La Granda Bellezza

The possible best film of the Wellington Film Festival, Paolo Sorrentino surpassed himself withgreat actors   and a return to the fabulous era of Italian cinema in the fifties and sixties with Fellini and Antonioni. This is a superb, tongue in cheek rendition of all that is wonderful and awful in Bella Roma, and this great director/writer doesn't miss a trick. he laughs and everyone and everything, but with a sad and realistic poignancy that we just have to 'let it be'. It was most evocative for me, at the age of the main character, Jep, nay three years older!,  and having just returned from a few weeks looking at the real Rome, near bankrupt, struggling to survive, with more decaying buildings and empty hotels than most capitals, let alone the great, first city of the world, Rome. Over two hours sped by and it really was the best way to see Rome, through the lens of a master, and with characters of such dimensions that it takes a time for their memory to leave one's mind. Indeed a great movie. Out in the Embassy foyer,( see pics) the sun is shining again and Wellington has much to offer. But first to the optometrist to repair my broken glasses' frame.