The Great Beauty

2013 2h 22m IT

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 3,368

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Toni Servillo
Jep Gambardella
Carlo Verdone
Romano
Sabrina Ferilli
Ramona
Carlo Buccirosso
Lello Cava
Iaia Forte
Trumeau
Pamela Villoresi
Viola
Galatea Ranzi
Stefania
Franco Graziosi
Conte Colonna

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Writers: Umberto Contarello, Paolo Sorrentino
Languages: Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin
Countries: France, Italy

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 13 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, Italy.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, shot by Luca Bigazzi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lele Marchitelli. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Cristiano Travaglioli shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Toni Servillo and Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt2358891 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Paolo Sorrentino directs. Luca Bigazzi behind the camera. Lele Marchitelli scores. Cristiano Travaglioli cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in France, Italy. Dialogue in Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 13 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin.
3International production across 2 countries: France, Italy.
4Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, shot by Luca Bigazzi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Lele Marchitelli. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Cristiano Travaglioli shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Toni Servillo and Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt2358891 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 18 themes, including "journalist", "based on novel or book", "rome, italy", "alcohol".

The technical file

Cinematography: Luca Bigazzi
Original score: Lele Marchitelli
Editing: Cristiano Travaglioli
Production design: Stefania Cella
Costume design: Daniela Ciancio
Makeup / hair: Rossella Gregorio
VFX supervisor: Rodolfo Migliari
Sound: Alessandro Checcacci
Runtime: 142 min · 2h 22m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $9,200,000
Box office: $24,930,592
Return: 271% of budget
Original language: IT
IMDB: The Great Beauty (2013)

Awards

Golden Globe Award for Best Non-English Language Film
Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
European Film Award for Best Actor
European Film Award for Best Film
European Film Award for Best Editor
David di Donatello for Best Director
BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
European Film Award for Best Director
Meeting Point Europe Award
Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Paolo Sorrentino

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Andres Gomez2015-12-22
★ 8/10
Mesmerizing movie staging a decadent and beautiful Rome for a decadent character and greatly played by Toni Servillo. Great cast, nice decadent story and, overally, huge directing by Paolo Sorrentino.
Asa_movies2017-04-03
★ 10/10
Jep Gambardella: "The trains at our parties are the best in Rome. They're the best cause they go nowhere. ......................... This is how it always ends. With death. But first there was life. Hidden beneath the blah, blah, blah. It's all settled beneath the chitter chatter and the noise. Silence and sentiment. Emotion and fear. The haggard, inconstant flashes of beauty. And then the wretched squalor and miserable humanity. All buried under the cover of the embarrassment of being in the world, blah, blah, blah... Beyond there is what lies beyond. I don't deal with what lies beyond. Therefore... let this novel begin. After all... it's just a trick. Yes, it's just a trick." ................................................................................................................ From my point of view: This may be definitely the best subset of art, applied at the best moment in the movie scene, at the best moment of our living at the beginning of the 21st century. All wisdom said in a couple of sentences, helping us to enjoy life, and understand this way of enjoying as much as we can. Anyway, we do not have any better way to beat the trick of living, than just relaxing, realizing we are part of the trick and we cannot change it. So, just go on, time will pass! :)
CinemaSerf2026-03-28
★ 7/10
I think it’s quite a testament to the performance from Toni Servillo here that he managed to turn a character that I pretty much despised at the start into one I almost pitied at the end. “Jep” is the literary equivalent of the one-hit wonder, but since writing the “Human Apparatus”, he has successfully sailed through his life in Rome until now, with his sixty-fifth birthday looming, he involuntarily begins to challenge the shallowness of his own existence. Sure, he has had the best of wine, women and song along the way and many of his friends are every bit as profligate and vacuous as himself, but now he is facing a trauma-induced epiphany that compels him (and enables us) to reminisce about the excesses of his life and his failure to ever recreate that one success from decades ago. It’s a stunningly photographed tale of decadence that seems perfectly situated amidst the ancient symbolism of hedonistic Rome and though I could perhaps have done with some deeper characterisations from some of the people who had touched his life over the years, like “Romano” (Sabrina Ferilli), it is maybe that very insubstantiality that resonates best as “Jep” slowly realises his is but a shell of a reality and that it might be just too late to change that. In substance, the plot of lost loves and opportunities isn’t so terribly remarkable, but it’s the style in which they play out that, coupled with the emotionally charged yet understated effort from Servillo, really makes this a classy, seamy and quite addictive piece of cinema.