La Grazia · reception & legacy
2025 · Paolo Sorrentino
How La Grazia has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Opened the 2025 Venice Film Festival to a four-minute ovation and a Volpi Cup for Toni Servillo, and quickly settled into its reputation as 'late-style Sorrentino' — the restrained, sober one that even some longtime Sorrentino skeptics found themselves admiring.
What's debated
The debate is whether Sorrentino's newfound restraint is maturity or Sorrentino with the fun switched off — with a vocal camp insisting Servillo's stillness is doing work the film itself can't match.
Where it stands
An instant entry in the Sorrentino–Servillo canon — their seventh collaboration, already discussed as the quiet, austere sibling of The Great Beauty.
★ Did you know? Despite opening Venice and winning Servillo the Volpi Cup, La Grazia couldn't be Italy's Oscar entry: its Italian release came too late for the eligibility window, so Italy sent Familia to the 98th Academy Awards instead.