{"product_id":"dolce-vita-confidential-9781474606165","title":"Dolce Vita Confidential","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn exuberant history of postwar Rome, as seen through the lenses of its burgeoning filmmakers and paparazzi.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShawn Levy's \u003cb\u003efascinating\u003c\/b\u003e book takes you on a postwar tour of Rome at the birth of celebrity during the boomtime of Cinecittà, the studio responsible for the city's glory days reputation as 'Hollywood on the Tiber' ... Levy has achieved a feat in including so much in one volume - he pours a large bottle of chianti into a \u003ci\u003edigestivo \u003c\/i\u003eglass ... [A]\u003cb\u003e beautifully written walk on the wild side\u003c\/b\u003e ... [It] \u003cb\u003eoozes nostalgic glamour\u003c\/b\u003e -- Alex O'Connell * The Times Book of the Week *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe energy of 1950s Rome fizzes in this epic biography of the city at the height of its filmic glory and postwar stylishness\u003c\/b\u003e. The hub of the book is the Cinecitta studio, where stars from Hollywood and Europe worked and played, but it is beyond that complex where Levy paints his most vivid picture. Rome, as he tells it, was a place of power, sex and death - and the birthplace of the paparazzi that now dominate cultural life. His book is \u003cb\u003ea nostalgic trip with an edgy underbelly\u003c\/b\u003e - much like Rome itself, then -- Jonathan Dean * Sunday Times Stage \u0026amp; Screen Book of the Year\u003ci\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eSomething extraordinary in cultural terms happened in Italy in the postwar years, as Levy recounts with enthusiasm and colour ... [He] \u003cb\u003ec\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eaptures much of the excitement of that time and place in a prose style that is teeming with satisfying gossipy details\u003c\/b\u003e ... This book would be\u003cb\u003e just the thing to pack if you were intending a Hepburn-ish Roman holiday this summer\u003c\/b\u003e -- Bee Wilson * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eUproariously readable \u003c\/b\u003e... [Levy]\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003etells some terrific, if dreadful, stories about the convergence of noblemen and actresses ... Fans of \u003ci\u003eLa Dolce Vita \u003c\/i\u003ewill recognise many scenes from the film in these tales. Levy pulls all the threads of his story together in his discussion of the world-conquering movie. The author of \u003ci\u003eRat Pack Confidential\u003c\/i\u003e, he is\u003cb\u003e a master of the group biography\u003c\/b\u003e, pacing his chapters for maximum suspense and revelation ... \u003cb\u003eThe climactic story is a humdinger\u003c\/b\u003e ... Wickedly readable -- John Walsh * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eShawn Levy's \u003cb\u003eabsorbing, well-researched book exalts the intoxicating, beguiling dreaminess of Rome in its celluloid heyday\u003c\/b\u003e -- Ian Thomson * Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eShawn Levy has composed \u003cb\u003ean exuberant portrait of postwar Rome \u003c\/b\u003eand 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\u003cb\u003e brings an infectious and freewheeling enthusiasm to every page \u003c\/b\u003eas he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism, and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City -- Glenn Frankel, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Searchers: The Making of an American Legend\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003efantastically gossip-filled but intelligent\u003c\/b\u003e history of Italy's postwar film-making industry and the culture it spawned * Sunday Times \u003c\/i\u003eSummer Reads\u003ci\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e[A] \u003ci\u003ezabaglione \u003c\/i\u003eof a book\u003c\/b\u003e -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail \u003c\/i\u003eBook of the Week\u003ci\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eA palatable and stimulating engagement with an era that still functions as a powerful marketing tool for Italian exports ... This is \u003cb\u003ean exciting account of a revolution in art and society\u003c\/b\u003e ... Levy's snapshots of ruthless newshounds and voluble starlets show his\u003cb\u003e flair for scene-setting\u003c\/b\u003e. He takes us on \u003cb\u003ea joyride through the photoshoots and exposés that gave birth to new, competitive media\u003c\/b\u003e, and the ideas and freedom generated by democracy ... All roads led to Fellini's masterpiece of decadence, \u003ci\u003eLa Dolce Vita\u003c\/i\u003e. Levy laps up the image that encapsulated an era: the blonde goddess Anita Ekberg lifting her skirts in the ancient well-spring of the Trevi -- Lilian Pizzichini * The Spectator *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA sensational read\u003c\/b\u003e -- John Cooper Clarke * Irish Examiner \u003c\/i\u003eBooks of the Year\u003ci\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eAn \u003cb\u003eentertaining and exhaustive \u003c\/b\u003elook at the glamorous world of 'Hollywood on the Tiber'. [Levy]'s a good man for the job as it was he who wrote the much-admired \u003ci\u003eRat Pack Confidential\u003c\/i\u003e -- John Meagher * Irish Independent *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brisk, frothy narrative \u003c\/b\u003e... informative and fun -- Ben Downing * Wall Street Journal *\u003cbr\u003eAlthough it also covers the rise of Italian fashion and automobiles, the real heart of \u003ci\u003eDolce Vita Confidential\u003c\/i\u003e, Shawn Levy's account of post-war Italian culture, is pure celluloid; from the emergence of Hollywood on the Tiber (resulting in films like \u003ci\u003eRoman Holiday\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eQuo Vadis\u003c\/i\u003e) to the rise of Italian directors such as Roberto Rosselini, Michelanglo Antonioni and, the book's real hero, Federico Fellini. Levy is enamoured of Italian sixties cinema and the way it reflected and refracted Il Boom years. Fellini's \u003ci\u003eLa Dolce Vita\u003c\/i\u003e was both a response to and an advertisement for the emergence of paparazzi photographers on Via Veneto after all. But \u003cb\u003ethe pleasure of the book probably comes in the gossip\u003c\/b\u003e; here are love affairs between actresses and aristocrats, a tragic murder or two and the inevitable starry feuds -- Teddy Jamieson * The Herald \u003c\/i\u003eBest Film Books of 2017\u003ci\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eAn account of \u003cb\u003ethe life-enhancing background from which sprang the masterpieces of Italian cinema in the 1960s\u003c\/b\u003e -- Duncan Fallowell * The Spectator \u003c\/i\u003eBooks of the Year\u003ci\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eDetails the fashion and cinema of 1950s Rome - from Pucci to Peck - \u003cb\u003ewith love\u003c\/b\u003e -- Sloan Crosley * Vanity Fair *\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Orion Publishing Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739601776983,"sku":"9781474606165","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781474606165.jpg?v=1720052708","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/dolce-vita-confidential-9781474606165","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}