By Ric Erickson

Number 1.44:- Metropole Paris - Monday, 23. December 1996:- A long time ago there was a big war in Europe. It went all over the place and wrecked lives and property from one end to the other, and it lasted six long years.

When it was finished, Europe was exhausted and in ruins. Exhausted or not, Europe's people picked themselves out of the rubble, swept it aside and commenced rebuilding the whole thing, and restoring the rest. After a great many years - longer than the war itself - things started taking shape, people started having enough to eat, and then they began to have more than they could eat, and they began to live in nicer apartments than their parents had had 30 years before.

Frederico Fellini, who lived through all this, and recorded his version of it in his many films; saw a vision of the future and he made a movie about it and ironically called it, 'La Dolce Vita' - The Sweet Life.

Mr. Fellini chose Marcello Mastroianni to play the lead and between the two of them, they showed us the beginning of the end of the 'Sweet Life,' and we can see it going downhill around us every day as it drags its weary way - to whatever comes next.

That is not how it looked in 1960 when 'La Dolce Vita' first played in cinemas around the world. If we had known then what was coming - as Mr. Fellini most likely sensed - we would have known why Marcello was unhappy in his Roman post-war paradise; with his unstrenuous job as a gossip-journalist, with his beautiful girlfriends, his sporty British TR3 - how snobbish not to have had an Alfa! - and his nice but undecorated apartment.

And there was Rome too; sometimes raining, but mostly black and white and sunny. Who can forget the opening scene of the movie - of the helicopter freighting the huge statue of Jesus above the Roman rooftops - and the girls in the exciting bikinis sunbathing on the roof of an apartment building?

Then as the story progresses, the paradise begins to fade towards the future - which, I imagine - grinds to a halt sometime in the early '70's.

I have a video copy of 'La Dolce Vita' in Italian, with subtitles in French, but I do not look at it often because I memorized it the first time I saw it. I am not saying I can repeat all its scenes and dialogue from memory; I just have a memory of all of it.

Frederico Fellini died not so long ago and he made a great number of very good movies, but I think 'La Dolce Vita' was 'the' story of the end of the century, and the character Marcello, as played by Marcello, was a little bit of everybody in Europe. If Mr. Fellini was the long part of the exclamation mark, Marcello Mastroianni was the final dot, and now he is gone.

I think everybody knows that the future we had is over and the new one has not yet begun - and, for what it is worth, it explains the extraordinary homage currently being given to this Italian actor.

His death has been a non-stop item in the newspapers and on TV since the news first broke. The first 15 minutes of A2's Thursday prime-time 20:00 TV news was devoted to the story of Marcello Mastroianni life, and TV has followed his remains from his residence at 91. rue de Seine in Paris to the first public ceremony at the Saint Suplice church a few hundred metres away, to the airport in Rome, to shots of the huge crowds waiting there.

While Friday's edition of Le Parisien has two pages for Marcello, Libération has no less than the cover and five interior pages at the beginning of Friday's edition.

Your reporter went to rue de Seine on Friday - I knew Mr. Mastroianni was often in Paris, often playing in theatre pieces - but I did not know he had lived just a block from the boulevard Saint Germain, close to the Odéon intersection - in the heart of the Latin Quarter.

I also did not know I took the wrong photo. There were barricades on both sides of the street. There were bouquets of flowers by the doorway, and off to the left of it there was a visitor book to sign or leave messages in. Behind the barricade on the opposite side, there was a crowd of news cameramen and I shouldered my way in and took my shot. They were waiting for something, but I wasn't going to wait around until action commenced about 14:30.

A doorway like any other - but what I missed shooting were the paparazzi opposite it - because I was with them. Not ready to quit living 'La Dolce Vita' even though I know it is over.

Ciao, Marcello.

Last Chance: Sign Up for the Paris Marathon

The Marathon International de Paris - to be run on Sunday, 6. April 1997 - might still be taking registrations. Registrations made before 31. December 1996 cost 150 francs for residents and 220 francs or US$45 or 70 DM. After this date the rates rise to 250 francs for residents and to 370 francs - US$75, 115 DM - for visitors. There are rates for registering on the day, but entries are limited to 22,000, and if the quota is full on race day you'll be out of luck.

For information or to request an official entry form, fax to (33-1) 53 17 03 13 from outside France. In France the fax number is 01 53 17 03 13. Otherwise write to: Inscriptions A.M.S.P., 8. Rue Crozatier, 75012 Paris

Payment must accompany the registration. Elite or Preferential runners - the fastest people - must provide some sort of proof of a marathon win less than two years old.

Starting time is 9:00, someplace on the avenue des Champs Elysées, in Paris.