Anita Ekberg: The actor who “electrified” Roger Ebert: “I had lust in my heart”
Throughout his extraordinary career as perhaps one of the most significant film critics in the history of cinema, Roger Ebert cast his eyes upon scores after scores of actors, many of whom would have invariably taken his eye, not only for their remarkable acting talent but for their striking on-screen beauty too.
Interestingly, Ebert once openly picked the actor who awoke his lustful energy as a young man. With a commendable eye for detail when it came to reviewing films, in his early days as a cinephile, he couldn’t help but be caught up in the rapture of sexuality, even when trying his hardest to concentrate on the narrative and production of a given project.
Like anyone with even a remote interest in cinema, Ebert has had to face up to the question of what his favourite movie of all time is. When asked in 2008, Ebert admitted that he could pick the last movie he watched by the likes of Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Yasujirō Ozu, or any other on a short list of acclaimed directors.
Hard pressed for an answer, though, Ebert went for a classic by Federico Fellini, the Italian director’s 1960 satirical comedy-drama La Dolce Vita. Marcello Mastroianni stars as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who makes his way through Rome in search of love, happiness and the “sweet life” over the course of seven days and nights.
Remembering the first time he ever saw Fellini’s movie as an adolescent, the film represented all he had dreamed about: the sweet life and the portrayal that Mastroianni gave in its pursuit. “Exotic European glamour, sin, the weary romance of the cynical newspaperman,” Ebert pointed out.
However, while Mastroianni had certainly drawn Ebert’s cerebral and emotional attention, his physical attention was dominated by Anita Ekberg. She is fantastic as Sylvia Rank, a famous Swedish-American actress whom Marcello spends a night with in Rome, wading into the Trevi Fountain at one moment.
The first moment Ebert saw La Dolce Vita, he had “lust in his heart”.
“Anita Ekberg electrified me,” the writer admitted, “and I was inflamed by the wild party at the end.” As Ebert grew older, his attention shifted more to Marcello, but as an adolescent, he was focused solely on the beauty of Ekberg.
In his review for La Dolce Vita, dating from right back in 1961, Ebert wrote, “The greatest surprise – and one of the greatest successes – in the film is the Swedish sex goddess Anita Ekberg, cast as a ‘typical’ American motion picture star. She plays the part with a wild, unthinking abandon which far surpasses her previous roles in ‘B’ pictures designed primarily to exploit her impressive physical attributes.”
Evidently, there was a youthful lust within Ebert for Ekberg, who made her film debut in the 1953 work Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. It was her role in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita that saw Ekberg eternally write herself into the history of cinema, and she gave a truly unforgettable performance, certainly in the eyes of young Ebert.
Interestingly, Ekberg claimed that Fellini owed his success to her rather than the other way around. Following La Dolce Vita, Ekberg enjoyed a five-decade career with several performances in both European and American productions, most of which might have been watched by a fanciful writer for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Watch a clip from Fellini’s masterpiece below.