I first saw La Dolce Vida in 1960 when it was first released, at a theater in Washington DC -- According to my then college roommate, the theater is still on Connecticut Ave, NW and is still called The Uptown -- I was not yet 20, and fresh from a small town in Western NY -- It made a great impression on me, and I suppose a realization that I wasn't in Kansas anymore -- Imagery from this film pops into my mind at the oddest moments --
I notice now that a gay couple is prominent at one of the last party scenes, a rarity in film for the time - I doubt that I picked up on it back in circa 1960.
This film is long - nearly three hours. What struck me this viewing, some 60 years after the first, was "Why did Fellini spend so much time on these people their superficiality and hedonism?" There was no one who I found sympathy for, except for the father of Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni), who wants to get out-of-town and out of Marcello's lifestyle as fast as he can. I am also reminded of the club life in the City of the 70s, epitomized by Studio 54.