- Darkstar Pictures Announces Free Online Film Festival!
- Stunning First Look at Indie Fantasy THE WANTING MARE [Trailer]
- Stunning First Look at Indie Fantasy THE WANTING MARE [Trailer]
- Stunning First Look at Indie Fantasy THE WANTING MARE [Trailer]
- SKYLINES Is Coming! [Poster Premiere]
- Who Hunts Who in HUNTER HUNTER? [Trailer]
- MONSTER HUNTER Coming for Christmas [Trailer]
- Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival Returns with In-Person Event [Line Up]
- LUNATIQUE Director Returns with WASTELAND 3 Promo [Short Film]
- Win a copy of JAMES CAMERON'S STORY OF SCIENCE FICTION [Contest]
- Slice of Life, Blade Runner inspired short
- Is Snowpeircer a sequel to Willy Wonka?
- Re: Yesterday
- Re: Yesterday
- Yesterday
- Re: White Night (or where do I get my 30 + from now?)
- Re: White Night (or where do I get my 30 + from now?)
- Re: White Night (or where do I get my 30 + from now?)
- Re: White Night (or where do I get my 30 + from now?)
- Re: White Night (or where do I get my 30 + from now?)
- LUNATIQUE Director Returns with WASTELAND 3 Promo [Short Film]
- A Comet Destoys Earth in GREENLAND Trailer
- Interactive WAR OF THE WORLDS Adaptation Out Now!
- 8K Trailer for Train to Busan Sequel PENINSULA Drops Hard!
- Making a Bomb Shelter in a Funhouse is a Bad Idea in IMPACT EVENT [Trailer]
- Retro Slave: FOX's Post-Apocalyptic Sitcom WOOPS!
- TRAIN TO BUSAN Sequel PENINSULA Gets a Teaser Trailer
- New on Blu-ray and DVD for March 11, 2020
- The Apocalypse Kills Women in ONLY [Trailer]
- Trailer for TheWalking Dead: World Beyond Spin-Off Series
- BORDERLANDS Movie From Eli Roth in Development
- A Woman's Mind Unravels in BIGHT HILL ROAD [Review]
- TIFF 2020: Vanlife Gets a Reality Check in NOMADLAND [Review]
- TIFF 2020: APPLES, THE WAY I SEE IT, PIECES OF A WOMAN & ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI [Capsule Reviews]
- TIFF 2020: The Truth Tellers Return with THE NEW CORPORATION: THE UNFORTUNATELY NECESSARY SEQUEL [Review]
- TIFF 2020: NEW ORDER is Brutal, Violent & a Must-See [Review]
- TIFF 2020: ENEMIES OF THE STATE, Or Are They? [Review]
- TIFF 2020: HOLLER Explores Life in a Dying Town [Review]
- Fantasia 2020: THE OAK ROOM, MARYGOROUND & CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER [Capsule Reviews]
- UNCLE PECKERHEAD is One Note but Fun [Review]
- Dave Franco Shows Potential as Director with Debut Feature THE RENTAL [Review]
- VIFF2020: Director Loretta Todd on the Making of Her Debut Feature MONKEY BEACH [Interview]
- TIFF 2020: APPLES, THE WAY I SEE IT, PIECES OF A WOMAN & ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI [Capsule Reviews]
- TIFF 2020: The Truth Tellers Return with THE NEW CORPORATION: THE UNFORTUNATELY NECESSARY SEQUEL [Review]
- TIFF 2020: NEW ORDER is Brutal, Violent & a Must-See [Review]
- TIFF 2020: ENEMIES OF THE STATE, Or Are They? [Review]
- NO ESCAPE Director Talks Influencers, Escape Rooms & Writing [Interview]
- TIFF 2020: HOLLER Explores Life in a Dying Town [Review]
- The Funny Side of Alien Invasions: You have to SAVE YOURSELVES! [Trailer]
- Kodi Smit-McPhee Goes to the Future to Save the Present in 2067 [Trailer]
- First Look at Denis Villeneuve's DUNE [Trailer]
- Fantasia 2020: LAPSIS, THE COLUMNIST, MINOR PREMISE, FEELS GOOD MAN & HAIL TO THE DEADITES [Capsule Reviews]
- BUNRAKU Writer/Director Returns with LX 2048 [Trailer]
- BLOOD QUANTUM Writer/Director Talks Inspiration, Zombies & Representation [Interview]
- Fantasia 2020: THE OAK ROOM, MARYGOROUND & CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER [Capsule Reviews]
- Sylvester McCoy Talks SENSE8, DOCTOR WHO & THE OWNERS [Interview]
- Fantasia 2020: PVT CHAT, PATRICK, TIME OF MOULTING, SLEEP [Capsule Reviews]
- Scholar Mitch Horowitz Breaks Down Faith, Horror & CURSED FILMS [Interview]
- Actor Cosmo Jarvis Talks About his New Thriller THE SHADOW OF VIOLENCE [Interview]
- Director Jay Cheel Talks Making of Horror Documentary CURSED FILMS [Interview]
- Europe is in Shambles in UNDERGODS [Trailer]
Jack In
Latest Comments
Latest Forum Posts
PA News
Latest Reviews
Older News
Crew
Marina Antunes
Editor in Chief
Vancouver, British Columbia
Christopher Webster
Managing Editor
Edmonton, Alberta
DN aka quietearth
Founder / Asst. Managing Editor
Denver, Colorado
Simon Read
UK Correspondent
Edinburgh, Scotland
Rick McGrath
Toronto Correspondent
Toronto, Ontario
Manuel de Layet
France Correspondent
Paris, France
rochefort
Austin Correspondent
Austin, Texas
Daniel Olmos
Corrispondente in Italia
Italy
Griffith Maloney aka Griffith Maloney
New York Correspondent
New York, NY
Stephanie O
Floating Correspondent
Quiet Earth Bunker
Jason Widgington
Montreal Correspondent
Montreal, Quebec
Carlos Prime
Austin Correspondent
Austin, TX
Latest news








I fell unabashedly in love with director Paolo Sorrentino's style after seeing his take on Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Il Divo was stylish, occasionally dark with a streak of comedy that came as a complete surprise (seriously, the cat scene is brilliant). I skipped over This Must Be the Place (the idea of spending any extended period of time with Sean Penn holds zero interest for me) so I was thrilled to finally see another Sorrentino offering, one that includes Toni Servillo (even though he turns up in nearly every Italian movie).
The Great Beauty stars Servillo as Jep Gambardella, an aging magazine writer, one time novelist and eternal party guy. He came to Rome in his youth in hopes of being popular enough to ruin all the parties. He succeeded and over the years has become an institution in a city full of them, a man whose name is known everywhere and whispered about by society folk. But Jep is bored. He's tired of the parties, tired of the women, tired of his job but not tired of the city that helped shape the man and for most of the movie's running time, Jep wonders said city, sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of others, trying to recapture the essence of the city that fuelled his youth.
Jep's wonderings through Rome are a gorgeous mix of old and new, high class and low brow, which beautifully parallels Jep's life (in part due to his job and partly his voracious appetite for life) which is forever inhabited by old and young alike. The parties are youthful and electric but set on the foreground of an ancient city that feels as foreign as it does majestic. One of the things I love most about The Great Beauty is how Sorrentino captures Rome as both a lived in place, full of history and familiar one moment and the next as foreign and new with discoveries still to be made. This parallel is most notable as Jep takes his romantic interests on a tour of the city (with the help of a man with keys to all the best buildings). She marvels at the beauty with fresh eyes while he revels in the familiarity of it all. Jep seems energized at having shared his knowledge with someone else and there's a sense that the walk has rejuvenated him in spirit.
The Great Beauty is a mess, a beautiful mess but none the less, a mess. Sorrentino wonders from place to place, sometimes the scenes make sense but most of the time they don't. Characters weave in and out, sometimes taking centre stage though we have no idea who they are or what role they play in Jep's life. The constant is Jep and the city and the two are like lost lovers finding themselves thrown together and rekindling their affair after decades apart. Rome and Jep are forever entwined and I love this idea that the city is forever changing and that Jep, in the act of living and connecting with the changing city, is re-invigorated.
The Great Beauty might be a mess but it's a hugely enjoyable mess, filled to the brim with an energy and vitality, a joy for life that rarely finds its way onto the silver screen. More than that, Jep, no longer a young man, holds onto his youthful passion for life and searches for it when he feels it slipping away. He and his friends, young and old alike, drink, dance and fuck until the wee hours of the morning but where most directors capture these scenes with a pathetic eye, Sorrentino focuses on the joy of the moment. I love that Sorrentino gives us something great to look forward to, a future that isn't just getting old and frail and eventually dying but that includes fun, happiness and a bit of badly choreographed dancing.
You might also like






