The Great Beauty

The Great Beauty

Luca Bigazzi is one of Italy's most acclaimed award-winning directors of photography (DOP). His life has been dedicated entirely to the best of independent Italian cinema (not counting his work with Abbas Kiarostami). He has worked with directors such as Mario Martone, Gianni Amelio, Cipri e Maresco, Silvio Soldini, Carlo Mazzacurati, Antonio Capuano, Leonardo Di Costanzo and Andrea Segre, and has been working with Paolo Sorrentino since The Consequences of Love in 2004. In this interview, edited by the photographer and film critic Alberto Spadafora, the Italian cinematographer talks about The Great Beauty, prizewinner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2014. Although well-received abroad, the film hasn't had the same reaction in Italy. In the book Bigazzi explains his work using the camera and light, and describes Sorrentino's work methods and style. He also discusses the ethical and political issues in this harsh portrayal of Italy."

A Great and Terrible Beauty

It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's being followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls - and their foray into the spiritual world - lead to?

The Great Beauty of Rome