Tag Archives: The Great Beauty

Two New Foreign Gems For Your Queue

We normally like to use For Your Queue to champion an underseen new release and pair that with an older film you may have missed. This week, however, there are two wonderful films coming out on DVD that you should check out. Both are foreign language titles – one that went sorely underseen, while the other won the Oscar.

The Past is the newest film from Asghar Farhadi, whose magnificent A Separation took home the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2012. Another intimate examination of rocky family bonds, The Past winds through one man’s journey into his estranged family’s crisis. Centered on a volatile and brilliant performance from Berenice Bejo, the film is another exceptional family drama from one of modern cinema’s most promising filmmakers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPUkGQAVwo

 

Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar winner The Great Beauty also drops today. A visual wonder, combining satire, silliness and social commentary with a loose narrative and the brilliant performance of veteran Italian actor Toni Servillo, the film lives up to not only its Oscar, but perhaps more impressively, to its “Fellini-esque” label.

Beautiful Indeed

 

by George Wolf

 

Ambitious in scope and bursting with visual wonder in nearly every frame, the Oscar-nominated The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza) is an Italian film that not only embraces Fellini comparisons, but revels in updating the “Fellini-esque” moniker with thoroughly modern sentiments.

Director/co-writer Paolo Sorrentino takes us into the upper crust of Rome society through the eyes of Jep Gambardella (the marvelous Toni Servillo), a writer, playboy and all-around rascal who for years has enjoyed living his longtime dream of being the one guest with enough social clout “to make the party a failure.”

Shortly after his 65th birthday bash, though, Jep is shaken by news regarding a friend from his past, and he begins to look beyond the superficial pleasures, searching for the simple, exquisite beauty he never stopped to appreciate.

Sorrentino displays a masterful ability to combine wry satire, silly comedy, and keen social commentary. Working with a loose, often surrealistic narrative and an unhurried pace, Sorrentino employs  veteran cinematographer Luca Bigazzi to unveil countless scenes of beauty, brilliantly driving home the point that Jep merely has to open his eyes to find what he is seeking.

Awash in wealth and decadence but grounded in the simple joys of life, The Great Beauty is an endlessly fascinating ride that never fails to live up to the grandness of its title.

 

 

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