The Great Beauty (15)

Subtitled

Paolo Sorrentino’s (2012) film is a withering portrait of the city of Rome and one sceptical inhabitant of its la dolce vita.

As Jep Gambardella (Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo – Il Divo, Consequences of Love and now Loro) celebrates his 65th birthday, he thinks back on his life, which has also been the life of the city, and realises he has spent most of it searching on the rooftops and in the gutters for what he calls La Grande Bellezza: The Great Beauty.

Aristocratic ladies, social climbers, politicians, high-flying criminals, journalists, actors, decadent nobles, artists and intellectuals, whether authentic or presumed, attend parties at antique palaces, immense villas and the most beautiful terraces in the city.

“Pure couture cinema” (Guardian)

 “No night-stalking tribute to Italian cinema. Servillo’s super-dry presence creates a most pungent screen character” (Sight&Sound) (research Anna Shepherd 2012)

Sorrentino plays with Rome’s Mellenial ego. A mass of interlocked facts, characters and anecdotes casts an eye over the marble palaces and terraces stalked by the beautiful hedonists of Berlusconi’s era

Startling in its originality, and breathtaking in its vibe. It is unashamedly art-house and unapologetically Italian. Here once. Don’t miss it for either world.