The Great Beauty

Aristocrats, politicians, high-flying criminals, journalists, actors, decadent offspring of noble families, priests, artists, genuine or imagined intellectuals... All of them are consumed by modern Babylon as they indulge in a vain life against the backdrop of ancient palaces, grand villas, and magnificent terraces. Apathetic and disillusioned 65-year-old Jep Gambardella - a typical Sorrentino hero, an imposing man with a beautiful name, a serious face, and a troubled soul. A writer and journalist who never parts with a gin and tonic, he observes the oppressive parade of influential yet empty and lost people.

"Half a century ago we had Federico Fellini. Today we have Paolo Sorrentino, until recently just an interesting Italian director (in the eyes of many even 'the most interesting'), and now the author of the film 'The Great Beauty,' which one wants to call 'La Dolce Vita' of the 21st century. Such life, such sweetness; such an era, such a Fellini. Perhaps Sorrentino was only aiming for parody, paraphrase, an extensive quote from a masterpiece, but his film turned out to be as ruthless a chronicle of modern glamour as 'La Dolce Vita' was in its time." - Anton Dolin