The Great Beauty (2013)

THE GREAT BEAUTY  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Paolo Sorrentino
    Toni Servillo, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Verdone,
    Pamela Villoresi, Aldo Ralli, Giusi Merli,
    Anita Kravos, Anna Della Rossa, Galatea Ranzi
Rome, through the eyes of a jaded socialite, a 65-year-old writer who published a widely acclaimed novel once, but has spent the last 40 years working for magazines and living the good life in the Eternal City. Jep (Toni Servillo) is mostly at peace with the choices he's made. He likes the attention he gets, and the tailored clothes, and the parties, and the beautiful people. And yet he looks bored, and he's reached a point where the passage of time can't be ignored. There's a lot of Fellini in the scattered narrative, and in the way Sorrentino skewers the decadent snobs Jep associates with. The camera follows along, gliding through the streets, under bridges, into noisy public squares and quiet spaces, pausing whenever something catches Sorrentino's eye (or Jep's), an insider's personalized tour of the city. In the end there's a sense of loss, if not regret, and a suggestion that maybe Jep will go to work on a second novel, after all. Or maybe not. The seductive powers of Rome are hard to resist, and Jep has spent the good part of a lifetime not resisting them. Old habits aren't easy to break. And there's bound to be another party tomorrow night.