Front Row Review: La Grazia, the latest film from The Great Beauty director Paolo Sorrentino
Mar 19, 2026
Will Page, former Spotify economist who tracks music industry trends and AI issues; Zoe Williams, sharp cultural journalist and reviewer; Alexander Larman, historian and critic. They dissect Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia: its visuals, politics and performances. They also debate Gorky’s Summerfolk at the National, Michael Arditti’s sprawling novel The Tribe, and how AI-created sound-alikes are reshaping streaming.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Euthanasia Framed As Personal Moral Weight
- The film treats euthanasia as a nuanced moral dilemma rather than a binary choice, using personal scenes to humanise the issue.
- Zoe Williams finds the distilled line—"I'm either a torturer or a murderer"—unsatisfying, yet the movie pairs it with personal stakes like the president's family tensions.
Modern Surreal Bits Disrupt Political Formality
- Sorrentino punctuates solemn political scenes with modern, surreal interjections—robot dogs, raves, rap—to destabilise protocol and inject humour.
- Zoe Williams and Tom Sutcliffe note these moments distract yet refresh a heavy 157-minute runtime.
Small Scenes Deliver Big Emotional Punch
- Acting moments with restrained direction can outshine spectacle; a five-minute prisoner scene delivers intense emotional performance.
- Alexander Larman praises Lina Mercekrlinger's piercing-eyed performance as one of the film's best sequences.
