The good name and
dignity of the classic early-1960s film La Dolce Vita, directed by Federico Fellini, is being
stripped away by two pornographic movies using the same
name, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. International
Media Films Inc. accused New York filmmaker Andrei
Treivas Bregman of trademark and copyright
infringement for the porn films he made under his business
name, Michael Lucas. The lawsuit seeks to stop sales of the
movies, Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita Parts 1 and 2,
and to collect unspecified damages.
Bregman, who moved to the United States from
Moscow in 1997, called the lawsuit in U.S. district
court in Manhattan a joke. ''Nobody can be confused
and think they're buying Fellini's movie by buying mine,''
said Bregman, noting the name Michael Lucas was part
of his title, which otherwise means ''The Sweet Life.''
New York City-based International Media
Films said it believed the gay pornographic films,
released last month, will ''infringe, tarnish, and
dilute'' its trademark rights to the highly decorated La Dolce Vita, which won the 1961 Academy Award for
costume design and the New York Film Critics Circle Award
for best foreign film of that year.
The movie, with its famously sexy scene of Anita
Ekberg coaxing Marcello Mastroianni into the Trevi
fountain, also won the Golden Palm at Cannes. Fellini
won a lifetime achievement award in film in 1993, shortly
before his death.
International Media Films said it bought La
Dolce Vita in 2001. The film introduced the
term ''paparazzi'' as it followed the life of a
tabloid journalist who covers the show business life
of Rome while yearning to write about more serious subjects.
(Larry Neumeister, AP)
