Guided to "The Great Beauty"

The Great Beauty

John Andrews

       It is Jep Gambardella's 65^th birthday. The film opens with a lengthy, extravagant rooftop bash filled with booze, dancers, and old Italian men celebrating Jep's big day. Jep is the author of a critically acclaimed book “The Human Apparatus” and has written no other novel since. He now writes for a Roman daily newspaper. The party goes on as young girls frolic blissfully and old men scramble to obtain them.

      After the vast success of his book, Jep, played by Toni Servillo, lives a high class life in Rome in a villa overlooking the Colosseum, attending the biggest and richest parties in Rome. He has surrounded himself with lavishly rich, uber successful, and yet utterly hopeless socialites. They all attend parties together and meet weekly to banter wittily back and forth about philosophy, life, politics, sex, and religion. During one particular conversation, Jep unleashes a subtle fury of slanders and hard truths to Stefania about the lies she has told herself for years: having real relationships with her children, paying people to do everything for her, and writing 11 books that no one cared about.

      One night, as Jep strolls through the beautiful streets of Rome as he does each night, he walks into a strip club owned by an old friend. As they sit and talk, the owners' 42-year-old daughter, Ramona (Sabrina Ferilli), comes on stage to perform. Though Jep says he has no intention of being the “good guy she needs,” they develop a relationship as he woos her with his high class parties and art shows. When she abruptly dies of an incurable disease, Jep moves on with his life and starts to search for “la grande bellezza”, or “the great beauty”, of life.

      The movie circles around Jep and his search for this great beauty on Earth. Though the film is filled with all of his high class friends and characters, we see Jep alone with his thoughts throughout Rome's lush streets of architecture and wonder. Director Paolo Sorrentino explores resentment, passion, love, intellect, and emptiness through Jep.

      Jep's lifestyle begins to unravel. He cannot seem to place where his heart truly lies. As the film progresses and we learn how smart and knowledgable Jep is on just about everything, you feel for him. You want him to get back to writing and not waste his time with the frivolities and blandness he partakes in in the film.

      The cinematography is the most astonishing feature of the movie. The lingering shots of Jep meandering under the streetlights of Rome; the framing of the parties; the intricate movements over the faces of the characters. The lighting speaks volumes. The natural light of the night seems to bleed through each shot as party goers are promised magnificence. Rome is the main character, and Jep is merely a onlooker. Every scene and shot is masterfully crafted as a piece of art in itself. The art, the statues, the fountains all contribute to the essence of the city.

      The contrast of the cinematography and Jep's agenda perfectly portray Sorrentino's goals. Jep is struggling to achieve a sense of being content, struggling to capture, or at least know, what the great beauty of the world is. And yet it is all around him: Rome. A homage to the city, Sorrentino sheds light on the culture within Rome. Though not all experience this level of wealth, one can see bits and pieces worked in that pertain to anyone. Maybe there isn't a 12 year old girl throwing a paint tantrum on a giant white canvas in front of the biggest art dealers in Italy at your party, but everyone has seen that one spectacle at a party they won't ever forget.

       Jep's life makes you question what you are doing with yours. Are you withering away under the pressures of every day routine, or are you seeking out a passion, fulfilling whatever it may be that you do best? For Jep, fame and status consume him. Flashbacks to his younger days seem to haunt his mind. As he lays staring at his ceiling from his bed, we see the blue-green ocean, full of life and energy. The waves turn to white, and in the end, it is only a ceiling. As Jep seeks for the great beauty, Sorrentino shows us Jep's first sexual experience in pieces paralleled to an Italian Mother Theresa crawling up the stairs of St. Peter's Basilica. After hosting her at dinner with his socialite friends and hired princes and princesses, her words to him asking why he hasn't written another book ravage his brain. His lost youth. His risks never taken.

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Writer: Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello

Producer: Francesca Cima, Nicola Giuliano

Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi

Starring: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli

Run Time: 142 minutes