La Meglio gioventù (The Best of Youth) (Italy) (Rai/Miramax) (2004) ****1/2Year: 2004iMDB
Director Marco Tullio Giordana Cast: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Valentina Carnelutti, Jasmine Trinca, Maya Sansa
A lot of filmmakers have to make a significant decision when they determine how long their movie should be. Director Marco Tullio Giordana didn't worry about this in the least - he had a beautiful story to tell, a story that follows a generation of italian youths and spans over 30 years of their lives (and their parents and children) and incidentally in order to tell this story properly he needed about 6h30. And he was right because even though I watched the entire movie in a straight sitting, I was easily immersed in a story that simply depicts every day life, normal characters (for the most part) looking for their identities and place in life.
The story follows brothers Nicola (Lo Cascio) and Matteo (Boni), two of their college best friends, their two sisters one older, the other one younger, their parents, their travels, their work, their loves, their lives. Matteo in search for his identity joins the army and then the police, Nicola never gets married but lives together with his love - Giulia, who leaves him with their daughter when she chooses to follow her radical/extremist political convictions. Carlo is a successful banker and marries younger sister Francesca. Giovanna, the older sister, is a stern judge. The story is merely a means to show the evolution of each character which you notice the same way as you notice the subtle yet clear changes in the family and friends around you.
La Meglio gioventù made its debut at the 2003 Cannes Festival where it won the Un Certain Regard award. It is distributed theatrically as a 2 part movie in a slightly cut form (only 6 hours total) and has been shown on television as a miniseries. While it may appeal more to Italians, since the evolution of the main characters happens in parallel with the country's changes throughout the past decades, The Best of Youth has a clear universal appeal. Beautifully filmed all throughout Italy, it is one of the best life sagas I have watched in a long time.
Posted by TheCasualCritic on May 8, 2005 12:27 PM | TrackBack