- WORLD cinema has returned to Southampton University as The Phoenix reopened this week.
Next up, on Wednesday evening, is The Eye of the Storm.
This deeply satisfying film version of Nobel winner Patrick White’s striking novel stars Charlotte Rampling as a dying matriarch and Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis as her embattled children.
- FIRST there was Roberto Rossellini; then came Federico Fellini. Now Paolo Sorrentino joins the distinguished line-up of Rome’s great cinematic poets, combining Rossellini’s social commentary with Fellini’s visual and conceptual opulence in The Great Beauty.
Wealthy playboy Jep (Toni Servillo) should have been a great novelist, but after publishing just one book he has instead frittered his life away on parties and selfaggrandisement.
On the morning after his outrageously decadent (and cinematically delirious) 65th birthday celebrations, he suddenly decides to go in search of some genuine meaning in life – the ‘great beauty’ of the title. His subsequent odyssey through the Rome of his memories, dreams and fantasies exposes him to the hypocrisy and venality of modern Italy, but also to profound spirituality and splendour.
This heartbreaking, stunning film might just be a genuine masterpiece.
It’s showing at Southampton’s Harbour Lights from tonight.
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