Greetings from Lithuania."La grande bellezza" (2013) is without a doubt the best movie Paolo Sorrentino has made yet. Not only this is his best film to date, this is a one great movie on every account. I was captivated by it from the first frame, which opens on a pretty long party sequence till the very last frame. Yet, this movie isn't for everyone. Those who like clear and plot based movie might find this gem to difficult and even boring. Nevertheless, this is one of the very best Italian movies i have ever seen. Every scene in this movie is done very skilfully and it's just interesting to watch and to listen to characters, especially to our hero Jep Gambardella (superbly played by Toni Servillo), a "party lion", who at 65 starts to have some thought about life and starts to find and see beauty in everything, even the most bizarre things. Overall, "La grande bellezza" (or "The Great Beauty") was a huge surprise to me. Saw it first time just now, i would like to recommend this near masterpiece to everyone who liked great movie simply about life - it's not about plot, it's about moments here and now, the people, culture, even nightlife of some Bohemia of Rome. Great movie.

This looks like to be the message of the movie or at least the opinion of its main character, Jep Gambardella, a journalist who has failed as a writer. He has nevertheless ambitions and opinions about life and the world in his beautiful house in Rome with a view to the Colosseum. But when he reaches 65 he realizes that he has wasted his life in mundane high society parties being much endeared by the women even at that age. He becomes then very disillusioned and seeks often refuge in memories and nostalgia of the past. All this develops itself in beautiful images and scenes of interiors and exteriors and beautiful film framings including of mundane parties and balls. There are also discussions sometimes superficial, sometimes deeper about human nature and the life and behaviour of this or that character. We must not forget that we are among high society members. No worker or proletarian is ever seen. We see a lot of characters sometimes very strange in terms of faces and behaviours. A good movie about life or at better its vacuity for those who think so.

'La Grande Bellezza' is an extraordinary film. There are echoes of Michael Anontioni, Luis Bunel or even Peter Greenaway in it's styling; as well as a wonderfully shot paean to the beauty of Rome that somehow felt personal, at least to this sometime visitor of the Italian capital. An dilettante novelist and socialite playboy turns sixty-five, and continues living his life while looking back on the part that is over: in places the film feels like a stylised satire of the bourgeoisie, and the world of modern art. Yet in amongst these arid beginnings, it widens into a sympathetic portrait of a surprisingly subtle (but never unambiguously likable) man. The dialogue too, is funny and clever; and somehow although this should be exactly the sort of arty-pretentious movie that is too much for it's own good, it isn't. It was a left-field choice for an Oscar nomination; but a wholly deserved one.

This is one of the most visually remarkable films I've ever seen. It captures the spirit and beauty of Rome. The camera delves into corners and crevices of the night life and the daytime of this eternal city. This is the story of a man who has debauched his way through life. At sixty-five, he begins to wonder what happened. He is highly respected for his single book (he never wrote another) and has casual friends who are more users than true companions. He hearkens back to a relationship he had earlier, where a woman he could have had, instead ends up with a close friend, who, it turns out, never made her happy. The actions of the characters are vacuous and relatively feckless. He encounters artists who are mostly show and little substance. We see self-indulgent women wasting their lives. This is certainly more about the journey than the result. The people who are most solid in this man's life are the one's he takes for granted. Death seems to be around the corner and what do we do until that happens? Does it make any difference what we do? The beauty here is all around, but is wasted on most of these people.