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
This Is My Life (La vita) Side one of the album included only Italian songs with the exception of "La vita" which is the version with a mix of Italian and English lyrics. Side two is an edited version of the "This Is My Life" album that was released in Britain and the USA, with the addition of "To Give" which was only included in this album and on a single. Of the six songs recorded in Italian on this album only "La vita" has had a CD release. It appeared on the 1994 boxset Bassey - The EMI/UA Years 1959 - 1979. While in exile