Money is everywhere in the early films of Paolo Sorrentino—and it is filthy. Infatuated with both glitz and grit, the Italian filmmaker revels in worlds of excess where opulence is but a delicate façade for a hollow core beneath. Zeroing in on men of means but dubious morals, these stylish dramas smolder with inertia and corruption.
Toni Servillo and Giacomo Rizzo astound at the tarnished heart of these decadent films as grizzled embodiments of dirty money. Quite unalike on the surface, Servillo’s man of mystery in The Consequences of Love (2004) and Rizzo’s monstrous moneylender in The Family Friend (2006) are, in essence, both aging beasts who are seduced by youth and its heavenly beauty. Sorrentino’s divine camera often observes from above, gesturing towards a perversion of the social order with his signature 180-degree tilt. Ideals of Italian machismo topple over in these striking films. Forget the notion that certain things become finer with age, and watch with awe while Sorrentino and his exceptional actors point to the rot that remains with unparalleled panache.

Money is everywhere in the early films of Paolo Sorrentino&#8212;and it is filthy. Infatuated with both glitz and grit, the Italian filmmaker revels in worlds of excess where opulence is but a delicate façade for a hollow core beneath. Zeroing in on men of means but dubious morals, these stylish dramas smolder with inertia and corruption.
Toni Servillo and Giacomo Rizzo astound at the tarnished heart of these decadent films as grizzled embodiments of dirty money. Quite unalike on the surface, Servillo&#8217;s man of mystery in The Consequences of Love (2004) and Rizzo&#8217;s monstrous moneylender in The Family Friend (2006) are, in essence, both aging beasts who are seduced by youth and its heavenly beauty. Sorrentino&#8217;s divine camera often observes from above, gesturing towards a perversion of the social order with his signature 180-degree tilt. Ideals of Italian machismo topple over in these striking films. Forget the notion that certain things become finer with age, and watch with awe while Sorrentino and his exceptional actors point to the rot that remains with unparalleled panache.

Dirty Money: Two by Paolo Sorrentino

DIRTY MONEY: TWO BY PAOLO SORRENTINO

Infatuated with both glitz and grit, Paolo Sorrentino revels in worlds of excess, where opulence veils over inertia and corruption. Starring Toni Servillo and Giacomo Rizzo as men of means but dubious morals, these grizzled character studies compensate for their rotten hearts with elaborate style.

Infatuated with both glitz and grit, Paolo Sorrentino revels in worlds of excess, where opulence veils over inertia and corruption. Starring Toni Servillo and Giacomo Rizzo as men of means but dubious morals, these grizzled character studies compensate for their rotten hearts with elaborate style.