20 Best Looking Movies Since 2000
11. The Great Beauty
Paulo Sorrentino's film The Great Beauty, about an Italian writer (played by Jep Gambardella) struggling to determine his next project - and place in life - was compared early on to the works of Federico Fellini; a modern day version of the Italian master's La Dolce Vita or 8 1/2.
Such comparisons certainly place a great deal of pressure on a filmmaker to deliver the goods, especially when they've named their movie something like The Great Beauty. Fortunately Sorrentino mostly created a film which lives up to such lofty comparisons. Cinematographer Luca Bigazzi has crafted a vision of Rome worthy of comparison to Fellini's (with grand, sweeping camerawork and sumptuous shot compositions), only this time in vibrant colour.
Anyone who purposefully tries to create an homage to such unimpeachable films as 8 1/2 and gets this close to achieving the same degree of visual scope (even if they fall slightly short on the substance) deserves full credit. Empty hedonism has never looked this good.