New from The Movie Snob:

La Dolce Vita (B). Or, as the ticket-selling guy helpfully translated for me, The Sweet Life. The 1961 Fellini classic is back in theaters, so I took advantage of the opportunity to see it on the big screen last night. Make no mistake, this 3-hour Italian film is l-o-n-g, but I really didn’t mind for at least the first 2 and a quarter hours or so. It is the story of Marcello, a journalist approaching middle age whose specialty is writing about the rich and famous for the scandal sheets. (The milieu and themes reminded me a lot of the recent Bright Young Things.) His job requires him to spend a lot of time hanging out with the beautiful people at parties and nightclubs, much to the displeasure of his clingy and unstable fiancee, Emma. Marcello is vaguely aware of and disquieted by the shallowness of his existence, but he doesn’t seem to struggle very strongly against it. As time goes by and one party blurs into the next, he succumbs more and more to the idleness and debauchery that surrounds him. Can he break through the fog of alcohol and cigarette smoke to a more worthwhile existence? And is it worth three hours of your life to find out? I think so, but you be the judge.