Reviews of the film "Great Beauty" are of interest to everyone who knows a lot about world cinema. This is one of the most successful works of the Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, which was released in 2013. In this article, we recall the plot of the film, as well as share information about the director and the actors who took part in the filming. In addition, you will find out what awards and reviews the tape has collected.
History of creation
Reviews for the movie "Great Beauty" were mostly positive. This is especially valuable when you consider that its premiere took place at one of the largest film forums in the world.
The 2013 film “Great Beauty” was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, it entered the main competition program, and fought for the Golden Palm Branch. However, he was not destined to win a prize. Abdelatif Keshish took the main award for the melodrama Life Adele.
The genre of "Great Beauty" is defined differently by viewers and critics. Someone here sees a satirical tragicomedy, someone epic cinema satire. Apparently, the picture is something in between. Its creator, director Sorrentino, noted that he was trying to create a visual portrait of modern Rome, as if drowning in a decadent bliss. Critics and journalists in reviews of the film "Great Beauty" often compared it with Federico Fellini's drama "Sweet Life", calling it a free remake and a kind of rethinking.
Awards
Despite the fact that the painting did not get the Golden Palm Branch, its awards did not deprive it. The film La grande bellezza immediately received four prizes of the European Film Academy. The victory was won in the nominations "Best European Film", "Best Director's Work", "Best Actor" and "Best Editing".
Many awards and nominations "Great Beauty" received at festivals around the world. The film won the Oscar as the best film in a foreign language. In general, most world critics recognized her as one of the best films of 2013.
Among other significant awards of La grande bellezza tape, it is worth noting the Italian Golden Globe for best cinematography (the award was received by Luca Brigacii), five Silver Ribbons (for best male role, best male and female supporting roles, best camera work and sound ) The tape also received the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the New York Film Critics Award.
She was also nominated for the British Independent Film Award, the Sputnik Press Academy International Prize, the Independent Spirit American film award, the Critics' Choice Award, the Danish National Film Critics Association's Bodil Prize, the Spanish national film award Goya , France's national film award Cesar.
Summary
According to the plot of "Great Beauty", the main character, the popular writer Jepp Gambardella performed by Tony Servillo, is at the center of the story. He wrote the sensational bestseller "The Human Machine", which became popular almost all over the world.
At the beginning of the picture, the writer turns 65 years old, he celebrates his anniversary on the roof of a fashionable house in the center of Rome. The next morning, after a sleepless night, he goes for a walk along the embankment of the Italian capital, immersed in nostalgia for the past, his youth spent in Naples, when he moved to Rome.
Gambardella is talented, cynical and rich. He owns a two-story apartment, from which a stunning view of the Colosseum opens. He spends nights at parties, going from one to another. In the afternoon, he moonlights as a columnist in a fashion magazine, maintaining contact with representatives of the local creative elite.
First love
Changes in his life begin to happen when one day an elderly bearded man comes to him, who reports that his first and, in fact, only love has passed away. They broke up about forty years ago, this woman passed away from his life, without telling him the true reason. The man who came to Gambardella turned out to be her husband. After her death, he read in his diary that the writer throughout her life was her main and only love, she was waiting for him and hoped that they would reunite. Since then, Jepa begins to seriously think about aimlessly spent years, asking himself sacred questions, trying to understand himself, to understand if he had not spent his whole life in vain.
A red thread through the entire film “Great Beauty” in 2013 is a poem by Robert Burns entitled “My Heart is in the Mountains”, presented in an adaptation by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. It accompanies the writer in the most difficult moments of his fate.
Scene
Of great importance for the picture are the places against which its events unfold. These are popular Roman tourist sites world famous. But at the same time, places familiar to everyone appear from unusual angles and at non-standard times of the day. In this, Sorrentino continues the tradition begun by Fellini in the 1972 comedy dramatic parable “Rome”.
For example, the events of the very first scene in which one of the tourists faints takes place near the Aqua Paola fountain on the Yanikul hill. Rome itself is removed from the piazza Garibaldi. When the mother searches for the lost child, she is not far from the church of San Pietro in Montorio on the same hill.
At night, the hero, accompanied by a certain Stefano, visits the most famous Roman museums - the Spadla Gallery, the Capitoline Museum, the Medici Villa, and he takes selfies against the background of the Niobil sculpture group by the Florentine sculptor Giamboloni.
Reviews
Critics warmly received the picture at the Cannes Film Festival. The camera work of Luca Bigazzi was especially highly appreciated, who managed to remove the majestic and sultry, but at the same time completely lifeless Rome.
In reviews of the film "Great Beauty", domestic critics, however, noted with displeasure the Russian name of the tape. Emphasizing that the Italian language is better than Russian to indicate lofty concepts, therefore, this name should be quoted, and the name "Beauties" might be more successful. At the same time, almost all unanimously confirmed that Sorrentino removed one of his best works. This is a great movie, however, it still falls short of world classics like Fellini.
Italian traditions
It is clear that the director is striving to develop. If in his previous work, the tragicomedy "Wherever you are," he told a story in the American tradition, now he decided to do it in Italian. On native soil, he turned in all its glory, surrendering to the atmosphere of empty and imposing decadence.
When summing up the year, the tape "Great Beauty" (Italy, France) was included in the list of best films of the year. In their personal list of outstanding works of the year, the tape was made by all authoritative world publications and directors.
Negative feedback
For many, the tape aroused very mixed emotions. For example, some noted that the film focused on the motives of Italian cinema throughout the 20th century. In particular, there are references to Mario Monicelli, Ettore Skola, Marco Bellocchio.
Sorrentino makes an attempt to continue the theme, begun by Italian directors at different times, but as a result he only gets imitations and repetitions. He can’t tell the viewer anything fundamentally new.
Dissatisfied viewers noted that the film is practically missing the plot. However, others saw this as a sign not of weakness, but of the independence of this work of art.
Tony servillo
The only main role in the film is played by Tony Servillo. In "Great Beauty", he plays the popular and famous writer Jepp Gambardella. This is an Italian actor and director, who became famous in the drama and opera theater.
Debuting on the big screen in 1992 in the film "Death of a mathematician from Naples", he soon became a real star of national cinema. Later, international fame came to him.
According to critics, the role of an aging playboy writer in Great Beauty has become one of the pinnacles of his work. Prior to that, he starred in several more tapes, which were also nominated for the Golden Palm Branch. He played the role of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti in the biographical drama "Amazing", the mafia boss in the crime drama Matteo Garrone "Gomorrah".
Of his recent works, it is worth highlighting the role in the comedy of Francesco Amato "Give yourself freedom" and the thriller Donato Carrizi "Girl in the Fog".
Interestingly, Servillo is not only an actor, he became a successful opera singer. Among his most successful productions are “Desperate Husband” by Domenico Cimarosa, “Boris Godunov” by Modest Mussorgsky, “Fidelio” by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Carlo Verdone
Many famous Italian actors in "Great Beauty" played vivid and prominent roles. Their work is also worth mentioning.
Verdone, 68, who created the image of Romano, received the Silver Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actor.
This is an Italian actor and director, the son of the famous critic Mario Verdone, who graduated from La Sapienza University in Rome. In 1980, he made his debut immediately as an actor and director in the film "Beautiful Bag." A year later, released a second work entitled "White, Red and Green." Sergio Leone, who became one of the producers, drew attention to her. The film was a stunning success, after which Verdone primarily worked in the genre of comedy in Italian.
One of his most famous directorial works in Russia is the melodrama "Me and My Sister", in which he plays the main role with Ornella Muti. Verdone appears as a classical musician, married to a capricious cellist.
His last work at the moment is the 2016 film Little Troubles.
Sabrina Ferilli
The Italian actress Sabrina Ferilli won the Silver Ribbon Award for Best Actress in a supporting actress in the film Great Beauty, creating the image of Ramona.
Ferilli, 54, was born in Rome in the family of the Communist Party speaker of the Lazio regional parliament. Leftist moods were brought up in her from childhood, today she does not hide this.
After school, she taught diction, did not go to the porn industry, where she was persistently called because of her outstanding forms. She began her creative career at the Roman Center for Cinematography. She first appeared on the screen in 1987 in the film "Rimini, Rimini." Her first high-profile work was the painting "Red American", which was released in 1991.
After that, they began to actively invite her to other projects, to pay really big fees. In 1993, she received an award from Italian film critics as the best actress of the year for her role in the film "A Beautiful Life." She played a lot on television, where she also gained popularity. Her characters have always been sincere and passionate. In particular, from 1998 to 2006 she was the main character of the Franco-Italian TV series "Dalida", dedicated to the biography of the French singer of Italian origin.
After success in Sorrentino's film, she starred in Paolo Genovese’s drama Place of Meeting. This is a story about nine people who come to the same place to meet a certain stranger who is asked to fulfill their most cherished desire. He agrees, but you have to pay your price for everything. The more difficult it is to fulfill a dream, the higher the price that should be paid for it.
Carlo Buccirosso
Buccirosso plays Lello Cava. This is an Italian theater comedian and director who starred in many films by Carlo Vanzini.
He began working with Sorrentino in 2008, when he appeared in his tape “Amazing” in the image of Paolo Chirin Pomichino. For this work, he was nominated for the Italian national David Di Donatello Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2017, he received the Pasinett Prize as part of an actor’s ensemble for his work in the crime comedy of the Manetti brothers “Love and Bullet”.
Paolo Sorrentino
The director of "Great Beauty" Paolo Sorrentino, according to critics, made one of his best films. For the Italian director, this was already the sixth full-length work.
Critics consider him one of the most talented filmmakers in the world among those who made a name for themselves in the 21st century. Sorrentino made his first film in 2001. It was the tape "Extra Man." It was followed by the work "Consequences of love" and "Friend of the family."
In 2016, he tried himself as a director, filming the popular TV series Young Dad. His last work at the moment is the biographical drama "Loro", dedicated to Silvio Berlusconi.