# The Great Beauty

The Great Beauty (Italian: La grande bellezza) is a 2013 art drama film co-written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Filming took place in Rome starting on 9 August 2012. It premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened in competition for the Palme d'Or. It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2013 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (winning Grand Prix), and at the 2013 Reykjavik European Film Festival.
The film won Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, as well as the Golden Globe and the BAFTA award in the same category. It is a co-production between the Italian Medusa Film and Indigo Film and the French Babe Films, with support from Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Pathé and France 2 Cinéma. With a production budget of €9.2 million, the film grossed over $24 million worldwide.

## Plot

The film opens with a quote from Louis-Ferdinand Céline's novel Journey to the End of the Night: "Travel is useful; it exercises the imagination. All the rest is disappointment and fatigue. Our journey is entirely imaginary. That is its strength. It goes from life to death. People, animals, cities, things – all are imagined. It's a novel, just a fictitious narrative. Littré says so, and he's never wrong. And besides, in the first place, anyone can do as much. You just have to close your eyes. It's on the other side of life."
Jep Gambardella is a 65-year-old seasoned journalist and theater critic, a fascinating man, mostly committed to wandering among the social events of a Rome immersed in the beauty of its history and in the superficiality of its inhabitants today, in a merciless contrast. He also ventured into creative writing in his youth: he is the author of only one work called The Human Apparatus. Despite the appreciation and the many awards he received, Jep has not written other books, not only for his laziness but above all for a creative block from which he cannot escape. The purpose of his existence has been to become a "socialite", but not just any socialite, but "the king of society".
Jep is surrounded by several friends: Romano, a playwright who is perpetually on the leash of a young woman who exploits him; Lello, a mouthy and wealthy toy seller; Viola, a wealthy bourgeois and mother of a son with serious mental problems named Andrea; Stefania, a self-centred radical chic writer; Dadina, the dwarf editor of the newspaper where Jep works.
One morning, he meets the husband of Elisa, a woman who has been Jep's first and probably only love: the man announces that Elisa has died, leaving behind only a diary in which the woman tells of her love for Jep; thus, her husband discovered that he had been a mere surrogate for 35 years, nothing more than "a good companion". Elisa's husband, now afflicted and grieved, will soon find consolation in the affectionate welcome of his foreign maid. After this episode, Jep begins a profound and melancholic reinterpretation of his life and a long meditation on himself and on the world around him. And, above all, he thinks about starting to write again.
During the following days, Jep meets Ramona, a stripper with painful secrets, and Cardinal Bellucci, in whom the passion for cooking is more alive than his Catholic faith; Jep is gradually convinced of the futility and uselessness of his existence. Soon his "vicious circle" also breaks down: Ramona, with whom he had established an innocent and profound relationship, dies of an incurable disease; Romano, disappointed by the deceptive attractiveness of Rome, leaves the city, farewelling only Jep; Stefania, humiliated by Jep, who had revealed her secrets and her lies to her face, left Jep's worldly circle; Viola, on the other hand, after the death of her son, donates all her possessions to the Church and becomes a missionary in Africa.
Just when hopes seem to abandon Jep once and for all, he is saved by a new episode: after a meeting, pushed by Dadina, who wants to get an interview with a "Saint", a Catholic missionary nun in the Third World, Jep goes to Giglio Island to report on the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia. Right here, remembering his first meeting with Elisa in a flashback, a glimmer of hope rekindles in him: his next novel is finally ready to come to light.

## Cast

* Toni Servillo as Jep Gambardella
* Carlo Verdone as Romano
* Sabrina Ferilli as Ramona
* Carlo Buccirosso as Lello Cava
* Giovanna Vignola as Dadina
* Iaia Forte as Trumeau, Lello's wife
* Pamela Villoresi as Viola
* Galatea Ranzi as Stefania
* Franco Graziosi as Count Colonna
* Giorgio Pasotti as Stefano
* Massimo Popolizio as Alfio Bracco
* Sonia Gessner [it] as Countess Colonna
* Luca Marinelli as Andrea, Viola's son
* Serena Grandi as Lorena
* Ivan Franek as Ron Sweet
* Giusi Merli as Sister Maria
* Anita Kravos as Talia Concept
* Roberto Herlitzka as Cardinal Bellucci
* Isabella Ferrari as Orietta
* Fanny Ardant as herself (uncredited)
* Antonello Venditti as himself (uncredited)

## Music

| No. | Title | Album | Artists | Composer |
| 1 | "I lie" (The Little Match Girl Passion) | 1-01 | Torino Vocalensemble | David Lang |
| 2 | Far l'amore | 2-01 | Bob Sinclar & Raffaella Carrà | |
| 3 | More than scarlet | 2-02 | Decoder Ring | |
| 4 | Mueve la colita | 2–17 | El Gato D.J. | |
| 5 | My heart's in the highlands | 1-03 | Else Torp, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent | Arvo Pärt |
| 6 | Que no se acabe el mambo | 2–14 | La Banda Gorda | |
| 7 | The Lamb | 1-07 | The choir of the Temple Church directed by Stephen Layton | John Tavener text by William Blake |
| 8 | Parade | 2-06 | Tape | |
| 9 | III. Lento—Cantabile-semplice from Symphony No. 3 | 1–10 | London Sinfonietta, Dawn Upshaw directed by David Zinman | Henryk Górecki |
| 10 | World to come IV | 1-02 | Maya Beiser | David Lang |
| 11 | Moody | – | ESG | |
| 12 | Take my breath away | 2-03 | Gui Boratto | |
| 13 | The beatitudes | 1-05 | Kronos Quartet | Vladimir Martynov |
| 14 | Forever | 2-08 | Antonello Venditti | Maurizio Fabrizio |
| 15 | Pancho | – | | |
| 16 | There must be an angel (playing with my heart) | – | Lorraine Bowen | Annie Lennox, David A. Stewart |
| 17 | Water from the same source | 2–10 | Rachel's |
| 18 | II. Adagio from Symphony in C major | 1-08 | film: Leopold Stokowski and his Symphony Orchestra album: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Donald Johanos | Georges Bizet |
| 19 | Dies irae from Requiem for my Friend | 1-06 | Elżbieta Towarnicka, Dariusz Paradowski, Piotr Lykowski, Piotr Kusiewicz, Grzegorz Zychowicz and Jan Szypowski | Zbigniew Preisner |
| 20 | Everything trying | 2–05 | Damien Jurado | |
| 21 | Discoteca | 2–16 | Exchpoptrue | |
| 22 | We no speak americano | 2–15 | Studio Allstars | |
| 23 | Ti ruberò | 2–12 | Monica Cetti | |
| 24 | Trois mouvements perpétuels | – | Peter Beijersbergen van Henegouwen | Francis Poulenc |
| 25 | Beata viscera | 1–11 | Vox Clamantis | Magister Perotinus |
| – | Time | 1-04 | | Lele Marchitelli (it) |
| – | River flows | 1-09 | | Lele Marchitelli |
| – | Brain waves | 2-04 | | Lele Marchitelli |
| – | Color my world | 2-07 | | Lele Marchitelli |
| – | Surge of excitement | 2-09 | | Lele Marchitelli |
| – | Settembre non comincia | 2–11 | | Lele Marchitelli |
| – | Trumeau | 2–13 | | Lele Marchitelli |
| – | Ramona | 2–18 | Los Paraguayos and Luis Alberto del Paraná | Lele Marchitelli |

## Reception
### Italian Criticism

Philippe Ridet, Rome correspondent for Le Monde, criticized the film in Internazionale while supporting the perspectives of journalists from La Stampa, Raffaella Silipo and Gianni Riotta:
   The victory of Italy? Yes, but which Italy? 'The Americans imagine Italy exactly like this,' Raffaella Silipo noted last Monday in La Stampa: 'Magnificent stones and inconclusive inhabitants, young people fleeing, and old people painting themselves and forgetting as they dance.' On Tuesday, La Stampa’s Gianni Riotta evoked a reward that 'sounds like a warning': 'Sorrentino signs the film of an Italy resigned to lacking credibility. Let’s continue like this, and we’ll end up as elegant vagabonds looking at the past, maybe winning plenty of Oscars, but without a dignified future.'
   But the six thousand voters in Hollywood are like this. They love Italy for how they imagine it, just like all the jury members who awarded the film across the world before its triumph in Los Angeles. 5 May 2014.
Ridet's perspective would be countered in an article by Tiziano Peccia for the Brazilian academic journal O Olho da História. The article, dedicated to beauty, followed the death of Umberto Eco:
   Philippe Ridet’s vision taints the intelligence of the peninsula with grotesque and superficial tones, reducing Italy to the idea of celebrating its own decadence. His statement, drawn from his article 'Italy laughs at seeing itself in the mirror of La Grande Bellezza,' stereotypes the average Italian as a Griffolino d’Arezzo from Dante’s Divine Comedy, a character full of airs despite his infernal placement.
   Yet, we must ask ourselves a question: Was this Sorrentino’s message? Did the Neapolitan director aim to emphasize the theme of Italian decadence, as denounced by the media? Or rather, more profoundly, was his focus on the modern and worldly frenzy that seduces, beguiles, entices, and then leaves one burdened with a handful of shattered, cursed dreams?
   The fact that a film like La Grande Bellezza can be interpreted as a limited picture of Italian issues smells, to borrow expressions from journalist Marco Travaglio, of rhetoric and provincialism. It’s the provincialism of a people probably no longer accustomed to hearing about themselves in a positive or meritocratic light—a nation that turns into mockery a well-crafted work appreciated globally. This widespread provincialism is a new fruit for a country like Italy, accustomed to millennia of greatness and artistic production recognized and esteemed everywhere.
   Why is it that a work about moral decay, such as Petronius’s Satyricon, describing animalistic instincts and dissoluteness, is interpreted as a reflection on a vicious, savage humanity, rather than a critical portrayal of the dissolute realities of Pozzuoli and Crotone?
Tiziano Peccia, "Critica e critiche alla grande bellezza," O Olho da História, Issue 22 (April 2016)
   If only La grande bellezza were content to be a bad movie. It is instead "a new emotional experience," as Walter Veltroni wrote yesterday in the Messaggero.
Or, on the contrary, with great appreciation:
   This tribute to the Capital, signed by Paolo Sorrentino, is a disorganized, opulent, fragmentary, and shameless film, but also one so beautiful it will move you to tears.
This contrast of opinions has been interpreted in various ways, but in negative evaluations, it seems to reconnect with the recurring notion of the director's presumed arrogance and ambition to propose his vision, almost as if it were a sequel to La dolce vita by Federico Fellini, which instead resonates with the imagination of international audiences who appreciate this portrayal.

### Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating, based on 135 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Dazzlingly ambitious, beautifully filmed, and thoroughly enthralling, The Great Beauty offers virtuoso filmmaking from writer/director Paolo Sorrentino." The film holds a score of 86/100 on Metacritic based on 34 reviews, signifying "universal acclaim".
Robbie Collin at The Daily Telegraph awarded Sorrentino's film the maximum five stars and described it as "a shimmering coup de cinema". He likened it to Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City and Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita in its ambition to record a period of Roman history on film. "Rossellini covered the Nazi occupation of 1944; Fellini the seductive, empty hedonism of the years that followed. Sorrentino's plan is to do the same for the Berlusconi era," he wrote. Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter stated "Sorrentino's vision of moral chaos and disorder, spiritual and emotional emptiness at this moment in time is even darker than Fellini's (though Ettore Scola's The Terrace certainly comes in somewhere)." Critics have also identified other purposefully explicit film homages: to Roma, 8½, Scola's Splendor, Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte. Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar named the film as one of the twelve best films of 2013, placing it second in his list. In 2016, the film was ranked among the 100 greatest films since 2000 in an international critics poll by 177 critics around the world. It is currently director Paolo Sorrentino's second highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes.

### Film critics' top lists

Various critics named the film as one of the best of 2013.
* 1st: Time Out London's 10 Best films of 2013
* 1st: Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph
* 2nd: Xan Brooks, The Guardian
* 2nd: Richard Corliss, Time
* 3rd: Chris Vognar, The Dallas Morning News
* 4th: Sight & Sound
* 4th: Lisa Schwarzbaum, BBC
* 6th: Jake Coyle, Associated Press
* 7th: Stephen Holden, The New York Times
* 8th: Simon Abrams & Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice
* 9th: Robert Gifford, The Diamondback
* 9th: Empire's 50 Best Films of 2013
* Best films of 2013: Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
* Best Film of 2013: Justin Chang, Variety
Peter Bradshaw also named the film as one of the 20 best films of the 21st Century in the Guardian.

### Awards and nominations

List of Accolades :
| Organizations / Festivals | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| 86th Academy Awards | Best International Feature Film | Italy | Won |
| 79th New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Runner-up |
| 71st Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 67th British Academy Film Awards | Best Film Not in the English Language | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Director | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Producer | Nicola Giuliano and Francesca Cima | Nominated |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Screenplay | Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello | Nominated |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Carlo Verdone | Won |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Sabrina Ferilli | Won |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Cinematography | Luca Bigazzi | Won |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Costumes | Daniela Ciancio | Nominated |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Sound | Emanuele Cecere | Won |
| 67th Silver Ribbon Awards | Best Score | Lele Marchitelli | Nominated |
| 66th Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 60th Belgian Film Critics Association | Grand Prix | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Film | Nicola Giuliano and Francesca Cima | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Director | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Script | Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Producer | Francesca Cima and Francesca Cima | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Toni Servillo | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Actress in a Leading Role | Sabrina Ferilli | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Carlo Verdone | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Galatea Ranzi | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Cinematography | Luca Bigazzi | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Score | Lele Marchitelli | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Sets and Decorations | Stefania Cella | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Costumes | Daniela Ciancio | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Makeup | Maurizio Silvi | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Hairstyle | Aldo Signoretti | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Editing | Cristiano Travaglioli | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Sound | Emanuele Cecere | Nominated |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | Best Special Visual Effects | Rodolfo Migliari and Luca Della Grotta | Won |
| 59th David di Donatello Awards | David Giovani Award | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 53rd Italian Golden Globe | Best Directing | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 53rd Italian Golden Globe | Best Leading Actor | Toni Servillo | Nominated |
| 53rd Italian Golden Globe | Best Cinematography | Luca Bigazzi | Won |
| 53rd Italian Golden Globe | Best Music | Lele Marchitelli | Nominated |
| 39th César Awards | Best Foreign Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 34th London Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Film | Nicola Giuliano and Francesca Cima | Nominated |
| 34th London Film Critics Circle Awards | Director of the Year | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 34th London Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 34th Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Actor | Toni Servillo | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Supporting Actor | Carlo Verdone | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Supporting Actress | Sabrina Ferilli | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Producer | Nicola Giuliano and Francesca Cima | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Cinematography | Luca Bigazzi | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Sets and Decorations | Stefania Cella | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Costumes | Daniela Ciancio | Won |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Screenwriter | Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello | Nominated |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Sound | Emanuele Cecere and Francesco Sabez | Nominated |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Editing | Cristiano Travaglioli | Nominated |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Music | Lele Marchitelli | Nominated |
| 29th Ciak d'oro | Best Movie Poster | Anna Di Cintio, Matteo Desogus, Fabrizio Caperna and Geo Ceccarelli | Nominated |
| 29th Independent Spirit Awards | Best Foreign Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 28th Goya Awards | Best European Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 26th European Film Awards | Best Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 26th European Film Awards | Best Director | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 26th European Film Awards | Best Actor | Toni Servillo | Won |
| 26th European Film Awards | Best Screenwriter | Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello | Nominated |
| 26th European Film Awards | Best Editor | Cristiano Travaglioli | Won |
| 20th Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 19th Critics' Choice Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 18th Florida Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 18th Satellite Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 17th Hollywood Film Awards | Best International Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 17th Hollywood Film Awards | Best Independent Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 17th Hollywood Film Awards | Best New Screenplay | Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello | Won |
| 17th Hollywood Film Awards | Best Actor | Toni Servillo | Nominated |
| 17th Hollywood Film Awards | Breakout Performance | Toni Servillo | Nominated |
| 17th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival | Grand Prix | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 17th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival | Jury Prix | Luca Bigazzi | Won |
| 16th British Independent Film Awards | Best Foreign Independent Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 15th Cinemanila International Film Festival | Lino Brocka Award for Best Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Won |
| 11th International Cinephile Society Awards | Best Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |
| 11th International Cinephile Society Awards | Best Foreign Film | Paolo Sorrentino | Nominated |