Marcello Mastroianni uncredited extra in "Marionette" (1939) when he was fourteen, and made intermittent minor film appearances until landing his first big role in "Atto d'accusa" (1951). Within a decade he became a major international celebrity, starring in "Big Deal on Madonna Street" (1958); and in Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" opposite Anita Ekberg in 1960, where he played a disillusioned and self-loathing tabloid columnist who spends his days and nights exploring Rome's high society. Mastroianni followed "La Dolce Vita" with another signature role, that of a film director who, amidst self-doubt and troubled love affairs, finds himself in a creative block
La Dolce Viva dishes in the sink, food on the counter and stacks of old magazines and papers. Along with Andy Warhol's apartment and Viva's apartment, "La Dolce Viva" also takes place in Max's Kansas City, a restaurant where the models, actresses, and Warhol were treated like celebrities. Viva's character is introduced to readers as an actress in Andy Warhol's movies and later, readers find out that she is a model who influences the fashion industry. Goldsmith uses questions that lead to showing Viva's promiscuous side and her dependency on a male figure. Viva is quoted saying "I slept with him for security