There is not just only one person who could make claim to being ‘the great beauty’ in Paolo Sorrentino’s stunning new masterpiece that focuses on Rome’s fast set as everybody is completely obsessed with being desired and admired by all. Well, by everyone in their clique at least. At the epicentre of all this frantic partygoing is Jep, a great wit who is living of the reputation of the acclaimed novella he wrote decades previously and whose claim to fame now is that he knows everyone in society who matters. He also has the added good fortune of a stunning apartment with an enormous roof deck that overlooks the ruins of the Coliseum. 
The movie opens with a party in progress on Jep’s deck : this one is to celebrate his 65th birthday … not that this crowd really need an excuse to party all night. The scene is like one glorious carnival with its cast full of eccentrics and oddities and with everyone intent on their version of what constitutes a good time. They are all completely self-absorbed which makes Jep their natural leader as he has the biggest ego of them all. It’s a tale of decadence and gross self-indulgence of heavily botoxed middle-aged Euro-trash who are still living as they did in the past before resorting to be titled aristocrats for hire.
Sorrentino sets up a series of scenarios, some of which like the dinner party with the cooking obsessed Bishop are hilariously funny, and others with a Japanese tourist dropping dead in the midday sun at the mere sight of Rome, are a tad too obscure. Together they all add up to what is like the libretto of a grand opera, with its dependence on such high drama, which hits you hard with its sense of love and loss, and for its intense, unbearable melancholy at the end.
It’s a total opulent visual smorgasbord that almost tips into sensual overload at times with it’s highly meticulous stylised details : a sheer delight. It’s so easy to see why every critic compares Mr Sorrentino to Fellini as he is unquestionably his natural successor. It helps too that he uses his favorite actor Toni Servillo as Jep who wants to be Peter Pan yet mocks everyone else who wants the same: its a stunning performance that it would be hard to imagine anyone else in the role. The Great Beauty is one of those rare movies that so utterly overwhelm you with awe and unfettered amazement that you simply have to view it a second time (at least) . It has been quite rightly nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Movie : go see it ….. at least once.
★★★★★★★★★★
