The Great Beauty: movie review

4.5 stars out of 5

Spoilers ahead.

What makes beauty

I sometimes wonder what it is about a piece of art that makes it beautiful. It’s not like I pull out a piece of paper, write “good” on the top left, write “bad” on the top right, and start listing out the good and bad as I listen to a song, stare at a photo, or watch a movie. It’s an unconscious process.

For songs, I had thought lyrics mattered most. Whenever K-pop ventured into my conversations, I conveniently brushed it aside by saying: I don’t listen because I don’t understand Korean. True, but misleading. I don’t understand most of the Chinese songs I enjoy. I am limited to the most basic of phrases like 有多少爱可以重来1Roughly and faithfully translated to: how much love can still return?。I make do with mumbling the lines and get comfortable grasping (and not touching) what must be modern Chinese poetry.

The Great Beauty is a 2013 Italian-language film featuring a money-is-never-mentioned-type-of wealthy 65-year old Jep Gambardella; an ex-author who wanders around Rome as a semi-retired philanderer. Yet I understand.

Jep at his 65th birthday party.

The movie weaves from scenes of a blue ocean found on a bedroom ceiling to a cardinal who can’t stop preaching about a recipe of a duck. Yet it works. Aside from the obvious but pardonable 2013-era CGI additions, it works. Jep drops zingers; sprinkling lyrical beauty onto visual.

“[…] what utter nonsense! Do you know that Flaubert wanted to write a book about nothing? If he’d met you, we’d have had a great book, what a shame!”

“Please, I’m a gentleman. Don’t destroy my only certainty.”

If it’s not the lyrics to a song, nor a weighing of the good and bad that decides whether art is beautiful, what could it be? I can’t possibly answer that now, while trying to scramble out these words from my keyboard under timed conditions, but if I had to pick an answer, it’s attention. Art that can capture my attention and hold it. Not in a blinding lights and earsplitting sounds type of way. That’s just violence. But art which guides gently.

In an entertainment world where Netflix is asking writers to remember their target audience of distracted viewers2Source: The Times. the fact that this two and a half hour movie could hold my attention (twice)3I’ve watched this once in the cinema and once at home. is a good sign. That is a great beauty.

Comments? Text or email me.

Writer’s Workbench Tools used:4I’m writing to practice techniques taught in this (once free) course. Branch to the right, use strong verbs, the voice of verbs.

For a much sharper review focused on the movie itself, check out Roger Ebert’s review.

2-minute read. Writing time: 45 minutes. Editing time: 30 minutes.

First published:
February 8, 2026

Last updated:

Footnotes
  • 1
    Roughly and faithfully translated to: how much love can still return?
  • 2
    Source: The Times.
  • 3
    I’ve watched this once in the cinema and once at home.
  • 4
    I’m writing to practice techniques taught in this (once free) course.