COLLECTOR'S BOOK
This 40 page collector's booklet includes an essay by Italian cinema and Fellini expert Peter Bondanella (author of Italian Cinema: From Neorealist to the Present).
EXCERPT
Production on La Dolce Vita began on March 16, 1959. The first scene, Sylvia's ascent to the top of St. Peter's dome up a circular staircase, was reconstructed in Cinecittà's Theatre 14. Immediately following this on April 1 - 3, Fellini shot Sylvia's famous bath in the Trevi Fountain (this time the real fountain, not a studio reconstruction). Fellini and his brilliant set designer Piero Gherardi (who justly won an Oscar® for his costume design and was also nominated unsuccessfully for his set design as well) alternated real locations (the heritage of Italian neorealism, a decisive moment in Italian film history to which Fellini made major contributions as a scriptwriter) with stupendous studio creations. Thus, the famous Via Veneto was rebuilt in Theatre 5 (today renamed Theatre Fellini after the director’s death in 1993 because his work was so closely identified with it), just as St. Peter's staircase was. The viewer may not notice it, but the street in the film is completely flat, while the actual Via Veneto is a street that runs up a relatively steep hill. However, other sets were authentic locations in and around Rome, such as the castle outside Rome where the world-weary aristocrats gather. This was actually a real palace in Bassano di Sutri belonging to the Odescalchi family, one of Rome's oldest noble families. Shooting was wrapped up on August 27, 1959, and the film was premiered in Rome on February 3, 1960 and opened in Milan two days later.