In the film that launched a thousand paparazzi, Marcello Mastroianni stars as Marcello Rubini, the original tabloid reporter determined to capture a celebrity scoop at any cost. Anita Ekberg is the quarry he chases at high speeds through the streets of Rome, though with results more pathetic than tragic. Fellini revels in the wretched excess of Marcello's life, as Marcello abandons his wife to follow Sylvia (Ekberg) through the late-night playgrounds of fashionable Rome. Neither is often without sunglasses, those magical accessories that allow a celebrity to denounce the press even as she poses for the camera, and this started a universal fad for sunglasses at night. Piero Gherardi's Academy Award-winning costumes create the perfect wrapping for Ekberg's overwhelming sexuality and Mastroianni's down-at-the-heels hedonism, and provide the entire film, particularly Fellini's signature parade of characters, the quintessential cool of Italian style.-Amy Holberg