The Great Beauty 2013

Aristocrats, nouveau riche, politicians, high-profile criminals, journalists, actors, decadent scions of noble families, priests, artists, genuine or self-proclaimed intellectuals… All of them are swallowed up by modern-day Babylon as they weave a web of fragile relationships, indulging in a frivolous life against the backdrop of ancient palaces, enormous villas, and magnificent terraces. They are all here, and none of them comes across in a favorable light. The apathetic and disillusioned 65-year-old Jep Gambardella, a writer and journalist who never parts with his glass of gin and tonic, watches this parade of influential yet empty and lost people, who make a depressing impression on him. A dizzying picture of the loss of moral bearings unfolds against the backdrop of a magnificent and indifferent Roman summer. The Eternal City is like a dead diva.