anita ekberg danced

Thanks to a northern exposure the first snow of the season that fell earlier this week is still covering my front lawn. I had expected it to be gone by the end of Wednesday, but yet it still lingers in the places hidden from the sun. Personally I prefer to see the snow on the ground instead of the dead grass. All of that white makes the cold more tolerable for some reason. Maybe it makes the landscape seem less dead by covering over the decay of fall with a blanket of white. Plus it adds something to the holiday season if nothing else. A manger scene or even an inflated plastic snowman on a field of white is more pleasing to the eye than one surrounded by a pile of dead leaves.

...

Early this morning I watched the three hour Italian epic La Dolce Vita for the very first time and I'm not sure what to think about it. Now this wasn't my first time seeing a Fellini film so I knew that it would take some effort on my part to understand, but that doesn't lessen my initial confusion. As with any Fellini film there were beautiful women, dancing, music and not much of a plot. I would have a very hard time trying to explain the movie to anyone who hadn't seen it.

From skimming a few reviews online, I've come to understand that there are seven nights in the film and some say that are symbolic of the seven deadly sins. Without having read the reviews, I never would have reached that conclusion. Oh, I knew that there was more than one night in the film, but I didn't see anything linking them together except for the main character of Marcello. What I got out of the film was that these people lived for excess, but nothing else was that clear to me.

To add to my questions, there was one part of the film that didn't seem to belong with the rest of the sexual exploits. Without any warning we the viewer see two small children, a boy and a girl, who say that they have seen the Madonna and suddenly the media and the public descend on them for their own reasons. Photographers and the ill circle round the pair waiting for something miraculous to happen and are only met with disappointment. A downpour brings an end to the odd ritual and left me wondering what it was supposed to mean. Was it a condemnation of the Catholic Church or how people are desperate to find some kind of meaning in life?

 
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