Review of The Great Beauty (2013) by Nicholasbert — 16 Jan 2014

Comparison with La dolce vita is obvious and rightfully so. Yet the decadence of the 60's elite was far more elegant, in a way, than our own age's, and this is shown throughout through an old man with radically cynical thoughts who's forcing himself to appear, to be in the spotlight.

And among child prodigy painters, madmen, centenarian nuns, dreaming strippers and faux Communists it all unravels in the end when it is clearly shown that what truly matters is lost forever, and we had the chance to seize it, and maybe we did, but we wish we'd done it better.

But the beauty of it resides right in the mystery of "what would have happened if" and the bittersweetness of never being able to find out.