The Great Beauty Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		5.0

The Great Beauty Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 23, 2014

Winner of Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Golden Globe Awards, Paolo Sorrentino's "La grande bellezza" a.k.a "The Great Beauty" (2013) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; excursive new video interviews with actor Toni Servillo and screenwriter Umberto Contarello; filmed conversation between Italian film scholar Antonio Monda and Paolo Sorrentino; and deleted scenes. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring am essay by critic Philip Lopate. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The King

There was a time when Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo, A Quiet Life, The Consequences of Love) was the King of Rome. He was young, ambitious, and always ready to claim what he believed belonged to him. He was alive. People respected him and wanted to be seen with him. He was so popular that if there was a party and he wasn’t there people would tell the host that he had wasted his time organizing it.

But that time was years ago.

Now, on the eve of his 65th birthday, the King can barely stand what he once loved – the noise, the excess, the people who worshiped him. There is also a part of him that can barely stand the jaded cynic he has become. He has been trying to suppress it but has failed miserably, which is why now he spends most of his time thinking about the life he could have had.

Like its King, the Eternal City has also changed. Its beauty has faded. Its many treasures have been locked away. The tourists visiting the city can’t tell, but the King and those who once praised him can see the change. Some have learned to live with it, but many have started leaving because they could no longer recognize the city they once fell in love with.

The lonely King will stay. His life started here and it is only right that it ends here, amidst the ruins and the reconstructed plazas, close to the great beauty and the kitsch that is slowly destroying it. The end is not as he envisioned it, but it is probably the one he deserves. It could be that it is also the end He has chosen for him.

If the great Federico Fellini was still alive, he would have loved to direct La Grande Bellezza a.k.a. The Great Beauty. It is a remarkably elegant, deeply poetic and strikingly original film that takes the viewer on an unforgettable journey to a place one can easily argue only the mind of the great maestro could have imagined.

This bold new film, however, is directed by Paolo Sorrentino, an incredibly gifted young Italian filmmaker who undoubtedly understands how to create magic. This isn’t an exaggeration. The Great Beauty rediscovers the Eternal City in a way that literally forces the viewer to forget about time and believe that its colorful characters are real people.

All of these characters symbolize a philosophy of life that has reshaped the Eternal City – and not into a better place. Amongst them are cynical and disillusioned aristocrats who frequently meet to remind each other that they are still alive, an aging stripper with a secret (Sabrina Ferilli, 3 Women), an ambitious Cardinal who is also an expert in occult secrets (Roberto Herlitzka, Good Morning, Night, a lonely exhibitionist (Isabella Ferrari, Amatemi), a former club owner with a shady past (Massimo De Francovich, Who Killed Pasolini?), freeloaders who need their daily cocaine fix, and a 104-year-old saint (Giusi Merli) who has traveled to Rome possibly to heal the wounds left by Berlusconi’s government.

The visuals are extraordinary. The beauty and the kitsch are filmed with a sense of elegance that makes the overwhelming majority of the film look like a modern fairy tale. But it is all real. This is contemporary Italy, a declining and polarized economic power where everyone still loves to party.

Note: The Great Beauty was selected to represent Italy in the Foreign Language Film Category at the the 86th Academy Awards.

The Great Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in in aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. The film features a fully digital soundtrack. The 5.1 surround audio for this release was mastered in 24-bit from the original digital audio master files using Pro Tools HD.

Colorist: Andrea Orsini/Technicolor, Rome."

Approved by the Italian director, the new 2K digital transfer looks beautiful. Indeed, clarity and especially image depth are outstanding. There is a wide range of exceptionally rich colors that are also beautifully reproduced. The various panoramic shots boast tremendous fluidity even when light is occasionally restricted (see the nighttime trip to the museums). There are no serious transfer-specific anomalies to report in this review. Image stability is excellent. Lastly, I've done some direct comparisons with Artificial Eye's release of The Great Beauty and can confirm that the basic characteristics of the transfers the two releases use are virtually identical. To sum it all up, this is a fabulous presentation of what I consider to be one of the very best films to be released in Europe in recent years. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Great Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The lossless 5.1 track is terrific. It has outstanding depth and dynamic intensity is, in my opinion, as good as it can be. Clarity and crispness are very good. The lossless track also has a wide range of nuanced dynamics that are very easy to appreciate during the second half of the film, where Lele Marchitelli's score is carefully used to enhance the film's unique atmosphere. The dialog is always crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. The English translation is excellent.

The Great Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Toni Servillo - in this new video interview, the great Italian actor Toni Servillo discusses his multiple collaborations with director Paolo Sorrentino. Mr. Servillo also discusses his contribution to The Great Beauty, the character he plays, Jep Gambardella, and the manner in which the Eternal City is depicted in the film. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2013. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (13 min, 1080p).

• Paolo Sorentino - in this filmed conversation, Italian film scholar Antonio Monda and Paolo Sorrentino discuss the Italian director's early career and specifically the presentation of his first film, One Man Up, at the Tribeca Film Festival, the common thread in all of Mr. Sorrentino's films (One Man Up, The Consequences of Love, The Family Friend, Il Divo, This Must Be the Place, and The Great Beauty), and the unique themes and political overtones in The Great Beauty. The conversation was recorded for Criterion in October 2013. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (38 min, 1080p).

• Umberto Contarello - in this new video interview, screenwriter Umberto Contarello (This Must Be the Place, Me and You) recalls his first encounter with Paolo Sorrentino and discusses his work with the Italian director. Mr. Contranello also explains how The Great Beauty and its main protagonist, Jep Gambardella, came to exist. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2013. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (12 min, 1080p).

• Trailer - original U.S. trailer for The Great Beauty. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (3 min, 1080p).

• Deleted Scenes - included here is a deleted scene in which Jep Gambardella visits an aging film director and a montage of various imagery cut from the film.
  
  1. Maestro Cinema. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (3 min, 1080p).
  2. Montage. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (3 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring am essay by critic Philip Lopate.

The Great Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For many people in the United States renting or purchasing Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release of Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty will likely be the only way to see this stunning film. But if you live in an area where The Great Beauty is still playing in your local theater, go and see it on the big screen. I guarantee you will experience something very, very special. As expected, Criterion's technical presentation of The Great Beauty is superb. The upcoming Blu-ray release also features excellent exclusive new interviews with actor Toni Servillo and screenwriter Umberto Contarello, as well as a terrific conversation between film scholar Antonio Monda and Paolo Sorrentino. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.