La Dolce Vita (Classic Film Pick)

Federico Fellini's highly stylized "La Dolce Vita" won the Golden Palm at Cannes in 1960 and introduced the world to modern Rome's decadent realm of paparazzi, pseudo-intellectuals and working class individuals against an urban wasteland of rootless existence. The film marked Fellini's break from neo-realism and conventional narrative structure, and stood as a defining and incalculably influential moment in cinema. Told over a period of seven nights and seven days, the story follows suave journalist Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) as he flits between nightclubs, cafes, press conferences, churches and beds on an impotent quest for unattainable women. 'The sweet life' is shown as a hollow goal beyond the grasp even of those at its euphoric center. The satire on display is so simultaneously subtle yet blatant that the movie itself is intoxicating.