La Grande Bellezza
Paolo Sorrentino’s swirling and melancholic ode to the city of Rome, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, beauty, and life itself.
From the striking opening shot of La Grande Bellezza – a shell being blasted from a cannon, followed by the party of all parties set above Rome’s Colosseum – we know we are in for a special ride. Concentrating on world-weary society journalist Jep Gambardella, Sorrentino scrapes away the veneer of this character to explore his disappointments, not just as a failed novelist who never married and has no children, but also as a man who has surrendered to cynicism. While remembering moments of purity in his past, he also admits to the compromises he has made and the emptiness that surrounds him.
With La Grande Bellezza, Paolo Sorrentino once and for all confirmed his reputation as a hyper-stylist. His magnum opus is a baroque, vibrant film that treats the viewer to a dizzying stream of visually dazzling images of life in the Eternal City. A film made to be watched under a starry sky.
This film is English subtitled.