Actor Marcello Mastroianni once said: ‘Having been part of La dolce vita was like having done military service together’.
This tender and moving tribute, made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the most famous and sensational films of all time, reveals that many professionals had the same intense experience on set as Mastroianni. Director Gianfranco Mingozzi tries to reconstruct this special, for some magical, for others boring, atmosphere during the making of La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960). He does so by collecting the memories of about twenty ‘dolcevitaists’. Not only world famous actors recall beautiful anecdotes, but also screenwriters, costumers, technicians, cameramen and others who had worked behind the scenes. |
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But maybe Mingozzi’s own personal testimonial, as one of the many assistant directors, is the most significant and touching. In addition, he has cleverly managed to combine all the interviews with well-chosen film extracts and archival material.
We who have lived La Dolce Vita might be labelled as a unique document made ‘just in time’: in 2009, when it was released, both the director and the initiator of the project (it was based on Tullio Kezich’s memoirs) passed away. Amongst the interviewees is Lili Rademakers. She worked together with Mingozzi as an assistant director (and script girl) on La dolce vita and performed several times as an extra in the film. She will be a special guest during the screening at Doku.Arts. |
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Noi che abbiamo fatto la dolce vita
Italy
2009
85 min. / Digibeta
Language: Italian
Subtitles: English
Crew
Screenplay: Tullio Kezich
Editing: Mascia Calamandrei
Production: Fondazione Federico Fellini, Barbara Cuozzo for RaiSat and Cesare Landricina for Media Land
Director
Gianfranco Mingozzi (1932-2009) grew up near Bologna where his parents owned a local cinema. He got a degree in Law at the University of Bologna and then attended the Film Director’s course at the Roman film academy Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He was one of Federico Fellini’s assistant directors on La Dolce Vita and Boccaccio 70. |