La Dolce Vita (Criterion Collection) (DVD)

The biggest hit from the most popular Italian filmmaker of all time, LA DOLCE VITA rocketed Federico Fellini (8 1/2) to international mainstream success - ironically, by offering a damning critique of the culture of stardom. A look at the darkness beneath the seductive lifestyles of Rome's rich and glamorous, the film follows a notorious celebrity journalist - played by a sublimely cool Marcello Mastroianni (8 1/2) - during a hectic week spent on the peripheries of the spotlight. This mordant picture was an incisive commentary on the deepening decadence of the European 1960s, and it provided a prescient glimpse of just how gossip and fame-obsessed our society would become.