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<\/a><\/p>\nAnd anyway, there\u2019s always the movie\u2014the dreamlike image of Anita Ekberg walking in the fountain wearing a black dress, with the water cascading over her.<\/p>\n
In the film, the protagonist Marcello follows the character of Sylvia into the fountain, desiring her. But they never even kiss\u2014they come close, but they don\u2019t connect, the water stops and they venture out into the dawn without understanding what their experience has been about–the same way we often wake up from a dream that feels unfinished. We\u2019re left wondering what it was which seemed so potent even moments before.<\/p>\n LA DOLCE VITA is broken up into seven episodes which take place over seven nights:\u00a0 each episode ends in the early morning, with an unsuccessful attempt to make sense of the night before. One could say that the film is essentially seven dreams that are to be interpreted by the viewer.<\/p>\n Jaded aristocrats return to a villa in the early morning after a night of debauchery in LA DOLCE VITA.\u00a0 What seemed exciting to the characters a few hours before suddenly feels wearisome.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fellini\u2019s films often evoke the unconscious\u2014dreamlike images that resonate with the power of archetypes. (He himself spent years in Jungian analysis, and his dream journals are remarkable\u2014you can check them out at this\u00a0link<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The opening dream from 8 1\/2 symbolizes the protagonist’s sense of being stuck in his creative process.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Giulietta Masina in JULIET OF THE SPIRITS experiences visions that help her process her unhappiness.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have always loved Fellini, who said about his films:\u00a0\u201cMy work can\u2019t be anything other than a testimony of what I am looking for in life. It is a mirror of my searching\u2026. In this respect, I think, there is no cleavage or difference of content or style in all my films. From first to last, I have struggled to free myself\u2014always from the past, from the education laid upon me as a child. That is what I\u2019m seeking, though through different characters and with changing tempo and images.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n His films offer a real sense of this search, and the heart behind it. His images evoke the emotions of longing and introspection and his movies draw no distinction between high and low culture. His characters often are those that we judge, ignore or discard. He examines the pursuit of love, and also the search for meaning. Watching his films provides a sense of catharsis–I feel more human and more attuned to the world around me after one of his movies.<\/p>\n The manner in which Giulietta is framed against the red wall expresses her emotion in a visual way.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If one watches LA DOLCE VITA, 8 \u00bd, and JULIET OF THE SPIRITS in succession, one can see his \u201csearching\u201d very clearly\u2014characters look for an answer, and the answer is finally to accept the variety of life without resisting its difficulty. Instead they move forward, embracing the totality of experience.<\/p>\n Fellini said,\u00a0\u201cWe must cease projecting ourselves into the future as though it were plannable, foreseeable, tangible, controllable\u2014it\u2019s not; or as though it were a dimension existing outside and beyond ourselves. We must learn to deal with matters as they are, not as we hope or fear they may eventuate. We must cope with them as they exist now, today, at this moment. We must awaken to the fact that the future is already HERE, to be lived in the present.\u00a0 In short, wake up and live!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The final shot in JULIET OF THE SPIRITS is a visual example of Fellini’s idea of creating a “virginal availability, an innocence from childhood”.\u00a0 It is a very hopeful shot and has stayed in my memory since I first saw the film in college.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But his films are also about looking back; the puzzling through of the factors that have led to our present conditioning, our inability to take in the present. Elsewhere he said,\u00a0\u201cIn three or four of my films, what is constantly repeated is the attempt to suggest to man the process of individual liberation\u2014that is, to trace one\u2019s steps to see where certain dents, certain illnesses started, where the psychological cancers were formed. In going back personally, individually, as a most private artist reflecting on my walk of life, I seem to recognize a certain conditioning of a pedagogical nature of an education that made me suffer, which obstructed me, made me stop. My presumptuous nature leads me to think that it would be worthwhile and just to try to do in my films\u2014as an artist does in his books or another artist in the form of expression more congenial to him\u2014to try to identify what this educational conditioning was, in order to attempt to conquer it, to make it harmless so that the error may not be repeated. I want to suggest to modern man a road of\u00a0inner<\/em>\u00a0liberation, to accept and love life the way it is without idealizing it, without creating concepts about it, without projecting oneself into idealized images on a moral or ethical plane. I want to try to give back to man a virginal availability, his innocence as he had in childhood\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here then\u20148 \u00bd, JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, and even LA DOLCE VITA tried to propose this backward walk, tried to identify the pathologic conditioning. What are the myths that must be destroyed? Well, the ideals, the ideals in general. I think that \u201cthe ideal\u201d, the idealized life, the idealized concepts can be extremely dangerous for our mental health, and it is what I try to express in my films.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n In other words, our major obstacle to living in the present is some \u201cideal\u201d that has been suggested to us as to where we\u00a0should be\u00a0<\/em>as opposed to where\u00a0we are<\/em>. It is an insidious enemy\u2014this thought that where we are presently is not good enough.<\/p>\n Robert Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl write in their book CONTENTMENT:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOur society teaches us that the only reality is the one we can hold onto. It values outer experiences and material possessions. Accordingly, we look for contentment \u2018out there\u2019 and live with a \u2018just as soon as\u2019 mentality. \u2018Just as soon as I get my work done, I can relax.\u2019 \u2018Just as soon as I get married, I will be content\u2019 or conversely, \u2018Just as soon as my divorce comes through, I will be content.\u2019 (etc.) \u2026And so our contentment slips through our fingers like quicksilver\u2014another time, a different place, a better circumstance.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n They go on to write:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMadison Avenue understands our hunger for contentment and uses it as the basis for modern advertising. Soup, automobiles, life insurance\u2014any and all things are sold with a promise either of the satisfaction they will bring or the discomfort they will help us avoid. Advertising infiltrates nearly every corner of modern life, from television and radio commercials to newspapers, magazines, bumper stickers, billboards, park benches, T-shirts, the Internet\u2014even our telephones. All these messages are designed to manipulate us into craving some product or service. We are pulled by desires and pushed by fears. Madison Avenue and the mass media are powerful purveyors of discontent.<\/strong><\/p>\n But it need not be this way. In any moment, we have the choice to embrace what is happening to us\u00a0right now<\/em>\u00a0as an avenue to a deeper self-awareness.<\/p>\n The Trevi Fountain scene from LA DOLCE VITA has frequently been the inspiration for advertising campaigns.\u00a0 Like the character of Marcello, we’re encouraged to want to climb in to the fountain with the model.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The many dreamlike images from Fellini’s films have inspired me in my own work.\u00a0 His movies create no distinction between reality and dreams, between high and low, between the beautiful and the ugly, the pious and profane.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fellini\u2019s films appeal to me partly because of the way they turn the mundane into poetry. They capture the fine line between joy and despair. He never judges his characters for the decisions they make, nor does he try to suggest that their problems are resolved. Instead his movies portray the inner images that are inspired by their conflicts and the dilemmas of the external world. He looks at reality, even its ugly parts, but then creates beauty in fantasy and imagination. His characters are presented with a choice of how to view their circumstances and a choice of how to continue. As one character says to Guido in 8 1\/2:\u00a0“\u2026You’re free but you must learn to choose. You don’t have much time. And you have to hurry.”<\/strong><\/p>\n The final sequence of LA DOLCE VITA presents Marcello in a state of ennui, but in 8 1\/2 (below) the character Guido celebrates his life by dancing.\u00a0 Ultimately we each decide the response to our fate.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n