The Great Beauty

After thinking about the film non-stop for the past 3 days, I decided to watch Paolo Sorrentino's "La Grande Bellezza" and what a trip that was! I don't remember much of the film but I remember that it was unlike anything I saw. I remember that Sorrentino took me on a trip for 2 hours and 20 minutes and then threw me back to reality. He took me with him in his dreams, his desires, his fears. He showed me what he loves, what he hates. He told me what life was without even explaining to me. He told me what to pursue and what not to with pursuing everything. It has no sense right? But that's what the film is about. It has no sense of all, no storyline, no direct messages but strangely I understood everything without even thinking, without trying to understand. Like a feeling, like an emotion it entered and never left. I understood the film by feeling it not by watching it or thinking about it. Like Jep, I longed for the best moments of my life that are now gone. I longed for the feeling of drowning into life without taking a single breath. I felt like I was underwater, suffocating, wanting to take a breath, wanting to live, to go back in time. To live those moments again. To spring back up into those lost moments. Those moments that have been stolen by time, the enemy of man. Time that steals everything from us, even the bad moments. It leaves nothing behind it. Like monster, it takes everything with it. Sorrentino wanted us to feel the film. He didn't want to explain anything. Even the characters' deaths are left unknown. The main themes of that film are Nostalgia, Age, Youth, Love, Society, Life itself. Sorrentino shows us how society wants to stay young even the people in it are getting old. He shows us the banality of society. He wants to show us that sometimes in life we lose ourselves pursuing something, following certain people, a certain society but when we look back to those moments, we know that we lost our time pursuing and following the wrong things in life. But how could we get those moments back? Well, we can't... One of the scenes that marked me the most is the scene at the beach. Where Old Jep gets underwater, and the Young Jep resurfaces. It gave me a certain feeling that I can't explain with words, but a great and melancholic feeling that assured me that what has been lost or what has passed is forever gone. When we remember those moments, either we're proud about them, or we regret them deeply. But when we regret those moments, we regret youth that has been long gone and will never come back. I will finish my review by this simple quote of the film... "This is how it always ends. With death. But first there was life. Hidden beneath the blah, blah, blah. It's all settled beneath the chitter chatter and the noise. Silence and sentiment. Emotion and fear. The haggard, inconstant flashes of beauty. And then the wretched squalor and miserable humanity. All buried under the cover of the embarrassment of being in the world, blah, blah, blah... Beyond there is what lies beyond. I don't deal with what lies beyond. Therefore... let this novel begin. After all... it's just a trick. Yes, it's just a trick."

It’s as if the visual esthetics of Fellini combined with the intellectual sensibilities of Bergman. A magnificent film with gentle humor, astounding depth and yes, great beauty.

La grande bellezza ovvero il grande inganno. Non riesco a capire come può aver ingannato critici e recensori un tale enorme guazzabuglio di immagini, finte trovate o semplici sketch di volgarità mal recitate. Negli USA, nella patria del Cinema di Professione dove ognuno ha un suo ruolo e viene valutato e pagato per quello che sa dare e spesso sa dare tanto. Tanto da commuovere, tanto da far piangere e ridere e immedesimarti e rimanere attaccato alla poltrona. Come può una giuria di questo grande paese, aver premiato una tale Boiata.

Paolo Sorrentino directed my #1 movie of 2021, The Hand of God (91). After The Great Beauty, I have already added a couple more of his films to my watch list and am starting to feel this is the beginning of a beautiful (parasocial) friendship. Starring Toni Servillo (also in The Hand of God) as Jep, a novelist-turned-journalist (but more of just a socialite, Sorrentino skewers the human condition and offers a stylish, artfully shot, powerful movie about…well… life. Jep has it all — his large apartment where he hosts parties and philosophical gatherings late into the night — literally overlooks the Colosseum. I watched this sandwiched between Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Rob Marshall’s Nine (the musical version of 8 1/2 ), which all deal with the same themes. And yet, The Great Beauty takes the same concept — a man who has everything, but can create nothing — and makes it sympathetic, interesting, and enjoyable to watch even at 142-minutes. With Servillo and this cast of characters, I could’ve watched for another hour. I especially enjoyed the scenes with just Jep and Dadina (Giovanna Vignola) eating together in her office. The film is scored wonderfully and it shows the power of “good” and “bad” art. I loved the final scene with Sister Maria (Giusi Merli) ascending the steps on her knees. While this did beat out The Hunt (Denmark), one of my all-time favorite movies period, for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, I can rest a little easier knowing a movie of this caliber took home the prize.

Delightful Sorrentino. Enjoyable movie.

This is pure joy to watch over and over again. This is what life and film are all about. Haven’t seen better and there’s no need to.

One of the most beauty italian movie ever and probably BEST movie of the italian cinema modern era

An movie that is about a lot of adult and meaningful things but it’s told in a wonderful way

What a bizarre, yet epic, visit to Rome! View Gatsby-esque party scenes and beautiful, careful camera-work. The main character does soul searching, and reality does, on occasion, slip into surreality. I can not say that I understand exactly what this film is trying to get at. But the ride it takes the viewer on is, as stated above, epic. Find out why it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of the Year.

Beautifully filmed. Pure indulgence one moment, and painfully beautiful, thoughtful and melancholy the next. Great writing.