayed females as secondary or inferior in the early Italian neorealist films. Through Marcelo, one realizes that a female figure plays a central part in love affairs and relationships. One also realizes through this character that females are portrayed as erotic images. The character’s intention was to maintain an objective view of the lives and events of celebrities in Rome’s nightlife. However, he got carried away after having many affairs with women like Sylvia, Emma, and Maddelena.

Each time he left the nightclub with a different woman (Fellini 1) One of the character’s experiences that helped in developing the themes of gender in the film was his encounter with Sylvia who was an actress. His initial intention was to write about the actress. However, they ended up having sexual affairs. His encounter with Sylvia show how females are being used as erotic images. Marcello found pleasure in viewing the actress’ body. The camera focused more on Marcello’s view of Sylvia as his object of sexual satisfaction.

Even though the film maker tries to give females some power over males he still portrays them as sexual figures. In the film we realize that Sylvia was more controlling than Marcello. Fellini makes it appear like she was exploiting Marcello instead of being sexuality exploited like in other films. Even though this seems to give female more power it still symbolizes them as sexual images. Another example that proves that Marcello helped in developing the theme of gender was when he met Maddelena.

His interaction with Maddelena shows how females are helpless and desperate for males. This is proved when Maddelena was pleading with Marcello to marry her without caring about her outlook and words. It is evident from the scenario that “One of the paradoxes of Italian Neorealism is that the ordinary people such films set out to portray were relatively uninterested in their image on the screen” (Bondanella 121). Hiring of prostitutes in the story also show how females are reduced to sexual objects that can be bought just like other commodities in the market (Pandolfi 1).

Another example of representation of females as inferior objects is proved in Marcello’s relationship with Emma. Emma was desperate for Marcello’s love. However, Marcello preferred other women because of Emma’s religion which emphasized on Monogamy. He was afraid that being with Emma would prevent him from having sexual affairs with other females. Emma’s jealousy made her to attempt suicide. This shows how females are too weak to overcome their relationship challenges (Springer 1). Conclusively, “La Dolce Vita” is a film that explores the theme of sexuality in the modern society.

One of the film characters that help in the development of this major theme is Marcello who is also the main character. Through the character we realize the position of females in the society. Marcello’s sexual exploitation of females shows how women are used as sexual objects. His intentions for taking different women from the nightclub show that he only wanted to satisfy his desires. He did not want commitment to one female.Works CitedBondanella, Peter. From Italian Neorealism to the golden age of cinecitta.

Print Fellini, Federico. La Dolce Vita. 2009. Web. 1 July 2014Pnadolfi, Christina. The feminine condition: Film analysis. 2011. Web. 1 July 2014.Springer, John. La Dolce Vita (1960). 2009. Web. 1 July 2014.