“Great Beauty” Liner Notes: Great Beauty
One of my preferred things to do as a kid was to read the liner notes of records — especially those for jazz greats and for Broadway shows. For its DVD of this year’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty” (my favorite film of last year), Criterion assigned Philip Lopate to do the honors. And he did them proud: “One of the film’s triumphs is the complexity of its main character, brought to stunning life by the magnificently flexible, ironic, soulful performance of Sorrentino’s favorite actor, Toni Servillo (pictured). Jep may live an essentially frivolous existence as a night owl and parasitic chronicler of high society, but he reveals in voice-overs a deeper awareness of his own flaws and those of his set.
