The Great Beauty
2013 · Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Original language: Italian
- drama
The story
Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
What it’s like
Ornate, sun-struck Rome at night: sweeping tracking shots through gilded salons, rooftop terraces lit in dusky gold and pink, and the glittering blur of nightclub strobes set against crumbling baroque stone. Paolo Sorrentino frames everything with a showman's symmetry and a restless, roving camera, while Lele Marianelli's score swells from lush orchestral strings to a pulse of electronic beat and then falls quiet for long, dreamlike pauses. The mood is wry, melancholy and sensual, a cozy-decadent unease that suits a late night alone with a glass of wine, or a slow, reflective weekend when you want to be dazzled and a little unsettled at once. Its pacing is languid and episodic, drifting from one absurd set piece to the next, and its emotional arc follows an aging, cynical socialite slowly confronting what his life has hollowed out. Intensity is low: there is no violence, and the sexual content is frank but non-graphic, with some crude party humour, dark moods and an undercurrent of mortality. It is for viewers who love art-house visual poetry, Fellini-style satire and lush, contemplative stillness.
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