About Fellini, she said "they would like to keep up the story that Fellini made me famous, Fellini discovered me... So many have said they discovered me.'' She said she stood out in Italy, because she was blonde:
"On the Piazza di Spagna, in the 50's, I was completely mashed by paparazzi. And the public. My blond hair.... Now everybody is blond here. Have you seen a news presenter on television that is not blond? I mean, there are more blondes here, especially on Italian television, than in the whole of Scandinavia. Really. And they are all dark Mediterranean. But they all want to bleach their hair. Blond, blond, blond.''Everyone wants to talk about her splashing in that fountain:
''Oh my God, her splendor was incredible, her outsized, totally exaggerated beauty,'' Tullio Kezich, a well-known Italian film critic and Fellini biographer, recalled.... "She was a horse. She plunged into that cold fountain in 'La Dolce Vita' without hesitation or a fuss. She was so Swedish and healthy; she never caught cold. Marcello was terrorized at the idea of getting wet.''But I think of the image of her strolling aimlessly with a little white kitten carried on her head:
In real life, it was a dog — one of her Great Danes — that brought her down, breaking her hip, leaving her in a wheelchair. And now she has died, at the age of 83 — the most wonderful woman, born beautiful, Anita Ekberg.
And 1965 — the year when, in the reasoning of "La Dolce Vita," we would descend into total depravity — is half a century ago.
ADDED: 4 more things about Anita Ekberg.
1. She's important to me as the first of the icons of feminine beauty in my father's record collection, deeply embedded in my psyche:
2. "A really cool thing about the movie ['Divorce Italian Style'] is that at one point everyone in town — a small, claustrophobic place in Sicily — goes to see the movie 'La Dolce Vita.' 'La Dolce Vita' came out in 1961, one year before 'Divorce Italian Style.' We see the whole population of the small town watching Anita Ekberg on the big screen, and we never see Marcello Mastroianni as he appears in Roman form in 'La Dolce Vita.' We just see the Sicilian Marcello Mastroianni, in the audience, trying to work out his miserable little murder scheme." That's from a 2005 post of mine called "The attorney ... was brilliant, impassioned and sarcastic...."
3."The telephone rang, it would not stop, it was President Kennedy calling me up. He said, 'My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?' I said, 'My friend, John, Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren.'" At least we still have Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren.
4. Only last November, I transcribed a dialogue that began with MEADE: "I just watched a movie called 'Valerie.' Starring Anita Ekberg. What rock star was she married to?" ME: "No. No. No. You're thinking of Britt Ekland." MEADE: "It had everything: betrayal, justice, frontier justice..."
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26 comments:
Total depravity in 1965, ha!
Miley Cyrus blows that prediction out of the water!
A "fellini" = kinky sex with kitty porn.
She was made famous by playing Queen Na-Eela in Gold of the Amazon Women.
"And 1965... is half a century ago."
Pessimists are usually right, but always too optimistic in their timing.
"By 1965 there'll be total depravity. How squalid everything will be."
Well, I was born that year...
In 1965 Roman Polanski made the film "Repulsion". Squalid hallucinations, despair.
From Wiki: "When he first propositions (Carol), then sexually assaults her, she gets away. But he comes at her again and she slashes him to death with a straight razor."
In 1968 Polanski married Sharon Tate.
In 1969 Sharon Tate, among others, were murdered by the Manson Family, many by knives.
The Sixties all lead to Manson: all of it.
I am Laslo.
Virna Lisi, Mary Ann Mobley, Rod Taylor, Donna Douglas...
All within a month's time.
That whole generation is going.
Take the Sixties and play 'six degrees of separation' with Charles Manson.
Everything fits: everything.
An easy one: Bill Ayers.
I am Laslo.
My older son was born that year. I didm;t have time for the "sixties" because I was too busy as a medical student.
"On the Piazza di Spagna, in the 50's, I was completely mashed by paparazzi. "
And, of course, La Dolce Vita is where the term "paparazzi" originated - in the form of the photographer named "Paparazzo."
Saw this film years ago at the AFI in Washington, DC. Boy, was that a long, long movie, Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain notwithstanding.
The subplot with Alain Cuny was totally heartbreaking.
Compatibility of Federico Fellini with Charles Manson
Physical 89% Emotional 88% Intellectual 94% Overall 90%
My point, proven by Science.
I am Laslo.
I saw that BBC had stated, "Considering that La Dolce Vita gave rise to the term paparazzo, it was ironic that the movie resulted in Ekberg being hounded by the press herself." so it also has another Meadhouse connection with Meade's blogging site of The Puparazzo!
Compatibility of John Lennon with Charles Manson
Physical 91% Emotional 95% Intellectual 25% Overall 70%
Emotional 95%: peas in a pod. Lennon imagined; Charlie acted.
I am Laslo.
Compatibility of Bob Dylan with Charles Manson
Physical 69% Emotional 78% Intellectual 57% Overall 68%
I thought Althouse might like this one better: only 78%, emotionally.
I guess that is why the "Helter Skelter" plan involved no Dylan references.
I am Laslo.
Ann i can't believe you missed the dylan connection.
I think on the Another Side slbum but can't remember the song
Been meaning to see C'eravamo tanto amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much), directed by Ettore Scola.
At one point, the main characters observe the filming of the Trevi Fountain scene from La Dolce Vita.
Like I said, I haven't seen the movie, but thanks to the magic of YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeRoOFu1m9M
Some of this album covers look "photoshopped".
Look at the second Janye Mansfield album cover in the red dress, under her right armpit.
What is it? Is it a side boob with cleavage both front and back? Is she a hunch-back?
"Some of this album covers look "photoshopped"."
Retouching of photos was a much trickier art form before the advent of Photoshop; some were better at it than others.
The Soviets had some that were skilled at the artistry.
I am Laslo.
MEADE: "I just watched a movie called 'Valerie.' Starring Anita Ekberg. What rock star was she married to?" ME: "No. No. No. You're thinking of Britt Ekland." MEADE: "It had everything: betrayal, justice, frontier justice..."
Meade may be thinking of Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richard's long time girlfriend.
"Saw this film years ago at the AFI in Washington, DC. Boy, was that a long, long movie, Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain notwithstanding."
Yeah, it is hard to endure! I have the DVD, and I have started it, loved it, but then had to stop, meaning to continue later, then years go by....
It's pretty episodic, so you really could just watch one scene at a time. I've had that idea, but still haven't carried it out.
It's kind of like my Gatsby project. I love Gatsby in the forum of reading one sentence really closely, but only one sentence at a time. Consider it a rich treat. Don't try to eat a whole box of chocolate truffles in one go.
Britt Ekland was married to Peter Sellers for a time.
Early 70s I remember a San Antonio network affiliate running 'La Dolce Vita' on the 'Saturday Afternoon Movie', dubbed in English. Any other weekend it would have been 'Wuthering Heights' or 'Zabriskie Point' or the Spaghetti Westerns. Back then only ABC carried the regular season college football.
It ran right after Saturday Morning Cartoons concluded, which was why I caught it. Movie went right over my head, but I remember the women's sunglasses and the dance scenes and learned how to pronounce "Marcello Mastroianni".
Good times.
In one of his later films, I can't recall the name, Fellini cast her to play herself. She had gotten very fat. It didn't look all that bad on her. She seemed to enjoy life, and the extra pounds were due to the fact that food tastes very good rather than due to any emotional need. Still, it was very poignant to see her looking fat. Life is ephemeral. That's wrenching enough, but beauty passes even more quickly.....I always liked Marcello Mastroianni, and the distanced way he observed the events. He could look bored in an interesting way. "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman pass by."
Anita Vanpallenberg?
God, what a bloated drug-ridden monster she turned into. Would've killed for her in the early 60s tho..
I remember viewing Divorce Italian Style at the old Varsity Theater just off LSU's campus circa 63/64 shortly after it came out. For come reason it seemed to have had a bigger impact among my crowd than did La Dolce Vita made a year prior.
Older people should not own large dogs. Just sayin".
"In one of his later films, I can't recall the name, Fellini cast her to play herself. She had gotten very fat. It didn't look all that bad on her. She seemed to enjoy life, and the extra pounds were due to the fact that food tastes very good rather than due to any emotional need. Still, it was very poignant to see her looking fat. Life is ephemeral. That's wrenching enough, but beauty passes even more quickly.....I always liked Marcello Mastroianni, and the distanced way he observed the events. He could look bored in an interesting way. "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman pass by.""
That's a great movie!
I talk about it in this 2004 post: "I think we can see what kind of inspiration Dylan got from 'La Dolce Vita.' He thought Anita Ekberg was fabulous. And she was. More subtly fabulous is Marcello Mastroianni, who is reunited with Ekberg, much older, in 'Intervista.' There is a really nice little documentary about him called 'I Remember.' He's really quite hilarious. I recommend staring at his face the entire time he's on screen."
The Dylan reference there is to "Motorpsycho Nightmare": "Then in comes his daughter/Whose name was Rita/She looked like she stepped out of/La Dolce Vita." That's in addition to Dylan lyric where she is named, quoted in today's post, which is"I Shall Be Free."
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