the fresh films reviews

S I N C E   1 9 9 7










 

La grande bellezza (2013)

Director:
Paolo Sorrentino
COUNTRY
Italy/France
GENRE
Drama
INTERNATIONAL TITLE
The Great Beauty
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Den store skjønnheten
RUNNING TIME
142 minutes
Producer:
Nicola Giuliano
Francesca Cima
Fabio Conversi
Screenwriter:
Paolo Sorrentino
Umberto Contarello


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Jep Gambardella Toni Servillo
Romano Carlo Verdone
Ramona Sabrina Ferilli ½
Lello Cava Carlo Buccirosso
Trumeau Iaia Forte
Viola Pamela Villoresi
Stefania Galetea Ranzi
Andrea Luca Marinelli
Alfio Bracco Massimo Popolizio
Lorena Serena Grandi
Ron Sweet Ivan Franek
Cardinal Bellucci Roberto Herlitzka
Orietta Isabella Ferrari

 

Review

In La Grande Bellezza, an at face value old-fashioned, European-style cultural-elitist film, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino throws an influx of ideas at you, but in the most beautiful and hypnotic manner. The first half of this motion picture is among the compositionally richest in a long time, a true tribute to the art-form; something in the spirit of Godard or Fellini, had they had the necessary means and access to present-day Rome − the city to which La Grande Bellezza is both a homage and a death sentence.

The underlying theme here is one of loss − of youth, love, opportunity, meaning, et cetera. Not very uplifting stuff, had it not been for the fact that our protagonist revels in it; uses it to keep himself afloat, to keep himself at the level of self-worth he once envisioned for himself. In other words, our Jep Gambardella is a nostalgic, and so is Sorrentino and his film, who both let Jep live his decadent life in constant and disillusioned yearning for an era which they believe is long gone. That era was filled with beauty, youth and optimism, but it was also filled with other disillusioned old-timers, implies Sorrentino. And although Jep never finds any form of awakening (he is much too cynical and self-conscious for that), he does, at least intellectually, come to realise that the beauty he's missing, "la grande bellezza", still is very much around him. And more importantly, that it still exists within him in the form of memories, ideas and attributions.

La Grande Bellezza is not an ingenious, game-changing film with all the answers, but it is an insightful work of art that combines an almost endless artistic value with a relevant and perceptive social comment.

Copyright © 16.3.2014 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

[BACK TO INDEX]

[HAVE YOUR SAY]