LA GRANDE BELLEZZA directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy, 2013)
Just as Marcello Mastroianni became synonymous with the films of Federico Fellini, Toni Servillo is a perfect match for Paolo Sorrentino.
Following from Le Consequenze dell’amore (2004) and Il Divo (2008) this is the third movie the gifted Neapolitan director has made with this brilliant actor.
The Fellini connections are also obvious both in the richly visual style of filmmaking and, here, with the setting. Yet, although this movie is rooted in similar themes of hedonistic excess, the Rome of La Grande Bellezza is a very different one from La Dolce Vita of 1960.
Servillo plays Jep Gambardella, a 65 year-old journalist who wrote one acclaimed novel in his twenties but nothing of note since. He seems largely content to amble around the city as a wry observer of the high and low cultural scene. Continue reading
I’ve been living in Italy for over sixteen years now , and I love movies, but I still wouldn’t count myself as an expert of Italian contemporary cinema. On the contrary, I confess that, until fairly recently, I had a snobbish, and blinkered attitude to the films produced in my adopted country.
Titta Di Girolamo (Toni Servillo) is a man with a secret. A solitary, taciturn, poker-faced man – rich but sad. A chain smoker and who takes heroine once a week but who gets no pleasure from either habit. He watches an attractive woman who works in the hotel where he lives. He’s like a character from Kafka. His secret is one he dares not confess but the woman is his downfall and the consequences are inevitable.
