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DOLCE VITA CONFIDENTIAL

Shawn Levy

Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome

When Fellini and Farrari, the Jet Set and Mastroianni, Pucci, Gucci, and Loren, Liz and Dick and the Paparazzi all made Rome go Boom!
Sometimes it all comes together: style and substance, passion and fashion, giant ambitions and little bits of daily life, reputation and reality. Rome in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the era of La Dolce Vi- ta, was one such time. And the story of what happened there, how it came about, and where all that energy, spectacle, and sparkle eventually went is a narrative of the Eternal City that has never been fully told. In the decade after the end of World War II, Italy—and, especially, Rome—morphed, in the world’s imagination, from a grim and gritty neorealist tableaux of post-war privation to a glamorous banquet of sex, fashion, creative energy, and shattered taboos. This is a story about how a nation and its capital emerged from a decade of war—both global and civil—and, amidst the loss and rubble and pain, gave rise to the contemporary mélange of glitter, scandal, commerce, style, and sensation that we recognize as “popular culture,” of how the city of the Caesars and the Popes and the Blackshirts managed to galvanize the world’s attention as a showcase of elegance and sophistication that would come to define our current notion of mo- dernity. Shawn Levy is the author of seven books, including the New York Times bestsellers RAT PACK CONFIDENTIAL and PAUL NEWMAN: A Life , and a former film critic for the Oregonian. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, and The Independent, among others. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he reviews movies on KGW-TV.
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Published 2016-10-04 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Shawn Levy has composed an exuberant portrait of postwar Rome and the filmmakers, movie stars, fashion designers, journalists, and paparazzi whose supreme hunger, energy, and creativity transformed it into the most stylish city in the world. He brings an infectious and freewheeling enthusiasm to every page as he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism, and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City.

UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Dolce Vita Confidential is so much fun that after a few pages you’ll want to set it aside, tie on a chic little scarf, jump on a Vespa, and cry 'ciao' as you buzz past corner cafes and flower stands.

An eclectic portrait of Rome’s rise out of the ashes of WWII into a metropolis….a fascinating look at decades of Italian cultural history.

An enjoyable and informative read about an exciting and colorful period in Roman history and the history of popular culture.

Over 400 spirited and frothy pages, [Levy] carries us on a speedy Vespa ride....the book delights.

Levy’s research is deep and his details are revealing....[he] chronicles Fellini and Mastroianni’s collaboration with insight and affection.

Levy's spirited history is nothing less than a love letter to Rome's luxurious, sensational past.