This film has won four European Film Awards, and is supposed to be the best European film of 2013. When it was released in Belgium, I didn't pay much attention to it. But I wouldn't have forgiven myself for not having seen the best European film of the year, so I decided to go see it after all. It has been playing for a while in Belgium, but fortunately there was a Sunday afternoon screening in my neighbourhood cinema.
'La Grande Belezza' or 'The Great Beauty' is a very suitable title for this film. It is full of beautiful people, moving around in a beautiful city, wearing beautiful clothes. Many scenes are aesthetically very attractive, with original camera angles and nice gliding movements. But at the same time, the film feels empty. It's all form and no feeling.
Jep Gambardella, a socialite, writer and journalist, gives a party for his 65th birthday and realizes that he has been living in an artificial world of people showing off, having fun, and trying to impress each other. What's more, he realizes that he himself is the most superficial of them all. 'From now on, I won't waste any more time on things I don't like', he decides, and refuses to watch nude pictures of the woman he has just had sex with.
The film shows the cynical Gambardella in a long series of encounters with all sorts of friends and acquaintances. The succession of strange characters, the decadence of the jet set, the beautiful locations in Rome - of course you can't see this film without thinking about Fellini. But Fellini didn't show things just for the sake of it. Paolo Sorrentino does. The film has far too many superfluous and confusing scenes and is far too long. The fountain scene the films starts with is beautifully filmed, but the meaning remains unclear. The birthday party is annoyingly long and keeps on showing the same things. The scene with the giraffe is very Fellini-esque, but doesn't serve a purpose. And so on.
How this film could have won the European Film Award for best picture is beyond me. Personally, I would have voted for Asghar Farhadi's masterpiece 'Le Passé' (if it would have been nominated).
(Just one more thing: this film has great promotional value for the Italian men's fashion industry. Jep Gambardella is impeccably dressed throughout the whole movie. It makes you want to run to the nearest Corneliani-store and spend a fortune.)
'La Grande Belezza' or 'The Great Beauty' is a very suitable title for this film. It is full of beautiful people, moving around in a beautiful city, wearing beautiful clothes. Many scenes are aesthetically very attractive, with original camera angles and nice gliding movements. But at the same time, the film feels empty. It's all form and no feeling.
Jep Gambardella, a socialite, writer and journalist, gives a party for his 65th birthday and realizes that he has been living in an artificial world of people showing off, having fun, and trying to impress each other. What's more, he realizes that he himself is the most superficial of them all. 'From now on, I won't waste any more time on things I don't like', he decides, and refuses to watch nude pictures of the woman he has just had sex with.
The film shows the cynical Gambardella in a long series of encounters with all sorts of friends and acquaintances. The succession of strange characters, the decadence of the jet set, the beautiful locations in Rome - of course you can't see this film without thinking about Fellini. But Fellini didn't show things just for the sake of it. Paolo Sorrentino does. The film has far too many superfluous and confusing scenes and is far too long. The fountain scene the films starts with is beautifully filmed, but the meaning remains unclear. The birthday party is annoyingly long and keeps on showing the same things. The scene with the giraffe is very Fellini-esque, but doesn't serve a purpose. And so on.
How this film could have won the European Film Award for best picture is beyond me. Personally, I would have voted for Asghar Farhadi's masterpiece 'Le Passé' (if it would have been nominated).
(Just one more thing: this film has great promotional value for the Italian men's fashion industry. Jep Gambardella is impeccably dressed throughout the whole movie. It makes you want to run to the nearest Corneliani-store and spend a fortune.)