THE GREAT BEAUTY (LA GRANDE BELLEZZA) World Cinema

At the age of 65, after years of being content to entertain the masses as the host of a parade of endless conga line and cocktail-fueled rooftop terrace extravaganzas frequented by Rome’s upper class – aristocrats, nobles, politicians, celebrities, artists and intellectuals – Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) begins to contemplate his own mortality when he learns that a former lover has died. An existential crisis looms as Jep awakens to the decadence of his lifestyle; he’s abandoned the artistic goals that fueled him as a young man for a life of affluence, excess and moral decline. THE GREAT BEAUTY is an ambitious homage to the resplendent history of Italian cinema that recalls the extravagance (LA DOLCE VITA), theatricality (SATYRICON) and personal (8 ½) works of the great Federico Fellini, but at the same time, Sorrentino’s cinematic feast proves that the story of great Italian cinema continues to unfold.