Rome. Jep Gambardella (65) is a journalist who wrote a famous novel, "The Human Apparatus", 40 years ago and never wrote anything since, and now spends his time partying with high society during the night. 40 years ago, Jep was also in love with a girl, Elisa, but she decided to marry another man. Elisa's husband shows up and informs Jep she died. Jep starts questioning his life. He starts a friendship with Ramona (42), a stripped, but she dies from a disease. Jep's friend, Viola, is shocked when he mentally ill son commits suicide, so she donates all her possession to the church. Jep's friend Romano, an aspiring writer who is only tolerated by his younger girlfriend who often flirts with other men, decides to quit this lifestyle and leave Rome. Jep and his dwarf editor Dadina want to speak to a 103-year old nun who spent her life in the Third World, but she refuses to give an interview. Upon arriving at an island, Jep remembers his encounter with Elisa again, and this inspires him to start working on a new novel.
Paolo Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty" isn't a movie about a story, but rather, just like the title hints at, a meditation on beauty found all around us in the world. It is also a movie about sadness that some people are not part of that beauty that gives happiness, but just passive observers of it. And it is also a contemplation on the question if beauty alone can give meaning to life. The protagonist Jep is a man who enjoys beauty in life, from the classic architecture of Rome, women, parties, fancy suits, alcohol, literature and art, but his time has passed. He only contributed to art once as a writer 40 years ago, when he was in love with Elisa, but with her gone, his reason or meaning to try to do anything also went with her. After having sex with a woman in the present, he admits: "At my age, a beauty isn't enough". There is this melancholic sense that despite beauty, it can still leave people feeling empty, a feeling of a lack of purpose. He feels as if his end is near, but that he is still wondering about what he accomplished in life.
Rome is basically a character in the movie. Sorrentino creates wonderfully aesthetic images that are simply beautiful to look at. The camera drives in the opening shots are exquisite: the camera "exits" from the darkness of a cannon, and then moves away as it fires in the afternoon. At around 11 minutes into the film, there is a stylish choreography of a dance where on the left row the men are clapping on one side, on the right row the women are clapping on the other side, while the camera zooms in on Jep in the middle, looking into the camera. There are also great transitions, such as the one where the old Jep is in the sea, he spots a boat heading his way, he dives, and then the young Jep emerges from the water, to catapult us into an elegant flashback. "The Great Beauty" is more a collection of episodes about modern life in Rome than a clear narrative, similarly like Fellini did it in his homages to the city, as well as Proust's novel "In Search for Lost Time". In another random episode, after the pretentious Stefania says that "Rome is pure collectivism", a triggered Jep gives a feisty response: "Do you know that Flaubert wanted to write a book about nothing? If he'd met you, we'd have had a great book! What a shame!" There is also a neat little sequence where Jep observes five walls with thousands of photos of a man, whose entire life was caught on photos from his childhood, as his father was making one photo of him each day. The last 30 minutes of the film don't work, though. There is this random, pointless new character of a 103-year old nun, but this doesn't contribute to anything to Jep's state of mind, nor does it give any revelation. The ending is also a somewhat missed opportunity: it needed something more than just a location to give Jep his inspiration and joie de vivre back. It doesn't feel earned. One can compare this to the ending of the last episode of the TV series "Monk", where the hero finds a surprising revelation in life. Something like that would have been more fitting for Jep's arc, since this randomness does feel slightly vague in the incomplete conclusion.
Grade:+++
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