A New Documentary-Drama on the Making of 'La Dolce Vita'

One hundred years after his birth, Federico Fellini is more relevant than ever with new facts about his life and filmmaking still being uncovered.

Towards the end of 1958, Fellini went through a complicated professional period and found himself in a deep depression. Despite having already won two Oscars for "La Strada" and "Le Notti di Cabiria," which starred his wife and muse Giulietta Masina, he could not find a producer interested in his new project: a story he wrote along with colleagues Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli. The project was titled, "La Dolce Vita."

One producer, Giuseppe Amato, believed in the script and that's all it took to create the immortal masterpiece. Now, a new documentary-drama sheds light on the iconic film that was almost never made. Through re-enactment, clips from the film, and archival images, "The truth about La Dolce Vita" by Giuseppe Pedersoli reveals the correspondence between Fellini and his producers, and the long and winding road to getting "La Dolce Vita" made.

Referred to as the liveliest man in the Italian film industry, Amato was a highly respected and prolific filmmaker during Italy’s post-war era. He produced iconic films like "Roma Open City," "Umberto D" and "The Bicycle Thieves."

The story was constructed from unpublished documents that tell the story behind the tumultuous making of "La Dolce Vita." One of the first images in the documentary is also one of the first images we see in "La Dolce Vita"- the ruins of the ancient aqueduct at the Parco degli Acquedotti, which is a short distance from Cinecittà studios and Piazza San Giovanni Bosco where Fellini shot much of the film.

Amato became obsessed with the script and woke in the middle of the night seeing images of “Rome Open City” and “Umberto D,” two films that he produced. He called his friend, Alvaro Mancori, who is now in his 80s and telling the story in the film. He even met with Padre Pio in Pietrelcina in Puglia, to seek his advice on whether to pursue making the film. After what Mancori describes as ten minutes of staring at each other, Amato felt that Padre Pio had given him the blessing to proceed. There was actually a newspaper headline stating this. Now, he had to return to Rome and convince Dino De Laurentiis to hand over the script after already investing millions. He was confident that it would happen. Then low and behold, Dino De Laurentiis shows up giving his side of the story. What a beautiful surprise. I can’t tell you how many times I went back and rewatched scenes. This was one of them. (Spoiler Alert) So the two producers traded “La Dolce Vita” for “La grande Guerra”.. in other words, Marcello Mastroianni for Alberto Sordi, a win-win situation.

The docu-film will premiere out of competition next month at the 77th Venice Film Festival, which runs September 2-12, and will be available to stream through Festival Scope's annual Venice Sala Web. Intramovies is handling world sales. We'll keep you posted on when it will be available outside Italy. In the meantime, if you haven't seen "La Dolce Vita" yet, click on the image to stream it.

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