La Grande Bellezza "The Great Beauty" (film)
La Grande Bellezza "The Great Beauty" (Directed by Paolo Sorrentino)/2013
The
Great Beauty is a lush, sensual, dream-like wondering through modern-day
Rome. In it we witness the juxtaposition and the hidden layers behind modern life seen through the eyes of a successful theatre critic named
Jep. Jep has set out to achieve what he wanted in his career: ultimate fame. Jep has spent many decades pursuing pleasure and
establishing himself to be THE party of Rome. Upon his 60th
birthday Jep decides that he will not do anything that he does not want to do
anymore. However he begins to question the worthiness in pursuing
pleasure and beauty, and its perceived lack of spirituality.
The
Great Beauty is a lush, sensual, dream-like wondering through modern-day
Rome. In it we witness the juxtaposition and the hidden layers behind modern life seen through the eyes of a successful theatre critic named
Jep. Jep has set out to achieve what he wanted in his career: ultimate fame. Jep has spent many decades pursuing pleasure and
establishing himself to be THE party of Rome. Upon his 60th
birthday Jep decides that he will not do anything that he does not want to do
anymore. However he begins to question the worthiness in pursuing
pleasure and beauty, and its perceived lack of spirituality.
Feeling reflective, Jep seeks out old
friends and acquaintances. People from the past before he rose to fame,
people who are perhaps more “real”. At the same time he sees his friends,
whom he partied with for decades leave Rome in disappointment, not finding
anything true to their existence and feeling they had floated through the years
amongst the relentless current of hedomism.
Despite the famous, the powerful and
the beautiful people Jep meets, Jep’s favourite people are his dwarf editor,
his South American house maid and a high-class stripper. The film follows a week of Jep's life: his work, parties and relationships and
exposes his realisation of the hypocrisy in modern art and culture. He
interviews an avant-garde theatre actor that gives an ultimate performance depicting “pain”. She babbles words of wisdom but turns out to be simply a fame seeking
charlatan. He spends the night with a beautiful and intelligent woman, who
spends her spare hours taking selfies and wants him to acknowledge that she is
beautiful in her desperate self-inadequacy. He seeks spiritual advice from the archbishop who cannot offer anything
except recipes of rustic cuisine.
Behind the scenes we also see: poverty stricken aristocrats, no longer relevant with their status lost, earning money by making social appearances, the actress with an irrational temper of an artist but lacking self-confidence or direction, and a bourgeoisie house wife romanticising and promoting socialist values without self-reflection.
Behind the scenes we also see: poverty stricken aristocrats, no longer relevant with their status lost, earning money by making social appearances, the actress with an irrational temper of an artist but lacking self-confidence or direction, and a bourgeoisie house wife romanticising and promoting socialist values without self-reflection.
Jep is a hedonist but makes no
pretence to be otherwise. The Great Beauty pokes fun at the materialistic,
narcissistic, and superficially intellectual culture of the elites. While
the film is set in Rome, the message of the film is applicable to any other place
in the modern world. On the other hand, the film does not fully condemn the
life of a Roman elite as wasted, as Jep actually enjoys his wealth and fame.
He enjoys interesting and beautiful people he meets, a few friends he has and
the aesthetic and physical pleasure that it can provide. Jep however is
an exception, as others experience the dilemma of having enjoyed their life in Rome yet
feeling that it has been that of frivolous pleasures and feeling empty in search of something more "real". Perhaps this search for realism amongst the chaos of modernity may be hedonism itself as people find comfort and pleasure in something real and raw rather than illusory. Looking at the ancient architecture that dominates the landscape of Rome in the
background, one is reminded of the many generations of Romans that embraced
hedonism which also failed to fill the void of longing.
The film is reminiscent of Fellini’s 8
½ (which is also reviewed on this blog). However I would propose that 8 ½
was an immersion into the mind of a hedonist where The Great Beauty is a
narrative of cultural absurdities portrayed through a hedonist and the beauty within them. Both films
play on society’s desire for beauty and pleasure and let us vicariously
live through that in the films. They are exquisite to watch. However in the end, 8 ½ takes a
determinative approach where the protagonist realises frivolities in his
existence and comes to regret and repent. By contrast The Greaty Beauty is more post-modernist in
that it portrays good and bad in all the inconsistencies that lie in modern
existence. What is The Great Beauty? The film’s message appears to be:
life and all that is within.
