First I should admit that I'm not a huge fan of foreign films, I simply don't always enjoy reading movies. I also tend to be put off by pure "art films". That being said, it should be no surprise that I didn't much care for "The Great Beauty", even if it did win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
"The Great Beauty" is what I call a classic "poem movie". Instead of following a more linear or obvious narrative, like a novel, a poem is more random and less literal. A poem feels more like a collection of lines, thoughts, or scenes, then a continuous arc of a story. It's more like several MTV videos then a show. Poems, to me, are more thought provoking then entertaining. Poems might leave you wondering "what did that mean?" or who a character is, or how someone or something fits in to the story. A good movie shouldn't leave you confused about what's happening or what the point is. To my mind, while watching a great movie, there should be more feeling and reacting, then thinking.
"The Great Beauty" is an Italian film, set in Rome. Jep, our "hero", is an aging author, recently turned 65, and still living a playboy party life. His claim to fame having written an important novel in his 20's, but nothing since. The movie shows his conflict with aging and the meaning of his life. He's finds himself alone, even at parties he doesn't really want to attend, and surrounded by "friends" he doesn't really like. He can't even be sure anymore which of his friends he's slept with and doesn't really seem all that interested in genuinely connecting with anyone. He's a sad, lonely, character contributing nothing. We're made to pity the one couple who lead normal lives..... loving each other, watching TV together at night, and being in bed before midnight.
The dimensions and the range of aging are demonstrated in several ways. The music is dramatic and an important character in this film. It ranges from soft and classical, to heavy modern beats you might hear at a rave. Even the dancing ranges from isolated stripper-like performance dance, literally performed behind glass, to an old fashioned Conga-line train that is praised for "going nowhere". The costume design also ranges from old fashioned to modern chic. Older characters are often shown dressed in styles suited to younger characters. Nobody seems comfortable in their environment or in their own skin. Ironically none of the main characters is particularly attractive and one is a dwarf.
Perhaps this particular "poem" is trying to tell us that art isn't created but lived. The "Great Beauty" isn't something we can go to a museum to find, it's in the way we live and the choices we make. The beauty around us, the music, the town we live in, the people we surround ourselves with, are the art of life. Maybe that's more important then what we do or what we create. Several unusual artists are portrayed in less then flattering, even painful, ways. We're shown a poet whose climax comes by running in to a brick wall to reveal blood oozing from a fresh head wound, a child painter throwing buckets of paint on to a canvas while sobbing, a self indulgent writer shilling for a politician, a dancer who is literally a Forty-something year old stripper, and a photographer whose work consists solely of one self-portrait taken every single day of his life. None of the artists have any depth or soul, not to mention beauty. While there are several scenes I enjoyed, characters I found interesting, many visuals I found entertaining, in a nutshell I felt about the film in it's entirety like I did about the artists portrayed in the film....... Pretentious and lacking beauty.
Clearly I must be in the minority with this opinion, given that it won the Oscar for best foreign film. I welcome all opinions and debate.
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