Paolo Sorrentino: A Cinematic Maestro
Paolo Sorrentino, a name that sings. That opens to the gaiety of language. To the music of shared moments. Paolo Sorrentino is like saying hello, with a smile on the lips and sad eyes. Sad to utter this name only once. Already nostalgic, unable to say it again.
Ernesto De Martino, Sorrentino’s compatriot, spoke of a distinctly Italian magic. A magic of the southern peninsula, with its tales and ardor, the coldness of these rejections and exclusions. An island of beauty struggling to embrace the kindness of the stranger.
Paolo Sorrentino’s films follow in this lineage. A cinema of beauty, elegance, and coldness. A coldness that contrasts with the sung Italian language. The dialogues are like guillotines, sonatas of assassins, saved by a Christ-like shot.
Sorrentino’s cinema is also that of the complexity of the Italian peninsula. Embracing the intrigues of a country that has always risen to the forefront of politics and art. From the Renaissance and its masterpieces, which Sorrentino strives to film, to the remnants of the Roman Empire that faded away due to luxury.
In a more contemporary manner, Sorrentino reveals the vices of a country he can only love. His unconditional love for Christ, whom the Italian people see as their savior, and the cynicism of the Vatican, walking hand in hand with the Mafia toward a fateful eschatology.
Sorrentino’s films are of rare inventiveness. Beauty that refuses contemplation. A holy trinity pierces Sorrentino’s photography, where power slips into perversity, leaving only the melancholy of farewells.
The emptiness of cosmopolitan and worldly life is Sorrentino’s tour de force. A life filled with festivities, accolades, amiable smiles, but whose solitude is only felt at the last cigarette before eternal sleep.
“La Grande Bellezza” — Paolo Sorrentino’s chef d’oeuvre, a cinematic symphony that echoes the grandeur and decadence of Rome’s eternal beauty. Through sweeping visuals and a poignant narrative, Sorrentino weaves a tapestry of life’s fleeting moments and profound reflections. The film’s protagonist, Jep Gambardella, embodies the allure and contradictions of the cosmopolitan elite, surrounded by opulence and splendor yet burdened by a deep sense of emptiness.
Sorrentino’s direction orchestrates a mesmerizing dance between art and reality, blurring the boundaries between the enchanting cityscapes and the human soul. As Jep navigates through a world of lavish parties and sophisticated circles, he grapples with questions of purpose and meaning, echoing the sentiments of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” The film becomes a contemplation on the decadence of modernity, where indulgence and hedonism are intertwined with a yearning for something more profound.
“La Grande Bellezza” emerges as a profound meditation on time’s passage, mirroring the melancholic au revoir of Sorrentino’s other works. Beneath the surface of lavish soirées lies a poignant lament for lost love, unfulfilled dreams, and the inexorable march of mortality. Sorrentino masterfully captures the essence of human existence, painting a vivid portrait of Rome as a living, breathing entity, both beautiful and heartbreaking.
