La Dolce Vita - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

The film has influenced or else been referenced in contemporary films, television shows, and songs. In Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), Kelly's interview for LIT resembles Sylvia's interview scenes in La dolce vita. Charlotte and Bob later meet in the middle of the night and watch the famous Trevi Fountain sequence while drinking sake. Coppola said, "I saw that movie on TV when I was in Japan. It's not plot-driven, it's about them wandering around. And there was something with the Japanese subtitles and them speaking Italian - it had a truly enchanting quality". Steve Martin's L.A. Story (1991) opens with a hotdog stand dangling under a helicopter passing by a roof-top pool with the sunbathing women waving as it passes, a reference to the opening scene of a statue of Christ being carried into the Vatican in La dolce vita. In Goodbye Lenin (2003), directed by Wolfgang Becker, a statue of Lenin is flown across Berlin, recalling the opening scene of Fellini's film. The title of Korean film, A Bittersweet Life (2005), is a pun on the English translation of La dolce vita ("The Sweet Life") and the restaurant that the protagonist enforces for the mob is called La Dolce Vita. The two protagonists of Marcos Carnevale's Elsa y Fred (2005) recreate the scene in the Fontana di Trevi performed originally by Ekberg and Mastroianni while in Simon Pegg's How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008), Alison (Kirsten Dunst) cites La dolce vita as her favourite movie. Fellini's film is later shown playing on a large, outdoor cinema screen. In the Daria episode "Fire", Daria is quoted saying "watching a dead fish wash up on shore always puts me in a good mood" in reference to recommending the film earlier in the episode. Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998) is a New York-set re-working of La dolce vita with Kenneth Branagh taking up Mastroianni's role, and Goldie Hawn and Charlize Theron taking on the roles held by Anouk Aimée and Anita Ekberg, respectively.

Comediennes Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders drew from La dolce vita (among other Fellini films) for an episode of their television series, French & Saunders. Entitled "Franco E Sandro", the episode parodied the surreal motifs in Fellini's films, including replacing the flight of the Christ statue with a statue of Madonna. In the episode "Marco Polo" of the TV series The Sopranos, Junior Soprano falls asleep watching La dolce vita. When Bobby Baccalieri enters the room, Junior wakes up and comments on the statue of Christ hanging from the helicopter saying, "You can tell it's fake." Homer Simpson dresses for his date with Marge in "Some Enchanted Evening" while humming the theme from La dolce vita.

Steiner's pessimistic speech about the future is quoted in an English translation in the song "The Certainty of Chance" by The Divine Comedy from their 1998 album Fin de Siècle. It is the speech that begins, "Sometimes at night the darkness and silence frightens me. Peace frightens me. I feel it's only a facade, hiding the face of hell." Fashion model and singer Christa Päffgen, who adopted the pseudonym of Nico and later performed with The Velvet Underground before pursuing a solo career, plays herself in the "party of the nobles" scene. Adriano Celentano, who later became famous in Italy as a singer and actor, appears in the scene in the pseudo-ancient Roman nightclub, where Marcello makes his first advances to Sylvia. Bob Dylan's "Motorpsycho Nitemare" from Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) references the title of the film as does Blondie's "Pretty Baby" from Parallel Lines (1978).

Tributes to Fellini in the "Director's Cut" of Cinema Paradiso (1988) include a helicopter suspending a statue of Christ over the city and scenes in which the Trevi Fountain is used as a backdrop while Toto, the main character, grows up to be a famous film director.

The 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun has a tribute to the famous scene in the Trevi Fountain. One of the characters (Catherine), dances in a fountain in a manner reminiscent of Anita Ekberg's scene.