The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza)
Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Written by: Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello
Starring: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Luca Marinelli, Vernon Dobtcheff, Giovanna Vignola, Isabella Ferrari
Comedy/Drama - 142 min
Written by: Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello
Starring: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Luca Marinelli, Vernon Dobtcheff, Giovanna Vignola, Isabella Ferrari
Comedy/Drama - 142 min
The protagonist in The Great Beauty observes actions only a writer would notice while walking around Rome. He sees a nun half-hidden up a ladder picking oranges from a tree, instead of watching the boat motor past he watches a lone man on the top deck watch him back, and from his bed, he serenely gazes at the blue sea and the sun reflecting off the water on his blank, white ceiling. Our writer easily identifies the Roman trends, currents, motivations, and secrets and revels in them. He is the essential man about town.
Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) may be the most famous person in Rome. He knows everybody, he lives in an apartment overlooking the Coliseum, and just turning 65, his daily walks around the city are turning a bit more contemplative and nostalgic than they used to be. Jep is a journalist whose only novel published 40 years ago remains a conversation topic, mostly spurring the inevitable question, “Why didn’t you write another one?”
The Great Beauty is comprised of a series of episodes as characters float in and out of Jep’s sphere. Some are recurring and some only stop by once. Where there is a lack of a central plot there are dozens of high society conversations in its place. Many of these border on blatant pretension that the film seems well aware of. My favorite example is what should be a simple music dialogue sufficing as small talk almost turns into a farce: “Do you like the jazz? Not really, the only interesting jazz right now is Ethiopian.”
If you feel like you’ve seen aspects of The Great Beauty before, you’ve seen a Federico Fellini film or three. Director Paolo Sorrentino does not look back in time as much as Fellini’s 8 ½, but there are a few flashbacks concerning Jep’s first love and her recent passing; an effective stimulus to start thinking about one’s own mortality. The past is fleeting though; this movie is all about the hedonistic present. The Great Beauty owes more to La Dolce Vita, not because our hero is a journalist, but because the film chronicles a specific time and place in Rome. It is easy to connect the dots between these salacious rooftop parties of the elite and the stories of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous bacchanals.
Beautifully shot, the camera at times is manic and quick cutting during the frequent galas. The camera swoops into close-ups on reveling, drunk faces while throbbing techno music pounds in the background. This is not taken to the extreme Baz Luhrmann level of intensity, but it is amusing to watch sexagenarians gyrate on top of bars. For scenes in and amongst Rome’s famous architecture, the camera is more respectful as it glides along just as a meandering tourist would gaping up in awe at the structures towering over it.
Nominated for this year’s Best Foreign Film Academy Award and the winner of this category at the Golden Globes, The Great Beauty is a feast for the eyes and ears. Mind you, it is not for everyone. Even if your significant other claims they love foreign and art house cinema, tread carefully, you get vignettes and juicy, high-minded intellectualism at the expense of structure and coherence. However, every audience member will enjoy an extended tour of Rome they do not see on the tourist path; here is a slice of Italy to be savored and discussed, not gulped.
Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) may be the most famous person in Rome. He knows everybody, he lives in an apartment overlooking the Coliseum, and just turning 65, his daily walks around the city are turning a bit more contemplative and nostalgic than they used to be. Jep is a journalist whose only novel published 40 years ago remains a conversation topic, mostly spurring the inevitable question, “Why didn’t you write another one?”
The Great Beauty is comprised of a series of episodes as characters float in and out of Jep’s sphere. Some are recurring and some only stop by once. Where there is a lack of a central plot there are dozens of high society conversations in its place. Many of these border on blatant pretension that the film seems well aware of. My favorite example is what should be a simple music dialogue sufficing as small talk almost turns into a farce: “Do you like the jazz? Not really, the only interesting jazz right now is Ethiopian.”
If you feel like you’ve seen aspects of The Great Beauty before, you’ve seen a Federico Fellini film or three. Director Paolo Sorrentino does not look back in time as much as Fellini’s 8 ½, but there are a few flashbacks concerning Jep’s first love and her recent passing; an effective stimulus to start thinking about one’s own mortality. The past is fleeting though; this movie is all about the hedonistic present. The Great Beauty owes more to La Dolce Vita, not because our hero is a journalist, but because the film chronicles a specific time and place in Rome. It is easy to connect the dots between these salacious rooftop parties of the elite and the stories of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous bacchanals.
Beautifully shot, the camera at times is manic and quick cutting during the frequent galas. The camera swoops into close-ups on reveling, drunk faces while throbbing techno music pounds in the background. This is not taken to the extreme Baz Luhrmann level of intensity, but it is amusing to watch sexagenarians gyrate on top of bars. For scenes in and amongst Rome’s famous architecture, the camera is more respectful as it glides along just as a meandering tourist would gaping up in awe at the structures towering over it.
Nominated for this year’s Best Foreign Film Academy Award and the winner of this category at the Golden Globes, The Great Beauty is a feast for the eyes and ears. Mind you, it is not for everyone. Even if your significant other claims they love foreign and art house cinema, tread carefully, you get vignettes and juicy, high-minded intellectualism at the expense of structure and coherence. However, every audience member will enjoy an extended tour of Rome they do not see on the tourist path; here is a slice of Italy to be savored and discussed, not gulped.
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