Dolce Vita Confidential
Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
SUNDAY TIMES FILM BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Uproariously readable ... Levy is a master of the group biography' Sunday Times
'Teeming with satisfying gossipy details' Guardian
'Exalts the intoxicating, beguiling dreaminess of Rome in its celluloid heyday' TLS
1950s Rome. From the ashes of war, the Eternal City is reborn as the epicentre of film, style and boldfaced libertinism. Movie stars including Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor flock to Cinecittà studio and mix with blue bloods and bohemians at the bars on Via Veneto, while behind them trail street photographers in pursuit of the most unflattering and dramatic portraits of fame.
In a fast-paced, kaleidoscopic narrative, Shawn Levy recreates Rome's ascent with compelling tales of its glitterati and artists, down to every last outrageous detail of the city's magnificent transformation into 'Hollywood on the Tiber'.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fast-paced, detailed study, film critic Levy (Rat Pack Confidential) turns his attention to Rome in the 1950s and '60s a city that, he argues, became the standard for every other cultural hub in the world. This is a grandiose claim, but Levy successfully supports it. He begins with an eclectic portrait of Rome's rise out of the ashes of WWII into a metropolis: its cafes brimming with artists and writers, its cinema industry swelling from the elaborate patronage under Mussolini, and, in the middle of it all, the emergence of a new professional group, the paparazzi. The occasionally overwrought tone of Levy's prose is mitigated by his obvious enthusiasm for his subject and the sheer breadth of information. Levy moves from homicide investigations to the history of "Hollywood on the Tiber," and with the legendary Federico Fellini as a through-line, this becomes a fascinating look at decades of Italian cultural history. Eight pages of photos.
