Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome

by Shawn Levy Narrated by P.J. Ochlan

Overview

From the ashes of World War II, Rome was reborn as the epicenter of film, fashion, creative energy, tabloid media, and bold-faced libertinism that made "Italian" a global synonym for taste, style, and flair. A confluence of cultural contributions created a bright, burning moment in history: it was the heyday of fashion icons such as Pucci and Brioni. Rome's huge movie studio, Cinecitta, attracted a dizzying array of stars, from Charleton Heston, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra to that stunning and combustible couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.



Fashionistas, exiles, moguls, and martyrs flocked to Rome hoping for a chance to experience and indulge in the glow of old money, new stars, fast cars, wanton libidos, and brazen news photographers. The scene was captured nowhere better than in Federico Fellini's masterpiece, La Dolce Vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni and the Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg.



Gossipy, colorful, and richly informed, Dolce Vita Confidential re-creates Rome's stunning ascent with vivid and compelling tales of its glitterati and artists, down to every last outrageous detail of the city's magnificent transformation.

Editorial Reviews

Portland Tribune

"Dolce Vita Confidential is so much fun that after a few pages you’ll want to set it aside, tie on a chic little scarf, jump on a Vespa, and cry 'ciao' as you buzz past corner cafes and flower stands."

Vanity Fair

"Details the fashion and cinema of 1950s Rome—from Pucci to Peck—with love."

The Times Literary Supplement

"Levy’s absorbing, well-researched book exalts the intoxicating, beguiling dreaminess of Rome in its celluloid heyday."

The Portland Tribune

"Dolce Vita Confidential is so much fun that after a few pages you’ll want to set it aside, tie on a chic little scarf, jump on a Vespa, and cry ‘ciao’ as you buzz past corner cafés and flower stands."

Times Literary Supplement

"Levy's absorbing, well-researched book exalts the intoxicating, beguiling dreaminess of Rome in its celluloid heyday."

The Wall Street Journal

"In a brisk, frothy narrative....Levy has a passion for mid-century Italian cinema and is at his best when writing about its giants."

Glenn Frankel

"Shawn Levy has composed an exuberant portrait of postwar Rome and the filmmakers, movie stars, fashion designers, journalists, and paparazzi whose supreme hunger, energy, and creativity transformed it into the most stylish city in the world. He brings an infectious and freewheeling enthusiasm to every page as he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism, and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City."

Newsday

"Levy’s research is deep and his details are revealing. . . . [He] chronicles Fellini and Mastroianni’s collaboration with insight and affection."

The Guardian

"Levy captures much of the excitement of that time and place in a prose style that is teeming with satisfying gossipy details."

Toronto Globe and Mail

"Comprehensive and exuberant."

The Sunday Times

"Uproariously readable....[Levy] tells some terrific, if dreadful, stories about the convergence of noblemen and actresses....He is a master of the group biography, pacing his chapters for maximum suspense and revelation....The climactic story is a humdinger....Wickedly readable."

The Spectator

"An exciting account of a revolution in art and society."

Portland Mercury

"Over 400 spirited and frothy pages, [Levy] carries us on a speedy Vespa ride....the book delights."

From the Publisher

"Levy's spirited history is nothing less than a love letter to Rome's luxurious, sensational past." ---Kirkus

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"Levy's spirited history is nothing less than a love letter to Rome's luxurious, sensational past." —Kirkus

Kirkus Reviews

2016-07-19
A cultural history reveals an effervescent decade of riches in postwar Rome.In this ebullient tour of Rome in the 1950s, film critic and celebrity biographer Levy (De Niro: A Life, 2014, etc.) portrays the city as a burgeoning center of fashion, photography, and, especially, movies. The star of the book—and the most glittering star to emerge from the period—is Sophia Loren, “the greatest living vessel of any number of traits associated with Italy: sensuality, practicality, endurance, glamour, an ironic sense of humor, a zest for the simple pleasures of life.” At first sight, gushes the author, Loren stood out as “one of those superhuman creatures known as movie stars.” Loren, though, is not alone in meriting Levy’s attention. The author traces Federico Fellini’s career from the time he was a journalist to his triumphs as a director, focusing on the conception, casting, and filming of the controversial La Dolce Vita (1960), starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, and 8 ½ (1963), the film that “mixed dream and nightmare and fantasy and real life,” and which some critics deemed the director’s masterpiece. Others colorfully portrayed in Levy’s large cast include actresses Anna Magnani, Gina Lollobrigida (beautiful, but hardly comparable to Loren), Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, and Audrey Hepburn; directors Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, and Pier Paolo Pasolini; fashion designers Emilio Pucci, Simonetta, and Valentino; and assorted playboys such as Porfirio Rubirosa, who frequented the posh clubs and restaurants on the Via Veneto. That street, and the Trevi Fountain, in which Ekberg famously cooled her feet, mark two of the only sites that Levy describes; physical Rome recedes as he focuses on personalities, careers, and piles of celebrity gossip. To that end, he follows the careers of Rome’s famous photographers, dubbed paparazzi after Fellini portrayed them in La Dolce Vita as “a writhing, snapping, shouting mass.” Levy’s spirited history is nothing less than a love letter to Rome’s luxurious, sensational past.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170312955
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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