The Best Films You’ve Never Seen: La Dolce Vita (1960) by Federico Fellini

22 Jul 2025
06:00pm - 09:15pm
$10
The Capitol RMIT, 113 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Book tickets

Escape Melbourne’s winter into the glamourous excesses of 1960s Rome with Federico Fellini’s masterpiece La Dolce Vita.

This landmark work of Italian cinema follows disillusioned journalist and failing novelist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) for seven days and nights as he drifts through the Eternal City in search of the “good life”. Amidst the decadence of high society during Italy’s post-war economic boom, Marcello encounters religious spectacle, hedonistic aristocrats, fading movie stars and disaffected intelligentsia, all swept up in a milieu characterised by celebrity-obsession, spiritual emptiness, and really great parties.  

In a career-defining performance, Mastroianni leverages his legendary charm to deliver a character who yearns for a sense of meaning and purpose while he submits to the temptations of a glamourous and empty life. Infused with this tension of beautiful excess, the film’s most iconic images --a giant statue of Christ being flown over the city and actress Anita Ekberg’s audacious midnight romp in the Trevi Fountain-- are as dazzling and provocative as ever.   

Condemned by the Vatican and subjected to widespread censorship at the time of its release, La Dolce Vita was nevertheless nominated for four Academy Awards and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1960. Today it is hailed as one of the greatest films of all time and is ranked #60 in Sight and Sound’s 2022 Greatest Films of All Time poll.  

Don’t miss your chance to experience Fellini’s visionary epic on the big screen at The Capitol.

You can read more about the film on the Senses of Cinema web page.

Presented by RMIT Culture in partnership with RMIT Cinema Studies

La Dolce Vita

Country: Italy

Year: 1960

Duration: 174 minutes

Language: Italian language, English subtitles

Format: DCP

Image credit: Film still, La Dolce Vita (1960), Courtesy Janus Films.

Book tickets

Related events

VENTUROUS: Design Practice Research Futures in Architecture & Urban Design

31 Jul 2026 - 19 Sep 2026

VENTUROUS brings together the projects and design explorations of innovative contemporary architects and designers associated with the RMIT University School of Architecture & Urban Design’s groundbreaking design practice PhD program, over the last decade.

Aleksander Morris, 'Memory Tides'

25 Aug 2026 - 18 Sep 2026

'Memory Tides' is a series of paintings drawn from the artist’s family archive, using water as a metaphor for memory, movement and dislocation within the Jewish diaspora.

Stav Lampropoulou 'The Wandering Womb and Other Myths'

25 Aug 2026 - 18 Sep 2026

'The Wandering Womb and Other Myths' is an immersive exhibition that reimagines the myth of the “wandering womb” to examine and confront gendered histories that have systemically silenced women’s voices.

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

The Best Films You’ve Never Seen: La Dolce Vita (1960) by Federico Fellini