TRIUMPH TR3A

La Dolce Vita (1960)

In 1960 Federico Fellini released La Dolce Vita. To many, it is the greatest film ever made. To some, it is the greatest car film ever made. Marcello Mastroianni plays a struggling, disappointed journalist: the prototype

paparazzo. He is ineffably cool, singlehandedly calibrating this behavioural temperature range.

The quintessential scene involves a car. Anita Ekberg and Mastroianni are splashing at night in the Trevi Fountain, a symbol, very possibly, of sexual stuff to come. And they drove there not in a Lancia or a Maserati, but in a black Triumph TR3A with red upholstery, licence number ‘324229 ROMA’ on the nostalgic black plates. Mastroianni, fag hanging carelessly from his lower lip, liked the TR so much that he eventually bought one.

In other scenes, Sylvia the ‘American film star’ drives a ’58 Ford Fairlane hardtop (left), while her boyfriend is in a ’56 Corvette. Elsewhere, there is a night race between a ’58 Thunderbird and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

Everywhere in La Dolce Vita the symbolism is compelling. In the Home Counties, a TR3A would be driven to a Surrey pub by men with a taste for G’n’T, loose underwear and approximate dental hygiene. But in Fellini’s Rome, the Triumph symbolises ‘rebellious outsider’. And the American cars? To Fellini they represent exotic, louche sophistication. Possibly even depravity. Certainly, they establish a competition between New World Hollywood and Old World Cinecittà in this most brilliantly disturbing film.