La búsqueda de lo bello en la compilation score de «La Gran Belleza» de Paolo Sorrentino

Abstract

The compilation soundtrack, or accompany a film using synchronized pre-existing themes, is a way of understanding film music that began to be used in film production during the second half of the last century. Since then, different filmmakers have used this kind of musical accompaniment with very different intentions. If there is a characteristic feature of style in the work of Paolo Sorrentino, it is the use of this form of application of music to the filmic narrative. The themes that make up the compilation soundtracks that this director weaves into his films configure a special form of using the music as narrative support for the action that is presented on the screen. A combination of themes that range from the most popular and commercial music to themes that fall within the so-called contemporary classical music, define an accompaniment that becomes an essential characteristic in all the audio-visual stories made by the Italian filmmaker. His great listening culture is evident in the efficiency he shows in compiling the songs used. In the film The Great Beauty, Sorrentino configures a musical selection working with the combination of music of great delicacy and refinement with the most strident and disco sound. Through this selection of music, the search for beauty and authenticity of the main character, Jep Gambardella, is reflected, lost in a world dominated by appearance and hedonism. The collage of musical themes that Sorrentino uses in this film may be scattered and meaningless, but it defines a clear purpose of bringing contemporaneity to the story, and an expressive intention that generates, in many ways from the viewer point of view, a sense transparent and direct narrative.