The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza)
Featuring sensuous cinematography, a lush score, and an award-winning central performance by the great Toni Servillo, this transporting experience by the brilliant Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is a breathtaking Felliniesque tale of decadence and lost love.
For decades, journalist Jep Gambardella (Servillo) has charmed and seduced his way through the glittering nightlife of Rome. Since the legendary success of his only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and elite social circles. But on his sixty-fifth birthday, Jep unexpectedly finds himself taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the lavish nightclubs, parties, and cafes to find Rome itself, in all its monumental glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
Winner of both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
"A radiant work on the meaning of life ... THE GREAT BEAUTY is drop-dead gorgeous, a film that is luxuriously, seductively, stunningly cinematic." - Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times
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Comments (10)
This is one of my favorite movies, and yes it is visually stunning. However, layered into the beauty and absurdity of modern, neo-aristocratic Rome living is a serious indictment of the excess of an entire country and culture. Definitely essential viewing, arguably gaining more and more ...Read more
This is one of my favorite movies, and yes it is visually stunning. However, layered into the beauty and absurdity of modern, neo-aristocratic Rome living is a serious indictment of the excess of an entire country and culture. Definitely essential viewing, arguably gaining more and more significance in light of recent political events and uncertainty in the future of Italy (and Europe, and, really, our world in general).
Read lessWhat a beautiful film. The cinematography is mesmerizing, the human experience heart-wrenching. Every shot is a poem. How have I not seen this before?
The timelines don't perfectly align, but it isn't hard to imagine Jep Gambardella as an aged Marcello Rubini, wandering the streets of Rome just as he did in La Dolce Vita. Indeed, in many ways Paolo Sorrentino's THE GREAT BEAUTY is a modern re-working of Fellini's 1960 classic. Both films, ...Read more
The timelines don't perfectly align, but it isn't hard to imagine Jep Gambardella as an aged Marcello Rubini, wandering the streets of Rome just as he did in La Dolce Vita. Indeed, in many ways Paolo Sorrentino's THE GREAT BEAUTY is a modern re-working of Fellini's 1960 classic. Both films, through marvelous absurdist imagery and existential poignancy, explore the beauty, extravagance, complexity, and hypocrisy of Rome-- and life itself. Following in Italy's tradition of surrealist-infused cinema, THE GREAT BEAUTY certainly counts among the best art films to come out of Italy in the 21st century.
Read lessThe real star of this film is Rome. A portrait so loving I immediately booked a trip there after seeing it.
Yes! I was just going to write the same thing, and in fact just did that on my Facebook post of this film. The atmospherics are superb, she is divine and eternal, and this film really shows that.
Surprised that this is the first time I'm encountering a film by Sorrentino. Ah and what an encounter! This is an epic film; the score and the cinematography are totally mesmerizing. Thanks Kanopy for screening this.
Beautiful film. Visually stunning. You'll want to watch again and again.
Possibly the best film of the decade. Seeing this in the theater was one of the most moving experiences I've ever had. Films like this remind me of why I keep coming back to cinema and why I wish to share my own voice. I will forever remember this film.
Thank you so much, Paolo ...Read more
Possibly the best film of the decade. Seeing this in the theater was one of the most moving experiences I've ever had. Films like this remind me of why I keep coming back to cinema and why I wish to share my own voice. I will forever remember this film.
Read lessThank you so much, Paolo Sorrentino.
I completely agree, I re-watched this over and over when it came out, the camera that never stops moving, the poetic writing, totally mesmerizing. FYI - we're working on getting Sorrentino's "The Pope" series soon, stay tuned!
Weird but mesmerizing.