InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Delight
Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
haventmadeupmymindyet
Visually stunning. Luca Bigazzi's cinematography is outstanding not to mention Toni Servillo's performance. Paolo Sorrentino made Italians proud again!
Janjira Gardner
Sorrentino's La Grande Bellezza is often compared with Fellini's La Dolce Vita. This is easy enough to see, both films being set in the Eternal City and peopled with an assortment of odd and/or striking characters; yet, the comparison to Fellini applies to the first 30 minutes only, during the first of three parties. After, in the early morning light, the mood changes as we begin to learn about the previous night's Birthday Boy who has turned sixty-five. From this point, unhurriedly, the film diverges from Fellini. Why, because Sorrentino's subject is different. In a way, Le Grande Bellezza becomes a polemic that makes use of satire, irony, gut feelings, touches of magic realism, and one rather good inside joke (not a spoiler: the 'aging' 42-year old stripper – an object of parental concern - was played by someone ten years older; but, for the punchline, you must see the movie.) La Grande Bellezza is about memory, loss, self-assessment, regret, and renewal; the flashes of beauty too often missed; everything that is buried beneath quotidian existence and "the incessant blah, blah, blah" (end quote). Finally, some viewers say there is too much water under the bridge in the final five minutes – but it is a matter of sensibility and the balance between frenzy and tranquility
851222
Greetings from Lithuania."La grande bellezza" (2013) is without a doubt the best movie Paolo Sorrentino has made yet. Not only this is his best film to date, this is a one great movie on every account. I was captivated by it from the first frame, which opens on a pretty long party sequence till the very last frame. Yet, this movie isn't for everyone. Those who like clear and plot based movie might find this gem to difficult and even boring. Nevertheless, this is one of the very best Italian movies i have ever seen. Every scene in this movie is done very skilfully and it's just interesting to watch and to listen to characters, especially to our hero Jep Gambardella (superbly played by Toni Servillo), a "party lion", who at 65 starts to have some thought about life and starts to find and see beauty in everything, even the most bizarre things. Overall, "La grande bellezza" (or "The Great Beauty") was a huge surprise to me. Saw it first time just now, i would like to recommend this near masterpiece to everyone who liked great movie simply about life - it's not about plot, it's about moments here and now, the people, culture, even nightlife of some Bohemia of Rome. Great movie.
Begovil
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I had to finish it in "mute" because I could not stand it. The characters are awful, the main one (Jeb) is just one piece of meat with a pair of eyes. The dialogs are so empty that they seem to have been written by a ten year old (with a zero IQ). How on earth could this movie win an Oscar? Were the judges high on "meth"? It seems quite likely that they were blinded by the beauty of Rome... Which is, just, sad. Because the photography in this movie is so flawless that, instead of making a beautiful documentary, they had to bore us to death with this sordid degeneration of the human being. Because Roman people are, as shown by the director, a bunch of provincial misogynistic sex-addicts dressed in Armani and Vera Wang, while talking and doing crap. Now, I can confirm that the Oscars are getting far too pretentious, lacking of any sort of taste. And that is because this movie is, simply, disgusting.
