La Dolce Vita

The producer wanted Paul Newman; Federico Fellini found him too beautiful and took Marcello Mastroianni. In a 1977 television interview Mastroianni recalled asking to read the script and finding the pages blank but for a drawing of a man swimming among mermaids. At Cinecittà, Piero Gherardi built more than 80 sets, among them Via Veneto and the dome of Saint Peter’s with its staircase. The castle party was shot in the real Bassano di Sutri palace north of Rome, some servants and guests played by actual aristocrats. The Trevi Fountain sequence took a week in winter; by Fellini’s account Anita Ekberg stood in the cold water for hours, while Mastroianni wore a wetsuit under his clothes and still needed a bottle of vodka to finish. The photographer Paparazzo was modelled on Tazio Secchiaroli, and Ennio Flaiano said the name came from a figure in George Gissing’s 1901 travel book. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1960, drew 4 nominations at the 34th Academy Awards and won Gherardi the black and white costume prize. The Vatican newspaper condemned it, and Spain kept it banned until Franco died. A good fit if you want a structure of nights set side by side instead of one plot. Not for a viewer expecting a knot that is tied and then untied.