Youth

Once again, Paolo Sorrentino proves to be a master of cinema and doesn't disappoint. The story is set in an apparently isolated place: a luxury hotel in the mountains of Switzerland inhabited mainly by artists and people from the show business (curious the reference to Maradona, thanked by Sorrentino during his Oscar acceptance speech).

Youth is a tender film in both the characters and the themes: growing old and the fears related to it are common to all men. Fred (Michael Caine) is an old man who still has a lot going on in his life: he has to deal with friendship, love, family and his career. The only thing that makes him different from the younger people surrounding him is that he is aware of memory. It is through memory that he has lost and that he tries to regain his identity. Everyone in the film is in search for identity: the contrast between how people see them and what they want to be seen as.

The screenplay is complex and intense and for this reason sometimes hard to follow. I loved the irony Sorrentino always puts in his movies: through surrealism he is capable of expressing humanity in a simple but yet beautiful way. All the cast delivers great performances and cinematography is absorbing as always. Sorrentino is a director of places: no matter if it is the Eternal City of Rome or an hotel immersed in nature - he is able to capture all the beauty of it.

What the film teaches us, in the end, is that we are what we do - so, I'd add, it's better if we do what we are - but we are nothing without love, which is the driving force of humanity.

I'm not a professional in film reviews, to begin with. I'm just an University student who's got an enormous passion for cinema. It was years since a movie moved my soul in such a profound way. I was stunned when I saw that the movie summed up a 7.5 rating here on IMDb. I thought about this fact for some days, then I kind of make up my answer. "Youth" is the symbol of many struggles in cinema and in people's mind. American movies and many Europeans ones as well are so easy to like, just because they're easy to follow. They show facts, actions, somehow explained by words and some ideas. Ideas are like the salt we put on on our meals to make them tasty. Films like "Youth" are the exact opposite: words and ideas are the "meal", and a few actions are the "salt". Actually all the actions are at the end of the movie, they could be perceived as a climax, but they're more like the conclusion of complex exchanges of ideas throughout the movie. I won't comment about technical features, because I don't have the expertise to do it. I just say that the soundtrack is somewhere near perfection, editing as well and there some beautifully shot scenes. As I said, my concern is not about that. "Youth" make the viewer think about life, old age, ethics, it accompanies us through some beautiful ideas, and this is where all pros and cons stay. This movie doesn't look for easy ways to impress the viewer, to make him/her somehow forcefully interested to what the screen shows, it requests an open mind and what I ironically call "the 51st shade": a fetish to thoughts, not only to material things. Some people don't like Sorrentino because they consider him a "radical chic intellectual". It is a righteous choice to be against "intellectualism" whatsoever, but it is as well righteous to be against ignorance.

There is a sense of nostalgia in the films of Paolo Sorrentino. The nostalgia often comes across as a sense of regret for the loss of innocent love experienced by the central characters during their youth. Such a regret can easily fills one's heart with melancholy but Sorrentino seems to have mastered the art of mixing gravity with levity. His films can be both serious and farcical at the same time and that's why they are more complex than what they prima facie appear. Youth‬ is no different.

Here is a film about larger-than-life oldies pining for their long past golden years of youth. We have a retired conductor (Michael Caine), a self-indulgent filmmaker well past his prime (Harvey Keitel), an insecure actor (Paul Dano), a mountaineer, a Miss Universe with brains, and an overweight footballer (most probably based on Maradona). There is a lively cameo from Jane Fonda who plays a legendary actress from Hollywood and then there is Rachel Weisz who plays the conductor's daughter.

Among other things (which certainly include Sorrentino's brilliant direction), it is the performances of Caine and Keitel that makes it a treat to watch. While Keitel steals every scene that he is a part of, Caine delivers a deeply nuanced performance around which the entire movie revolves. Youth is nowhere near being Sorrentino's best but it is certainly one of the best films of the year.

For more on the world of cinema, please visit my film blog "A Potpourri of Vestiges".

What a Beautiful Film, i Think it's too late to say This one it's a must See, Don't Mind The Negative Reviews.

Reviewers Notes, humbly submitted:

1. One of those must-see films that contains images, performances, set pieces and snippets of dialog that will haunt you long after you have left the theatre. My favorite is a throwaway line by Harvey Keitel's character casually explaining why for 60 years he has been gullible in his relationship with Caine's character: "I invent stories ... I have to believe everything in order to make things up." (Keitel) That is what reviewers like to call dialog within dialog.

2. Caine is superb, but then again he is always superb.

3. This is an affectation that this reviewer wants to add: since Sorrentino is very direct about wanting this film to be about age, the experience would be enhanced if you watch 1966's Alfie before seeing Youth. To see Caine (at the time) portraying one of the sexiest men alive will take you to a new level of appreciation for what age is about.

4. Some of the images, clearly surreal, could well set the standard for the medium for years to come. They are not only extraordinary but plentiful. Contrast these for example to TV's American Horror Story which pretends to be leading edge in this regard but in fact is merely recycling stuff from 1970s horror films. This is the real deal.

5. Weisz comes full circle. She started her career doing serious roles in indies, temporarily became a saucy sex goddess, and is now a serious actress once again.

6. Only criticism is a problem I have noticed with other films by strong directors like Woody Allen -- the director, doing double duty as the writer, is virtually God in this production and subconsciously the viewer understands that he or she may as well be watching a film made on Mars, because the energy and the characters are so far removed from reality.