La Dolce Vita

[poliphilo]

My friend purple_pen has a user-pic that shows Anita Ekberg- in the most famous sequence from La Dolce Vita- dancing in the Trevi fountain. Seeing this put me in mind of a poem I wrote- just after Christmas- in miserable weather-  about twelve years ago.  I called it up on screen, tinkered with it a bit and- here it is...

                                               
                                                La Dolce Vita

 

                                    Outside it’s Christmas, but on TV-

                                    For all the horror of emptiness-

                                    It's Rome and August- the lucky sods....

 

                                    …Only it wasn’t- not in good faith.

                                    Anita Ekberg has blown the gaffe.

                                    That scene where she dances in the fountain

                                    (Not incidentally the real thing

                                    But a plaster mock-up at Cinecitta)

                                    Her toes were froze; it was January.

                                    So what we're seeing ain't nature, not

                                    A top-heavy starlet prancing about

                                    In brainless abandon but actually acting-

                                    Bloody good acting too, my loves.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

(Not incidentally the real thing / But a plaster mock-up at Cinecitta)

Oh dear, I didn't know that bit! You have shattered my illusions... :-(

A lovely poem, though. By the end you had managed to make a good thing out of the artifice of the scene. I think I will see it on a different level now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Fellini rarely shot on location. The more things he had under his control the better he liked it.

[sovay]

The more things he had under his control the better he liked it.

Like post-production dialogue.

I like the poem.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Yes, that post production dialogue can be really weird. It's so obvious the lips aren't forming the words we're hearing. Apparently this didn't bother him in the least.