A portrait of Rome, this Italian drama from Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) tells the story of an aging writer in...
A portrait of Rome, this Italian drama from Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) tells the story of an aging writer in the midst of an existential crisis. Winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes 2014 and nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2013. Says the Guardian: "It is in the classic high Italian style of Fellini's La Dolce Vita... The grande bellezza [the film's title in Italian] can mean love, or sex, or art, or death, but most of all it here means Rome, and the movie wants to drown itself in Rome's fathomless depths of history and worldliness."
Aristocratic ladies, social climbers, politicians, high-flying criminals, journalists, actors, decadent nobles, prelates, artists and intellectuals - whether authentic or presumed - form a network of flaky relationships, all engulfed in a desperate Babylon which plays out in the antique palaces, villas and terraces in Rome. Jep Gambardella, 65 - indolent, disenchanted, his eyes permanently imbued with gin and tonic - watches this parade of humanity.
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Where to watch The Great Beauty
91 %135 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
81 %15,660 reviewsAudience score rating
"Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino makes big, brassy films about all things Italian – not for everyone, or every mood – but his latest effort won this year's Best Foreign Language Oscar, so he's doing something right."
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Flicks
Flicks"Rome in all its splendor and superficiality, artifice and significance, becomes an enormous banquet too rich to digest in one sitting."
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Variety
Variety"Splashes of overstatement aside, the ambition intoxicates."
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Total Film
Total Film"Look no further... if you wish to know whether, where, and in what guise the spirit of Fellini remains at work-and, better still, at play."
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The New Yorker
The New Yorker"A deliriously alive movie... the story of a man, a city, a country and a cinema, though not necessarily in that order."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"As always, Sorrentino has an architectural eye, his cameras panning over crumbling buildings, unclothed bodies and (most importantly) Servillo's face with enraptured awe."
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The Guardian
The Guardian"This movie looks and feels superb, it is pure couture cinema."
—The Guardian
The Guardian"Referencing without imitating Fellini, Sorrentino offers an amusing update on Italian society at the end of a cycle."
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Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter"Sumptuous and self-indulgent, Sorrentino's latest is a Fellini-like feast for the eyes."
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Empire Magazine
Empire MagazineThe Great Beauty | Details
Award winner- Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes 2014
- Runtime
- 142
- Genre
- Comedy, Drama
- Country of origin
- Italy, France
