La Grande Bellezza
Portrait of a world-weary journalist searching for his long-lost idealism while drifting through the dolce vita of Rome’s high spots and fleshpots.
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 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. Whilst remembering moments of purity in his past, he also admits to the compromises he has made and the emptiness that surrounds him.
Compulsive partying, shallow conversations, and casual sex keep the void at bay, but Jep is too sensitive to his plight to enjoy these diversions without self-awareness. As Sorrentino’s camera moves through a nocturnal Rome, after the parties and the conversations are over, it settles on the timeless beauty of the city’s monuments and statues, which act as wordless reminders of a different kind of past.