La Dolce Vita describe intrusive photographers. As to the origin of the character's name itself, Fellini scholar Peter Bondanella argues that although "it is indeed an Italian family name, the word is probably a corruption of the word "papataceo", a large and bothersome mosquito. Ennio Flaiano, the film's co-screenwriter and creator of Paparazzo, reports that he took the name from a character in a novel by George Gissing." Gissing's character, Signor Paparazzo, is found in his travel book, "By the Ionian Sea" (1901). Marcello is a journalist in Rome during the late 1950s who covers tabloid news of movie stars, religious visions and
La Dolce Vita dawn. Also employed as an ordering device is the image of a downward spiral that Marcello sets in motion when descending the first of several staircases (including ladders) that open and close episodes. The upshot is that the film's aesthetic form, rather than its content, embodies the theme of Rome as a moral wasteland. Writing for "L'Espresso", the Italian novelist Alberto Moravia highlighted the film's variations in tone, In "Filmcritica XI", Italian poet and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini argued that ""La Dolce Vita" was too important to be discussed as one would normally discuss a film. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, film