La Grande Bellezza Scenes

[Frederic Laureano]

Includedin the event

* Exclusive entrance to the Rooftop 'La grande Bellezza' of Palazzo Pamphilj where scenes from the Oscar winning film were set

* Aperitif on the Rooftop (White or red wine, taste of Italian cheeses with honey and relish, selection of Italian salami)

* Open air Opera Concert on the Rooftop with a 360 wiew of Rome

* Introduction to the musical program in English

* Guided tour after the Concert to the Terrace Borromini located on the fourth floor of the Palace with a wonderful wiew of Navona square

* In Winter/Autumn The Terrace La Grande Bellezza will be heated by lamps and covered by a glass structure

Entry to the event is allowed from 30 minutes before the event starts. The aperitivo will be served at the beginning of the event, after the beginning no admission will be allowed and no refund is possible.

Please inform us in case of food allergies directly after ordering. We must receive this information no later than 2 days before the event.

The Great Beauty (Italian: La grande bellezza [la ˈɡrande belˈlettsa]) is a 2013 art drama film co-written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Filming took place in Rome starting on 9 August 2012. It premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened in competition for the Palme d'Or.[3] It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival,[4] the 2013 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (winning Grand Prix), and at the 2013 Reykjavik European Film Festival.

Jep Gambardella is a 65-year-old seasoned journalist and theater critic, a fascinating man, mostly committed to wandering among the social events of a Rome immersed in the beauty of its history and in the superficiality of its inhabitants today, in a merciless contrast. He also ventured into creative writing in his youth: he is the author of only one work called The Human Apparatus. Despite the appreciation and the many awards he received, Jep has not written other books, not only for his laziness but above all for a creative block from which he cannot escape. The purpose of his existence has been to become a "socialite", but not just any socialite, but "the king of society".

Jep is surrounded by several friends: Romano, a playwright who is perpetually on the leash of a young woman who exploits him; Lello, a mouthy and wealthy toy seller; Viola, a wealthy bourgeois and mother of a son with serious mental problems named Andrea; Stefania, a self-centred radical chic writer; Dadina, the dwarf editor of the newspaper where Jep works.

One morning, he meets the husband of Elisa, a woman who has been Jep's first and probably only love: the man announces that Elisa has died, leaving behind only a diary in which the woman tells of her love for Jep; thus, her husband discovered that he had been a mere surrogate for 35 years, nothing more than "a good companion". Elisa's husband, now afflicted and grieved, will soon find consolation in the affectionate welcome of his foreign maid. After this episode, Jep begins a profound and melancholic reinterpretation of his life and a long meditation on himself and on the world around him. And, above all, he thinks about starting to write again.

During the following days, Jep meets Ramona, a stripper with painful secrets, and Cardinal Bellucci, in whom the passion for cooking is more alive than his Catholic faith; Jep is gradually convinced of the futility and uselessness of his existence. Soon his "vicious circle" also breaks down: Ramona, with whom he had established an innocent and profound relationship, dies of an incurable disease; Romano, disappointed by the deceptive attractiveness of Rome, leaves the city, farewelling only Jep; Stefania, humiliated by Jep, who had revealed her secrets and her lies to her face, left Jep's worldly circle; Viola, on the other hand, after the death of her son, donates all her possessions to the Church and becomes a missionary in Africa.

Just when hopes seem to abandon Jep once and for all, he is saved by a new episode: after a meeting, pushed by Dadina, who wants to get an interview with a "Saint", a Catholic missionary nun in the Third World, Jep goes to Giglio Island to report on the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia. Right here, remembering his first meeting with Elisa in a flashback, a glimmer of hope rekindles in him: his next novel is finally ready to come to light.

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating, based on 135 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Dazzlingly ambitious, beautifully filmed, and thoroughly enthralling, The Great Beauty offers virtuoso filmmaking from writer/director Paolo Sorrentino."[13] The film holds a score of 86/100 on Metacritic based on 34 reviews, signifying "universal acclaim".[14]

Robbie Collin at The Daily Telegraph awarded Sorrentino's film the maximum five stars and described it as "a shimmering coup de cinema". He likened it to Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City and Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita in its ambition to record a period of Roman history on film. "Rossellini covered the Nazi occupation of 1944; Fellini the seductive, empty hedonism of the years that followed. Sorrentino's plan is to do the same for the Berlusconi era," he wrote.[15] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter stated "Sorrentino's vision of moral chaos and disorder, spiritual and emotional emptiness at this moment in time is even darker than Fellini's (though Ettore Scola's The Terrace certainly comes in somewhere)."[16] Critics have also identified other purposefully explicit film homages: to Roma, 8,[17] Scola's Splendor,[citation needed] Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte.[18] Spanish film director Pedro Almodvar named the film as one of the twelve best films of 2013, placing it second in his list.[19] In 2016, the film was ranked among the 100 greatest films since 2000 in an international critics poll by 177 critics around the world.[20] It is currently director Paolo Sorrentino's second highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes.[21]

Paolo Sorrentinos La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) is well-named. Sure, its episodic and goes on a bit long (148 minutes), and I kept seeing endings before the ending. Oh, its going to end here. Then it didnt. Or here. No. But its ending was a good ending, probably better than the other endings I felt. Above all, its beautiful to look at and to contemplate. Its pungent in its beauty.

Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), 65, wise in his age, bemused in his stance, idle with his time, is on a sort of search. Hes not searching for meaning so much as a reason to keep going. At one point he says, I cant waste any more time doing things I dont want to do, and this is just before he disappears rather than look at the naked photos of a beautiful woman, Orietta (Isabella Ferrari), he just slept with. So: high standards. At another point he sees a giraffe, a beautiful giraffe staring down from on high and surrounded by a half-circle of ancient Roman columns; and the two, Jep and the giraffe, stare at each other until Jeps magician-friend arrives and explains the giraffe. Its part of his act. He makes it disappear. And Jep leans close and asks, Can you make me disappear? Thats when we realize the extent of Jeps ennui. He shows the world a bemused face, but inside, particularly in the morning light after another party, hes desperate. His magician-friend has to tell him that if he could make people disappear he wouldnt be where he was. Its just a trick, he says.

A life in tatters

On the surface, Jep has little to complain about. Hes a spry 65, still living the sweet life, la dolce vita, in modern-day Rome, with friends, parties, work, women, and a beautiful apartment with a balcony overlooking the Colosseum. Im talking the fucking Colosseum. He came to Rome at 26 and got sucked into the whirl of the high life, and he didnt just want to be part of it; he wanted to be its king. He wrote a slim novel, acclaimed, called The Human Apparatus, and has been living off of that, and a few writing gigs and interviews for major magazines, ever since. He wants to write more but wine, women and parties keep getting in the way.

Sound familiar? Its basically the dilemma of Marcello Rubini, Marcello Mastroiannis character in Fellinis La Dolce Vita. Rubini kept getting sucked into la dolce vita, which wasnt (dolce), while Jep keeps searching for la grand bellezza, which, ultimately, is (bello).

We get disconnected, sometimes absurd scenes a la Fellini. Jep watches a performance artist, naked but for a diaphanous hijab, run into an ancient stone structure, then declare, to the outdoor audience, I dont love you! to applause. Turns out hes interviewing her for his magazine and with a smile refuses to accept any of her artistic responses. He tries to get to know his neighbor, who refuses to speak, and hosts parties on his balcony, to friends who refuse to shut up. He gets into it with one friend, a beautiful woman and Communist Party member named Stefania (Galatea Ranzi). She brags about all she does, the children shes raised, the 11 books shes written, and refuses to see the lies she lives with every day. She demands he gives examples. He does, to the discomfort of everyone else, and with that same sad smile on his face. Then he says this:

Stefania, mother and woman, youre 53 with a life in tatters like the rest of us. Instead of acting superior and treating us with contempt, you should look at us with affection. Were all on the brink of despair. All we can do is look each other in the face, keep each other company, joke a little. Don't you agree?

This? The great love of his life, Elisa, seen in flashback (Anna Luisa Capasa), dies, and her husband of 35 years comes to Jep in tears, telling him She always loved you. Hed cracked her diary and read her thoughts and he barely comes up in them. Thirty five years and Im mentioned as a good companion, he says. Jep tries to comfort him, though hes secretly thrilled, though later in the movie its Jep who wants answers. Elisa, long ago, left him so he wants to know why she did this if she loved him, and he asks if he can read that diary. But by this point its been burned. By this point the widower is now with another woman, and happy again, and life continues.

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