“This is how it always ends. With death. But first there was life, hidden beneath the blah, blah, blah... It's all settled beneath the chitter chatter and the noise, silence and sentiment, emotion and fear. The haggard, inconstant flashes of beauty”.
One of the films mentioned in passing on my list of top bedbound viewings was the aptly-named feature entitled The Great Beauty (La Grande Belleza in Italian). I watched it way back when my toes had not yet touched the ground since the accident, but it has stayed with me in numerous ways beyond that single experience.
Without going into its entire long list of accolades, Paolo Sorrentino's film secured the crème de la crème of foreign film laurels at the Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar Awards in its year of distribution, 2013. Although not a current theatre release, I write this as a post-dated appreciation in the off-chance that it has somehow passed under your radar. This ambitious and enthralling work of art provides an insight into the human condition and the world in which it inhabits with a vision that is somehow simultaneously opulent and understated. The director and cinematographer encapsulate both the smallest detail and the most overt statement of beauty and grace - from the introspective contemplation of fear to the extravagant classical Italian architecture, we are coaxed into revelling in life's passions and regrets with every turn of the protagonist through the rapturous crowds and tranquil courtyards of Rome.
Jep Gambardella, an ageing socialite and celebrity writer of a single novel decades previously, reaches his 65th birthday with all the grandeur and debauchery expected of society's most seasoned party-goers. Yet behind this electric revelry is not only the desire to live but the desire to be valued; approaching their own irrelevance these sixty-somethings are desperate just to matter. The film follows Gambardella's own journey, via art, music, saints, parties and philosophies, in coming to terms with his past and his future, his friends and his foes, in order to free himself from the anxieties over his own destiny. With bitterness-tinged passion The Great Beauty follows an often surreal, dreamlike logic, which, combined with the glaring glamour and magnificence of each framed shot, regales a strange, vivid and eloquent tale of one man's search for himself.
NB: if you are in need of some inspiration for your next European city break, then watching this film will leave you itching to visit Rome and explore its decadent palazzos and hushed, hidden cloisters. Whet your appetite with some of the most iconic locations from the film here.
Jep Gambardella, an ageing socialite and celebrity writer of a single novel decades previously, reaches his 65th birthday with all the grandeur and debauchery expected of society's most seasoned party-goers. Yet behind this electric revelry is not only the desire to live but the desire to be valued; approaching their own irrelevance these sixty-somethings are desperate just to matter. The film follows Gambardella's own journey, via art, music, saints, parties and philosophies, in coming to terms with his past and his future, his friends and his foes, in order to free himself from the anxieties over his own destiny. With bitterness-tinged passion The Great Beauty follows an often surreal, dreamlike logic, which, combined with the glaring glamour and magnificence of each framed shot, regales a strange, vivid and eloquent tale of one man's search for himself.
NB: if you are in need of some inspiration for your next European city break, then watching this film will leave you itching to visit Rome and explore its decadent palazzos and hushed, hidden cloisters. Whet your appetite with some of the most iconic locations from the film here.
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