--- title: "The Great Beauty" year: 2013 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-great-beauty" fi1m_score: 83 critics_score: 78 critics_reviews: 20 published: "2026-09-17T07:54:06.131797+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T07:54:08.964972+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Great Beauty (2013) Directed by Paolo Sorrentino · 2h 22m · Drama **Fi1m score: 83** · Critics 78 from 20 reviews *In a sentence:* Rome looks worth staying up for; some of the guests could leave earlier > Paolo Sorrentino’s Roman drama is funny, moving and more indulgent than it needs to be. Toni Servillo gives its drifting writer enough wounded charm to keep the parties interesting, even when they run on. ## Synopsis In contemporary Rome, journalist and stalled author Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) circulates through high-society parties, with Romano (Carlo Verdone) and Stefania (Galatea Ranzi) among his acquaintances. He has access to the city’s pleasures, but begins to question how much of his life he has spent on them. Jep wants to make sense of his unfulfilled promise as a writer and the possibilities still open to him. The parties continue, his social circle provides further distractions, and Rome itself offers enough to look at to make putting things off an agreeable habit. ## Review *The Great Beauty* makes a persuasive case for spending an evening with a man who has spent rather too many evenings doing much the same thing. Jep Gambardella, played by Toni Servillo, is a journalist and stalled author moving through Roman high society, increasingly troubled by the life he has made. We recommend it warmly, though the parties outlast several of their better jokes. Paolo Sorrentino gives us ample opportunity to understand why Jep finds this life difficult to leave. Toni Servillo does not play Jep’s disillusionment as a sudden discovery that other people are foolish. His journalist still belongs in this company, and the performance lets us see how much he enjoys being there. We were moved by his tired face among the party guests: he seems to understand the waste without knowing what he would put in its place. We believe him as someone who could go on like this for years. Luca Bigazzi’s cinematography makes Rome inviting enough for Jep’s attachment to it to seem reasonable. The fluid camerawork and crowded social scenes give us plenty to examine, even when we begin to tire of the people. Stefania Cella’s production design gives the high-society spaces a persuasive richness; these surroundings look comfortable enough to make staying seem an easier choice than starting again. There is a drawback to so much visual pleasure, however: another handsome view can distract from a weak encounter, and this happens more than once. Editor Cristiano Travaglioli makes the succession of encounters feel like the working of a distracted mind. Scenes accumulate by association, with one pleasure or disappointment leading towards another, rather than building a strong chain of causes and consequences. Lele Marchitelli’s music helps give these separate passages an emotional continuity, encouraging us to stay with Jep’s sadness when the story itself offers little forward movement. That approach works for long stretches, although at 142 minutes the film does sometimes leave the music doing too much persuading. The screenplay, by Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello, is less dependable when the social satire becomes broad. Some of Jep’s acquaintances seem to arrive already labelled as examples of vanity, and another display of wealthy foolishness tells us little we have not understood. The party sequences are the clearest case: their length makes the jokes about these people’s empty lives increasingly predictable. Several encounters could be shorter without losing anything we need to know about Jep, and the quieter passages would have more room. The comparison with *La dolce vita* is fair enough, given the fascination with Roman high society. Yet Jep is engaging enough to deserve a film of his own, without requiring us to spend the evening thinking about another director’s achievements. Beneath the broad jokes, there is a generous interest in someone who has enjoyed himself and now wonders if that was enough; the film takes his disappointment seriously without making him especially noble. Give it an evening when there is no hurry to get to the next thing. *Fi1m score 83, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics warmly receive The Great Beauty, with praise clustering around Sorrentino’s elaborate staging, the photography of Rome and Toni Servillo’s understated performance as a jaded writer. The city’s parties, grandeur and social rituals provide more than attractive scenery for its admirers: they find sadness, regret and feeling beneath the glamour. The reviews also value the music and the episodic storytelling, which allows impressions and encounters to accumulate without a tightly driven plot. The spread is wide, though dissent is limited. Reservations centre on length, familiar Fellini influences and whether the film says enough about the wealthy people it follows. Even favourable reviews find some party sequences overlong and some characters broadly drawn. Screen Daily admires the camerawork and score but finds little substance beyond the borrowed imagery; Slant Magazine objects more sharply, arguing that the later sections become self-pitying and lose their satirical edge. ### Reviews we read (20) - **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (5/5): Sorrentino delivers a heady, beautiful and entrancing vision of Rome as both stage and character, following a cultured writer's late-life reckoning with lost love and unfulfilled promise. The critic singles out the film's soulful depth beneath its surface glamour and virtuoso style. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-great-beauty) - **Film Comment**, Jonathan Romney (90/100, inferred): The critic experiences pure euphoria from the film, calling it an audacious experiment in pleasure that is both refined and vulgar. They single out the overwhelming visual intensity, sensory power, and Sorrentino’s ability to capture Rome’s sublime emptiness through elaborate staging and chance-like discoveries. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/review-the-great-beauty-paolo-sorrentino/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): Sorrentino’s film is drop-dead gorgeous and luxuriously cinematic, with masterful visuals and music, but it also explores deeper ideas about life and regret through the journey of its suave protagonist. Turan singles out Toni Servillo’s exquisite, understated performance and the way the film makes Rome look more beautiful than ever. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-great-beauty-20131122-story.html) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): The critic hails the film as a swooning love letter to Roman decadence and Sorrentino's best yet, a pure sensual overload of richness, strangeness and sadness in the tradition of Antonioni and Fellini. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/05/le-grande-bellezza-great-beauty-review) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (Critic’s Pick): The film is a deliriously alive portrait of a sybaritic Roman journalist adrift in the Eternal City, following his existential awakening after news of a lost love. Dargis praises Sorrentino’s associative, episodic style and Servillo’s soulful performance as it captures a man, a city, and Italian cinema itself. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/movies/the-great-beauty-starring-toni-servillo.html) - **Variety**, Jay Weissberg (90/100, inferred): The densely packed film is an astonishing cinematic feast and modern take on La dolce vita that honors Rome in all its splendor and superficiality while following a stalled author’s awakening. Weissberg praises its visual splendor, Servillo’s world-weary performance, and how it dissects empty high-society diversions with broad strokes and minute detail. [Read](https://variety.com/2013/film/global/cannes-film-review-the-great-beauty-1200484710/) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (90/100, inferred): The critic highlights the film's ravishing, sensuous imagery and its daring structure as a high-wire act centered on one character's unspecified yearning, comparing it favorably to Fellini while noting its generosity toward characters. It is called potentially the most unforgettable film of the year. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2013/11/movie-review-the-great-beauty.html) - **Empire**, Guy Lodge (80/100, inferred): The review highlights Sorrentino's richly visualised, vignette-based meditation on 21st-century excess in Rome, seen through a jaded journalist's eyes, comparing it to Fellini while noting its damning yet celebratory tone and self-indulgence as the point. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/great-beauty-review/) - **Little White Lies**, Paul Fairclough (3/4/4): The review notes shades of Fellini in Sorrentino's spirited drama about a jaded Roman flâneur awakening to the city's splendour amid high-society decadence. It praises the film's visual and emotional impact while acknowledging its familiar territory. [Read](https://lwlies.com/partnership/the-decadent-splendour-of-the-great-beauty) - **The Independent** (4/5): The critic praises Sorrentino's fluid, satirical portrait of Rome and its high society through the eyes of a jaded journalist, noting the gorgeous Caravaggio-toned visuals and de luxe filmmaking. It falls short of masterpiece status due to insufficient narrative drive but remains hugely enjoyable. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-review-the-great-beauty-15-8800866.html) - **Sight and Sound**, Roger Clarke (70/100, inferred): Sorrentino returns to Italy with a visually extravagant, Fellini-inspired portrait of Roman high society seen through a world-weary journalist's eyes. The critic highlights the film's technical virtuosity and its meditation on superficiality, lost youth and spiritual emptiness. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/review-great-beauty) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, THR Staff (70/100, inferred): The critic praises Sorrentino's reverent update on Fellini's vision of Rome's moral chaos and decadence, noting the film's humor, creative excess, and strong performances, particularly by Toni Servillo. An overly indulgent running time undercuts some of the fun, but it should appeal to international audiences. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/great-beauty-cannes-review-526135/) - **Evening Standard** (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the film beautiful in its depiction of Rome but doubts it qualifies as great, criticizing the shallow characters and soporific pacing of its critiques of art, politics and media while noting the city looks inviting. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-great-beauty-film-review-8801439.html) - **Screen Daily** (50/100, inferred): Sorrentino's virtuoso fresco of contemporary Rome mixes elegy and world-weariness, with Toni Servillo's jaded journalist drifting through decadent parties and missed opportunities. The review praises the ravishing camerawork and seductive score but notes it recycles Fellini-esque visions without adding much substance. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/the-great-beauty/5056538.article) - **Slant Magazine**, Chuck Bowen (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the first half an inviting, beautifully mounted fantasy of Rome's sex and decay in the Fellini tradition, but faults the film for succumbing to self-delusions of moral and political grandeur in its later sections, turning self-pitying and losing satirical edge. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-great-beauty/) - **HeyUGuys**, Stefan Pape (5/5): The film is an astonishing, visceral piece of filmmaking that feels intimate and emotional despite its grand scale. Sorrentino explores love, death, nostalgia and religion through Jep's search, with strong praise for Servillo's performance, the score and the portrayal of Roman life. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/great-beauty-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Richard Mowe (★★★★): Sorrentino uncovers the moral chaos of Rome's elite in a film that picks up threads from La Dolce Vita, with magnetic work from Servillo and effective satire. The overlong 135 minutes still offers enough pleasurable and engaging moments. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-great-beauty-2013-film-review-by-richard-mowe) - **The Skinny**, Chris Buckle (4/5): The critic is awed by the film’s luxuriant detail and technical bravado from the opening sequence onward. They single out the picaresque narrative exploring Rome’s contrasts through Jep’s life of elation and ennui, resulting in a dazzling cumulative effect. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/the-great-beauty) - **The Playlist**, The Playlist Staff (B): Sorrentino delivers an indulgent but heady, dreamlike Fellini-esque reflection on life, love, philosophy and regret through impressions rather than plot. It celebrates what has been while noting the film's overlong party sequences and broad characterizations. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/cannes-review-la-grande-bellezza-an-indulgent-but-dreamy-reflection-on-life-love-more-20130521/) - **Paste**, Abby Garnett (7.5): Sorrentino distills the cultural inheritance of Fellini and Berlusconi into a portrait of Rome's elite, retaining the city's sumptuousness while showing ambivalence toward its spectacle. The film is marked by impermanence and ends with a powerful redemption as the protagonist recognizes something real amid superficiality. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/beauty/the-great-beauty-1) ## Details - **Director:** Paolo Sorrentino - **Director:** Paolo Sorrentino - **Screenplay:** Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello - **Cinematography:** Luca Bigazzi - **Editor:** Cristiano Travaglioli - **Music:** Lele Marchitelli - **Production design:** Stefania Cella - **Costume design:** Daniela Ciancio - **Producer:** Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Jérôme Seydoux - **Cast:** Toni Servillo as Jep Gambardella; Carlo Verdone as Romano; Sabrina Ferilli as Ramona; Carlo Buccirosso as Lello Cava; Iaia Forte as Trumeau; Pamela Villoresi as Viola; Galatea Ranzi as Stefania; Franco Graziosi as Conte Colonna - **Runtime:** 2h 22m - **Release (the US):** 15 November 2013 - **Genres:** Drama - **Budget:** $9 million - **Box office:** $25 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxRDhAQOpw ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Hulu: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, sd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, FR, GB, IE, IT, MX, NL, NZ, PA, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2014: Best International Feature Film (won) - Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film 2014: Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film (won) - BAFTA Film Awards 2014: Best Film Not in the English Language (won) - David di Donatello for Best Director 2014: David di Donatello for Best Director (won) - International Submission to the Academy Awards 2014: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) - Meeting Point Europe Award 2014: Meeting Point Europe Award (won) - European Film Award for Best Actor 2013: European Film Award for Best Actor (won) - European Film Award for Best Director 2013: European Film Award for Best Director (won) - European Film Award for Best Editor 2013: European Film Award for Best Editor (won) - European Film Award for Best Film 2013: European Film Award for Best Film (won) - European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2013: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (nominated) - Golden Globes 2013: Best Non-English Language Film (won) ## If you liked this - *La dolce vita* (1960): Another Roman wanderer discovers how little company a crowded party provides. - *The Music Room* (1958): For another proud man finding expensive pleasures increasingly difficult to justify. - *Yi Yi* (2000): A family drama equally patient with regret, missed chances and ordinary kindness. - *Wings of Desire* (1987), Fi1m 88: A city’s passing encounters become a tender study of being alive. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire.md) - *The Souvenir* (2019): For a quieter account of privilege, artistic ambition and painful self-examination. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-great-beauty