La Grazia (12A)

(Subtitled)

Paolo Sorrentino swaps excess for restraint in this meditative story of an ageing Italian president’s last days in office.

The scene is Rome, and Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo (this being their

seventh film together), is Mariano De Santis, a fictional president of Italy in

the last days of his term. De Santis has no skeletons in his closet, but the end of

his term is starting to feel like a summation of his life, and the man has regrets.

In fact, he is in agony, haunted by the thought of his late wife being unfaithful

to him 40 years before. And with whom? Mariano suspects his contemporary

Ugo (Massimo Venturiello), who has slippery ambitions of his own.

Sorrentino is a filmmaker given to lavish spectacle interwoven with hints of

melancholy, suggesting that great beauty and great sadness often coexist. His

films are rarely narratively propulsive, preferring instead to watch his characters

drift through their ennui amidst the most gorgeous backdrops imaginable. La

Grazia is an elegant portrait of an honourable politician walking off into the

proverbial sunset, pondering what his life has added up to. It’s classic

Sorrentino, don’t miss.