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Surname 1
Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
Movie Analysis: “The Great Beauty" and "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days"
The Great Beauty

The opening scene of La Grande Bellezza
The Great Beauty is a film written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino starring Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone
and Sabrina Ferilli
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La Grande Bellezza, as the movie is referred to in Italian is a somewhat
memory play or a meditation of life
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Gambardella (Toni Servillo) is a writer and journalist, just attained the
age of 65
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He has one book to his name, “The Human Apparatus”, and has spent the other part of his life juggling
between art, affairs, having fun at parties, resting at cafes and pondering meanings
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The beginning of the film is at his birthday party, a bacchanal of chic guests dancing on a
terrace overlooking the Rome skyline
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At this moment, his memories in regards to their meeting slip in and out of his lengthy evenings
spent alongside old friends, former lovers and newly acquired conquests
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Later, he dances
with an old acquaintance whom he asks if they have slept together before
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The movie is somewhat a circus
characterized by a priest who is endlessly talking about his recipes, an elderly nun capable of making
flamingoes fly with only a breath of air
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Gambardella’s life is a kind of trick, filled with sophistication and amusement
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Using The Great Beauty, Sorrentino has taken on Italy’s past and its effects on the present and future
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Mortality seems to be a major theme of the film
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For instance, when the nun climbs the
tree, the scene makes it appear like she has hanged herself
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Sorrentino also brings up the intelligentsia of the upper class Italian society, which he keenly
attacks by ridiculing the pretentiousness of self-important artisans with razor sharp selfconfidence
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Despite the fact that Jep belongs in the said
collective, he is probably the only one with enough self-awareness to escape its harmful effects
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This is seen in the way there is an elaborate fear of what lies beyond the current life,
while at the same time, there is greatly desperate yearning for a return to youth
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As he hops from one elegant party to another and from one woman to the next, Jep has
these flashbacks of his youth particularly one love affair that has been holding the key to his
inner melancholy
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The meanings of these moments are however not expounded on by the director
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4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, whose Romanian version is “4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile” is a 2007
award winning film written and directed by Christian Mungiu
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It revolves around two university
students trying to arrange for an illegal abortion
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Bebe (Vlad Ivanov) when Găbița falls
pregnant, from where he is supposed to perform the abortion
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The movie follows the two girls on a 24 hour journey filled with frustration, deception, idiocy,
desperation and cruelty
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Otilia acts as the very helpful roommate to Găbița, doing
everything in preparation for the abortion
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Bebe
including the 3000 lei needed to pay for the procedure
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Bebe, which is one of his requirements for the two girls if he is to perform the abortion
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He then leaves instructions with Otilia on how to dispose of the fetus once it’s out
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Otilia leaves Găbița for a while to attend the birthday party of her boyfriend Adi’s mother
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At the end of the movie, Otilia tells her friend that they are never
going to discuss the episode ever
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For Găbița, responsibility for her life and actions is something that does not come automatically for
her
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To start with,
Otilia raises the money for the abortion, which is in addition to providing all other provisions that Găbița
needs
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Bebe, a move
which nearly sinks the entire arrangement
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Otilia on the other hand is a heroic and supportive friend
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It is not clear whether this is out of desperation,
circumstances or convenience, the bottom line is that these two girls have each other’s back
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The film depicts a society whose system is characterized by lack of reproductive rights
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However, this much celebrated mirage
suddenly disintegrates to hypocrisy when one of the partners is faced with the reality of having to
“resolve the issue” of an unplanned pregnancy by themselves
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In the entire film, nothing is heard of the
man who gets Găbița pregnant
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There is no attempt by her partner, Adi, to come to her rescue or take her side
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Later in the evening, alone in Adi’s room, they discussed the abortion issue
and Otilia asks him how they would deal with a pregnancy; apparently, he has no idea because the issue
never crossed his mind before
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In addition, the selfless nature of Otilia is very evident in the film
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This energy

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is used to serve others; her friend, her boyfriend and others who may be in need of her
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As much as the film was not written with issues of
gender in mind, it would be extremely difficult to imagine a man with such selfless and self-effacing
character
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When Beauty isn’t Enough: Paolo Sorrentino’s “La grande bellezza” (The Great
Beauty)
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Web
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Ebert, R
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7th February 2008
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7th October 2014

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