La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) is a sort of collection of mini-stories that revolve around the journalist Marcello. When he is only a journalist, he lives with simple pleasures, has a simple girlfriend named Emma, and pursues news stories with the same vigor and style as his fellow journalists. Eventually, however, he delves into a much wealthier lifestyle full of excitement, alcohol, sex and a lot of scandals. The bigger picture here was more than just Marcello's adventures though. It was a reflection on how monetary wealth doesn't always mean a happy life. A lot of the rich people were living the sweet life, but weren't necessarily happy. For example, Steiner's suicide and the murder of his children shows how unhappy he truly was. Essentially, the message in the movie was fame and fortune lead to sadness and corruption (of both society and the individual mind). Nino Rota's film score did the whole movie justice too...I've always been a fan of his music, especially his score for The Godfather. La Dolce Vita was long, but went by fast enough to paint the bigger picture for the audience. I can definitely see why the church banned it. Jesus wasn't the helicopter-flying type of guy...but what a great way to start this film! It set the premise up for the party environment!