"This is my life...
And it's nothing."

Aptly titled, to say the least.
Quite simply,
A critique of,
And an homage to,

Everything.

To the present,
The past,
The future.

Everything.

Sadness.
Truth.
Life.
Beauty.

Everything.

The best comparison that I can make is if Emmanuel Lubezki and Larry David decided to collaborate on a film together in Rome.

And the reason why this film works so well as both a comedy and also a poignant meditation on humanity is because of its perfect pacing; it is carefully constructed and meticulously organized through each scene.

The world is a gorgeous, ugly place.

"Beyond there is what lies beyond.
I don't deal with what lies beyond."

Now I know what people who hate Malick's To The Wonder feel like.

Unfinished and unrated. Took a break after the party scene, for both technical and artistic appreciation reasons. Resumed .. within 5 minutes nuns are wrapping a naked woman's head in guase. As she stands we see she has flaming red pubic hair, even though she's a brunette. She then runs, head first, into a stone wall. Witnessed by an admiring crowd, and overseen from above by our protagonist.

Subtle, it's not.

The Great Beauty has so much going on, yet I think the focus remains on the central concept: what is beauty? The style really sweeps you up into this world, and pushes you continue to ask the question. Through this scope, the random scenes and strange nuances begin a bit clearer.

Huge fan of this, and can't wait to see it again.

This deserves a second viewing.

An underrated gem by Paolo Sorrentino which in its two and a half hour run time follows Jep in his search for the titular great beauty. The real standouts in this film are the beautiful score and cinematography as well as Toni Servillo’s performance. A must watch.

I love The Young Pope, so I gave this a shot, still processing. 

But I’ll always love Paolo’s pacing and camera work. He has vision, and purpose. I admire that.

I feel like I didn’t really get this movie but I’d like to rewatch it.

The editing and cinematography are fantastic. It really felt like it was made by a mature, sophisticated filmmaker, someone with a lot of experience behind his decisions. I know that I wouldn’t be able to make a film like this at my age.

Me ha gustado un montón. La direción, la fotografía, las actuaciones... Todo. La gran belleza es una de esas películas que muestran la parte más bonita y la más cruel de la sociedad en la que vivimos. Un poco pesimista al final porque me dio la sensación de que la gran belleza que busca al final la encuentra en la nostalgia y eso me parece un poco desesperanzador.
Con todo creo que es una pequeña obra maestra y quiero verla más veces para desentrañar poco a poco el signficado que tiene. Y ver más cine de Paolo Sorrentino.

The Great Beauty has the very rare quality of being loud and trashy but also poetic and meditative. In many ways it represents some of the stuff Mallick has been trying and failing (in my opinion) to do with his recent work. This is a film that feels like an experience, it has a very loose structure and allows the director to really put his mark on the work but also manages to maintain a story and characters who are believable.

To sum up this film really quickly, it's a pretentious high-end art piece that I gave a shit about.

the modern day equivalent of la dolce vita

“rome can really waste your time.”
”everything around me is dying.”

this is 2.5 hours of stunning art set in the eternal city. the soundtrack is amazing. editing is amazing. what’s not to love here?