The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino)

[Grouchy]

[Grouchy]

No thread for this one? I could have sworn there was.

Anyway, amazing. Some friends had highly recommended This Must Be the Place to me, and although I ended up avoiding it, I'm gonna make it a priority.

The thing I take the most away from this film is how it makes a highly cinematic work out of very complex inner conflict. I think that's something so-called "cutting edge" cinema refuses to pick up today, maybe even since the 1970s with a lot of honorable exceptions, of course. It's an expensive, epic film and personally, if Antonioni had ever been as talented as this guy, I would enjoy his films more.

And Rome, Jesus Fucking Christ, that city. I've been in it for less than three days and it was almost an act of masochism to leave.

[wigwam]

:|

[ledfloyd]

To me this felt like a less inspired remake of La Dolce Vita. Blah, blah, blah, blah indeed.

[Grouchy]

It does cover similar ground, in a different way. But yeah, La Dolce Vita is a huge influence here.

[baby doll]

if Antonioni had ever been as talented as this guy, I would enjoy his films more.

Yeah, all those carefully choreographed shots of figures against landscapes and enigmatic stories--who needs that shit? Just turn everything up to eleven and make every point not only immediately legible but big fat cliché that viewers will accept without having to think too much about it: Performance artists are phonies. Leftist women writers are phonies who just need to get laid. Being in love makes you a great writer. Prostitutes have hearts of gold (and AIDS, apparently), and hanging out with them makes you a better person. Roots are important. Blah blah blah.

[Grouchy]

Eh, those are a lot of conclusions you arrived at.

[

Show Spoiler

I don't even know if the stripper (technically not a prostitute, but ok) dies from AIDS. The film doesn't tell you that.

]

[baby doll]

Eh, those are a lot of conclusions you arrived at.

[

Show Spoiler

I don't even know if the stripper (technically not a prostitute, but ok) dies from AIDS. The film doesn't tell you that.

]

Well, that's why I said apparently. On the whole, this is a movie where the most obvious conclusion is usually the correct one.

[Izzy Black]

if Antonioni had ever been as talented as this guy, I would enjoy his films more.

lol

[ledfloyd]

lol

I missed that the first time round. Yikes.

[Grouchy]

I missed that the first time round. Yikes.

Come on, that was just a jab. Izzy knows I hate the Michelangelo.

But I don't think it's fair to say "this is redundant of La Dolce Vita" as if that's a flaw. The Fellini movie is a period-defining masterpiece and besides, it speaks of an Italy that's over 50 years old. After all those years of changes, the Berlusconi era and such, I think it's perfectly valid to make a film that covers some of the same ground.

[ledfloyd]

Come on, that was just a jab. Izzy knows I hate the Michelangelo.

But I don't think it's fair to say "this is redundant of La Dolce Vita" as if that's a flaw. The Fellini movie is a period-defining masterpiece and besides, it speaks of an Italy that's over 50 years old. After all those years of changes, the Berlusconi era and such, I think it's perfectly valid to make a film that covers some of the same ground.

It's not so much that its redundant. It just openly invites you to compare it to a film it can't help but pale in comparison too.

[Grouchy]

It's not so much that its redundant. It just openly invites you to compare it to a film it can't help but pale in comparison too.

It's Fellini. How can you not pale in comparison?

[baby doll]

It's Fellini. How can you not pale in comparison?

If you're Antonioni.

[Grouchy]

If you're Antonioni.

Puh-lease.

[ledfloyd]

It's Fellini. How can you not pale in comparison?

So why insist the audience make the comparison?

[Grouchy]

So why insist the audience make the comparison?

Well, if Sorrentino's film wasn't Italian and set in Rome, would you make the comparison?

I agree, La Dolce Vita is an influence here, but it's also a milestone of cinema and therefore unavoidable. Can't a movie re-visit the same themes? How many serial killers are there? Nobody compares each and every one to The Silence of the Lambs.

[ledfloyd]

If it was a series of vignettes about a journalist going to a bunch of parties and feeling relatively unfulfilled, than yeah. But that's probably all beside the point. If the film wasn't consistently boring me, i.e. if I felt the film was good, maybe it's similarity wouldn't be an issue. It's an issue here because, to me, it's so inferior.

I mean if you made a film about an imprisoned serial killer helping an investigator track down another serial killer, and it was rote and uninspired, than I probably would say "this feels like a lesser Silence of the Lambs."

[Q & T]

Urgh.

[Ivan Drago]

I haven't seen La Dolce Vita, so I wouldn't know about the similarities between the two, but while I still liked this on a second viewing, I'm not sure how big of a yay this is for me. It's well shot, well acted, has a great soundtrack, and the first twelve minutes may be my favorite opening of any movie from last year, but it starts to drag midway through the second act, and it also arrives to a simplistic conclusion. At the same time, though, I can't help but think that if this story was made any other way with the same inner conflict at its core, it'd be a Terrence Malick ripoff. But maybe that's just me.

[Yxklyx]

Well I loved this!

[Ivan Drago]

Well I loved this!

Yeah, a year later, despite its flaws, this is still resonating very well with me.

[Yxklyx]

Just re-watched it - a beautiful film everyone should see.

[Yxklyx]

...with one of the greatest put-downs ever filmed.