The Eternal City of Jep Gambardella and Paolo Sorrentino

Classical influences permeate Paolo Sorrentino’s entire film, starting with the Colosseum, which looms large in front of Jep Gambardella’s terrace. The penthouse with that amazing view really does exist – it’s located at 7 Piazza del Colosseo and currently houses a luxury hotel, but when the film was shot, it was reportedly a dilapidated building.

During one of his disorienting walks around Rome, Jep also goes to the Baths of Caracalla, the spectacular backdrop for one of the many illusions that Sorrentino scatters throughout the film.

Another immersive experience of classical Rome awaits visitors among the marble statues of the Capitoline Museums in Palazzo Nuovo, on the Capitoline Hill. Here, in one of the film’s most memorable sequences, the mysterious Stefano (Giorgio Pasotti), keeper of the keys to Rome’s palaces, leads Jep and Ramona (Sabrina Ferilli), as the white faces of ancient statues emerge like fleeting glimpses from the darkness of the palace.

Several scenes, as beautiful as paintings, are shot on the Aventine Hill, around the early Christian basilica of Santa Sabina. Here, leaning against the church gate, the young novice nuns laugh at passers-by, while in the adjacent historic garden of Sant’Alessio, a nun picks oranges, her head enveloped by the tree’s foliage. A few steps along the same street as the Basilica of Santa Sabina is the Grand Priory of the Order of the Knights of Malta, from the keyhole of which you can glimpse St Peter’s Basilica – another illusion, created this time not by Sorrentino but by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who designed the Grand Priory complex in 1756.

Ambientato nel mondo dell’aristocrazia romana, “La grande bellezza” fa ampio uso di palazzi aristocratici, e una passeggiata fra le eleganti vie del Tridente consente di individuare parecchie location.

In viale Trinità dei Monti c’è villa Medici, dove Jep, Ramona e l’amico Stefano approdano all’alba dopo la nottata tra palazzi e musei. Sede dell’Accademia di Francia, la villa è visitabile insieme al giardino che si estende per oltre 7 ettari e che conserva in gran parte l’aspetto cinquecentesco originario.

Un’altra scena vede Jep Gambardella accompagnare a casa la bella Orietta, interpretata da Isabella Ferrari, che abita nientemeno che a palazzo Pamphilj, il sontuoso edificio di piazza Navona che si allunga accanto alla chiesa di S. Agnese in Agone: oggi sede dell’Ambasciata del Brasile, il palazzo venne costruito per volontà di Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (1574-1655) che nel 1644 divenne Papa col nome di Innocenzo X. A lui si deve anche la sistemazione della piazza e la realizzazione della Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi.

A pochi passi da piazza Navona, in via di Monte Giordano, palazzo Orsini Taverna compare nel film in due occasioni: nel suo giardino va in scena la ricerca della Santa (Giusi Merli) mentre nei suoi interni abitano i conti Colonna, caduti in disgrazia. Anche il vicino palazzo Sacchetti, in via Giulia 66, è impiegato in più scene: il portone identifica la dimora dei conti Colonna, gli interni sono utilizzati per la casa di Viola (Pamela Villoresi) e del figlio Andrea (Luca Marinelli), mentre il giardino accoglie le corse e i giochi di alcuni bambini insieme a una giovane suora.

In piazza Capo di Ferro, palazzo Spada racchiude la galleria prospettica del Borromini, una delle tappe clou del vagabondaggio notturno fra i palazzi romani; un’altra tappa è palazzo Barberini, sede della Galleria nazionale di Arte antica. Sempre in centro si trova, infine, la bella chiesa dei SS. Domenico e Sisto, dove vengono celebrate le esequie del giovane Andrea.

Nestled in the greenery between the gardens of Villa Borghese and Parioli Hill, this suburban villa was commissioned by Pope Julius III in the 16th century, employing the finest architects, including Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giorgio Vasari and Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Nowadays, it houses the ETRU – National Etruscan Museum, but Paolo Sorrentino does not use the interior, instead focusing on the garden crowned by the beautiful semi-circular loggia designed by Vignola. On its walls is a photographic exhibition by the (fictional) artist Ron Sweet, which evokes an emotional response in Jep Gambardella. This scene is one of a few that had to be digitally recreated in post-production because it wouldn’t have been possible to carry out such invasive work on the 16th-century loggias of Villa Giulia.

Villa Giulia has been used as a film set on several occasions: by Alberto Sordi for Help Me, My Love (1969) starring Monica Vitti, by Dario Argento for The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) and, more recently, by Gianni Amelio for The Lord of the Ants (2022). As well as being a film location, Villa Giulia also has a distinguished literary heritage: it hosts the award ceremony for the Strega Prize, a prestigious Italian literary award.

Paolo Sorrentino’s film begins with a cannon firing a blank shot from the Janiculum Hill. Then, for a few minutes, the camera lingers on the belvedere terrace at the top of the hill, joining a group of Japanese tourists admiring the Acqua Paola fountain, while a man splashes water on his face, a bus driver chats on his phone, and a melodious female choir sings the song “I Lie” by the American composer David Lang, also featured in the end credits. This monumental fountain, also known as Il Fontanone, has made numerous appearances in films, from Carlo Verdone’s Tonight at Alice’s (1990) to Spectre (2015) by Sam Mendes from the Bond franchise, as well as being celebrated by Antonello Venditti in Roma capoccia. In front of the fountain, there is a breathtaking view of the Eternal City, as “testified” by the Japanese tourist who, in Sorrentino’s film, is struck by Stendhal syndrome.

The Janiculum Hill returns later in the film: on the slopes of the hill towards Trastevere stands the Tempietto (little temple) of San Pietro in Montorio, a masterpiece by Bramante that appears to Jep Gambardella in a dream.

In one scene in The Great Beauty, Jep Gambardella explains with decadent bitterness that a funeral is a social event. Indeed, it is the social event par excellence. Where, then, should you dress yourself for such an event? With his sublime talent for imagery, Sorrentino chooses the bare, solemn lines of rationalist architecture and sets up the fashion house where Jep and Ramona buy the black dress in the Salone delle Fontane in EUR, the “model neighbourhood” built in the 1930s for the 1942 Universal Exposition in Rome (planned but never held) and whose most iconic building is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, also known as the “Square Colosseum”.

So different from the rest of Rome, EUR is regularly featured in Italian cinema. Even Federico Fellini, who was reluctant to leave the Cinecittà studios, used the surroundings of Rome’s rationalist district for several scenes in La Dolce Vita, considering it to be like a film set with its metaphysical atmosphere and versatile architecture. Perhaps, by shooting a scene from his film here, Paolo Sorrentino wanted to pay tribute to the great Rimini-born filmmaker by filming a scene from his film here, having mentioned him as one of his idols in his Oscar acceptance speech.