Review of The Great Beauty (2013) by Mike N — 03 Mar 2014

It's usually not a good sign when the same word keeps cropping up to describe a film. It usually means there's nothing much else to say about it. But undeniably, Paolo Sorrentino's tale of a aging socialite in a fading society is "Fellini-esque".

Though not a paparazzo, the use of Rome's gorgeous locations, the sleekness of the suits and the carefree nature of its party life (to say nothing of its surreal crowd scenes and religious overtones), Jep Gambardella is if La Dolce Vita's Marcello Rubini turned 65 in modern day Rome, to find all his friends dying, his good years behind him, and lifestyle on the brink of extinction.

The film spends as much time focused on groups of one-time lovers bickering about the decay of modern Rome as it does focused on Bacchanalian parties. It's not a straightforward narrative so much as old eyes wandering through Rome, perceiving it as it really is, not as it appears.

The religious ceremony of Botox, the cruelly sadistic nature of the "child star", the vapid nature of the pseudo-intellectual. Its cinematography is criminally ignored this year by the Academy (though its sure to pick up the Foreign Language statue), it's not so much "The Last Days of Disco" so much as"The Last Disco Dancer", wandering around, philosophizing and exposing the absurdity of social protocols in a way only one over 65 can.

Beautiful, fanciful, and a love letter to Rome as only an Italian can make, The Great Beauty really does say it all.