Review of The Great Beauty (2013) by Matt M — 05 Nov 2013

An ageing writer, and one of the main figures in the Roman social scene of huge parties, bitterly recollects lost love and lost youth. There is no doubt about it - The Great Beauty is this generation's La Dolce Vita as a bittersweet representation of modern society and alienation as well as an inevitable descent into emptiness through endless flirtations of immorality.

Here, in Sorrentino's film, the lead character is aged and looks onto his once promising career and life as a wasted opportunity as he methodically walks through his self-writter set of rules that have made him a king of Rome's vital and extravagant social life.

To do this, the director collaborated once again with Toni Servillo, whose performance is perfectly restrained and collected. Furthermore, he employs a spectacularly constructed style of camerawork which heightens the film's beauty, although sometimes to excess,`in an overall glorious work of decaying glamour and celebrated confidence.