The Great Beauty

A writer's block, a magical city, beautiful women and a (dis)appetite for a wild social life, or the Fellini of modern times. It's not easy to immediately collect all your thoughts and fully embrace the elaborate metaphorical play in which Sorrentino has wrapped a story about the present-day fate of old age and loneliness, but it's all too easy to like this play and be swept away by it. The charming production design itself, packed with beautiful images, flawlessly composed music and civil dialogues, is a delight to watch, not to mention the perfect actors and the precisely dosed insight that has always belonged to life, and therefore to this film. And it's uncanny how similar the emotions of the film sound compared to the famous 8 1/2, fifty years earlier. People don’t change and Italian filmmakers are proof of that. :) 80% (2014-01-07)

A very interesting film that somewhat pretends to be a contemplation on aging, partly an insight into the realm of the wealthy and their fast-paced lives where age doesn't matter. But it's actually an existential drama about the place of a person in the world. It doesn't matter who you are, because if you don't realize what you really want, what you're doing, where you're heading, your life will lose its meaning. You won't have a goal. Yet it is possible to live like this. The film may be a bit too long and dragged out in some passages, but especially the first half offers truly unique, original, and definitely unexpected scenes. The balcony scene is almost surrealistically magical. (2013-12-31)

We've seen this before. The Great Beauty is a clear tribute to the famous Fellini film La Dolce Vita, and the comparison with this film is obvious and made me return to Fellini's probably most famous film years later. I consider Paolo Sorrentino to be the best contemporary Italian director who can create fantastic experiences with images and actors. As for the form, I think he reliably surpassed Fellini, as Sorrentino is truly brilliant in that aspect. However, when it comes to content, Fellini reliably defeated Sorrentino. I saw beautifully shot images, and decadent scenes from the lives of today's Italian intellectuals and those who eagerly play that role, but overall, I don't really know what Sorrentino wanted to convey to me. I appreciate the soundtrack and I repeatedly played the song "Far l'amore" at home and enjoyed it. The party scenes seem like a great music video for the song, but while watching the film, I was rather bored, and my resulting overall impression of 50% and 3 weak stars represent some kind of compromise in relation to the work, about which, honestly, I don't know what to think. Paolo Sorrentino can do much better, and when he wants to, he can also convey something. In my case, he didn't succeed with this film... (2014-12-26)

Only Paolo Sorrentino can meditate on life like this. To understand The Great Beauty, one must have matured and have experienced some things in life. It's hard to find the right words here, as one's own experiences are not transferable. After watching the movie for the second time, I perceive everything much more deeply. Perhaps the third viewing will really break me apart... (85%) (2021-05-27)

Fellini for the new millennium, or an ode to Rome and the life of the campaign city’s upper crust packaged in a portrait of an old dandy looking back on his own life while raising question about the essence of artistic creation, creative distinction and faith. With its style straddling the line between parable, dreams and magical realism, The Great Beauty inevitably evokes the Fellini classics La Dolce Vita, 8½ and Roma, but it does not in any way copy or plagiarise them. It just addresses the same themes in the same spirit, though with respect to the age and misanthropic nature of the main character, it focuses on different elements and values. (2013-06-27)