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The Great Beauty
La grande bellezza
2013 142 min France, Italy 18+
★8.5
Drama
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
📖 Based on the novel
«Everybody’s Right»
byPaolo Sorrentino
Trailers
Description
Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
Budget:
$9.2M
US Gross:
$2.85M
Worldwide:
$24.93M
Starring
Toni Servillo
Actor
Carlo Verdone
Actor
Sabrina Ferilli
Actor
Awards
European Film Awards 2013
— Best Director
European Film Awards 2013
— Best Picture
Academy Awards 2014
— Best International Feature Film
Academy Awards 2014
— Best International Feature Film
Golden Globe 2014
— Best International Feature Film
BAFTA 2014
— Best International Feature Film
European Film Awards 2013
— Best Actor
Goya Awards 2014
— Best European Film
Cannes Film Festival 2013
— Palme d'Or
European Film Awards 2013
— Best Screenplay
European Film Awards 2013
— Best Film Editing
Key opinion
The Great Beauty is a visually arresting, philosophical meditation on mortality, decay, and the search for meaning in contemporary Rome. While some viewers admire its masterful aesthetic and emotional depth, others find the narrative aimless and the film's self-conscious grandeur pretentious.
| Acting | Toni Servillo’s nuanced and weary performance provides an essential anchor for the film's shifting tone. | |
| Cinematography | The cinematography and production design create a visually stunning, opulent, and immersive portrait of Rome. | |
| Direction | Sorrentino’s ambitious direction successfully evokes and reinterprets Fellini’s legacy for a modern, post-modern context. | |
| Theme | The film functions as a profound existential exploration of aging and the pursuit of beauty, though critics disagree on whether it succeeds as a cohesive satire or feels like an empty, elitist exercise. | |
| Pacing | The fragmented, contemplative narrative rewards viewers who embrace its slow, abstract pace, while others find the lack of a traditional plot alienating and exhausting. | |
| Screenplay | The screenplay is praised by some for its intellectual depth and lyrical questioning, while others dismiss it as messy, pretentious, or lacking in genuine character development. |