This Federico Fellini film was notorious and shocking in the 1960s, but time has inevitably rendered it less so.

The star is Marcello Mastroianni (here as writer Marcello Rubini), who takes a trip through seedy Rome to find himself, discovering a few sexual orgies and perversions along the way.

Drink and sex are the only escapes portrayed in this amoral society, yet the result is not bleak but a beautifully constructed, polished satirical portrait of life in a big, soulless city.

Anita Ekberg and Anouk Aime also make their marks in this film which, though it often portrays depravity, is never itself cheap.