Comparing and Contrasting The Bicycle Thief and La Dolce Vita

La Dolce Vita movie has some similarities and many differences from The Bicycle Thief. Although they are only twelve years apart, the depiction of life is very different.   The Bicycle Thief depicts a man who is concerned with a bicycle for his job.  It is so simple, but important.  La Dolce Vita is about a man trying to figure out his life.  This film is not about the physical aspects of life as The Bicycle Thief is, but rather La Dolce Vita is about the philosophical side of life.   The main character is trying to decide how he wants his life to be.   Another difference is the way life is portrayed.  In The Bicycle Thief, the man is so poor and everyone around him is looking for work.  While in La Dolce Vita, there are people who are too rich.  Excess seems to surround Marcello as he goes about his daily life.  His girlfriend seems to be the only thing that does not live in excess.  While in The Bicycle Thief the man does not have a choice about his life, Marcello can choose the life he wants. 

Another difference is that La Dolce Vita is moving away from neo-realism, which is the type of film The Bicycle Thief was.  Professional Actors were used and there was the use of Artificial Lighting in some of the scenes. 

However, despite the differences there is also a major similarity and that is the feeling of discontent and life being unfulfilled.  At the end of The Bicycle Thief the man goes home without his bicycle and without a job.  Life is desperate and there is not going to be a happy ending.  In La Dolce Vita, Marcello walks away from the beach without being able to understand what the woman is saying.   He is searching for a meaningful life, but was unable to do so because he was so wrapped up in the excess of his times.

La Dolce Vita Review

 La Dolce Vita

Year:  1960

Director:  Federico Fellini

Main Actors:  Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Eckberg, and Anouk Aimee

La Dolce Vita is a 1960s Italian Film.  The film depicts seven episodes in the life of Marcello Rubini as he struggles to find his place in the world and figure out what he really wants to be.   This film shows a culture of excess.  One of the main females who Marcello sleeps with is famous and has a lot of money.   It is a culture that is partying and gallivanting all around, without any constraints it seems.  However, despite the good times life intervenes.  Marcello is sleeping with a rich celebrity at a prostitute’s house and his girlfriend tries to commit suicide.  His rich mistress offers a life with social functions and constant partying, while his girlfriend offers a domestic, calm life.  Marcello is stuck somewhere in the middle.  He is trying to decide between women and he is trying to figure himself out.  He wants to be a serious writer, but he is living in a constantly moving life.

The opening scene contrasts the old with the new.  A statue of Christ is shown flying over the ruins and the new buildings, essentially blessing it all.  It shows how the new, modern life is overtaking the old, more meaningful life.  Yet, the old and the new are so close to one another, but to the characters the old can be so far away.

In one of the scenes Marcello is sent to cover a story about children who claimed to have seen the Madonna. The children lead the crowd in circles saying they see her over here and then over there, thus showing that they are faking the miracle.  However, there were so many people there who truly believed. A woman brought her ill child, when havoc broke out they were killed in a stampede.  At the end of this scene, the people tore apart the tree that supposedly covered the Madonna without regard.  They just ripped it limb from limb because everyone wanted a piece of the holy object, but no one thought to leave it whole.  Thus showing the culture of “I want a piece of it now”, excess, everyone wanted a piece.  It also shows how people believed in the old; they believed in religion, but they also lived in the modern world and wanted a piece of everything.

Throughout the film there are many ideas going on that all accumulate and lead to Marcello thinking about his life.  With one of his friends, Steiner, he discusses the world they live in and what type of world Steiner’s children would grow up in.  Steiner decides to kill himself and his two children, thus leading the viewer to believe that he was not at all content with the world for his children and death seemed like the only way to avoid the modern world.  The press bombarded the mourning wife before she even knew about the deaths.  

The last scene shows Marcello walking away from the beach, but he appeared to be unsatisfied.  He could not hear or understand a young woman on the beach and he just walked away.  It is unknown if he ever made a decision about his life.  After he fought with his girlfriend about their life together and threw her out of the car he went back to pick her up and they slept together.  Yet, in another scene he is still partying with the elite. 

La Dolce Vita Quotes

“Your misfortune? To  have too much money.”   

“And yours, not to have enough.”

Steiner: “Don't be like me. Salvation doesn't lie within four walls. I'm too serious to be a dilettante and too much a dabbler to be a professional. Even the most miserable life is better than a sheltered existence in an organized society where everything is calculated and perfected.” (IMDb)

“By 1965 there'll be total depravity. How squalid everything will be.” (IMDb)