O Melhor da Juventude

Man, this 6 hour Italian drama gives soap opera a very good name. Saw the film at this year's Singapore International Film Festival, whose organisers were thankfully intuitive enough to endeavour such challenging programming.

Best of youth's sprawling, epic scale depiction of love, familial ties and the strength which friendship binds, were assuredly interspersed into those 6 hours. The sweeping grandeur of its scope never overshadows the intimacy of its finely detailed characterisation. The subtle shifting of focus between characters (before unveiling the true lead character in the end) also proved to be intriguingly fruitful for the attentive audience.

The screening time hence becomes a non-issue, for it genuinely felt like a sumptuous breeze. In fact, I'm pretty sure the captivated audience on that fateful night of screening could go on for another 3 hours. Such is the allure of good story telling.

In summation, Best of youth boasts of good story, excellent performances, well placed "Godfather" references and beautiful people for the restless(if any) to ogle at. What more can a film geek (erm, me) ask for?

Fantastic movie. Go hunt for it.

This is a great movie! I thought that all of the acting by every single actor in the movie was just bloody fantastic. I thought that every one of the characters in the movie was very believable and all of them brought me to certain emotions, it was just a great story told in a great way and again what sold it all to me was the great acting by everyone involved from the stars on down to just the supporting bit players who make this movie work. Great big kudos to the director for getting such wonderful performances out of all of these people, I would definitely recommend seeing it to any fan of movies and/or fans of great acting.

"There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants." Montaigne

Rarely does a new film find a place on a longstanding short list of best ever. The Italian import Best of Youth recently entered my all time best ten, a singular honor considering I had to sit still for six hours of viewing, and I rarely sit still anytime, even if my name is DeSando and it's a family saga.

Director Francis Ford Coppola created a movie empire with his Godfather series and ended up with what some consider the best American movie ever made. It is unforgettable for its emphasis on family values mafia style and its stunning photography. The Best of Youth is decidedly not mafia related; rather it is a romantic and historical rendering of Italy from the 1960's as seen through the lives of the Carati family and their friends and lovers. The two brothers, Nicola and Matteo, represent the Janus-like conflict of liberal and conservative in the volatile last half-century of Italian social and cultural change.

This is humanistic history at its best as director Marco Tullio Giordana takes us through the sexy seventies, a devastating Florence flood, the emergence of Red Brigades, assassinations and business downturns including the Fiat layoffs. Despite deaths, suicide, and disappointment, the last line of the film, spoken in the new century, repeats the sentiment of the youthful days in the last century that everything is truly beautiful. How can you miss that theme when the cinematography emphasizes the antique charm of Italy and the close up beauty of actors who look their parts, albeit rarely ugly? The film, often tightly framed, accentuates character over plot and a certain imprisonment in character and destiny. The choice of actors is nothing short of inspired.

The genius of Best of Youth is that like Italy itself, this family is a stew of ideologies that offers up dignity of the individual as the highest value and respect (remember The Godfather) for humanity the only arbiter of peace. This film stands with Brokeback Mountain and The New World as a towering achievement and testimony to the transcending power of art to make us look at ourselves as vulnerable and beautiful.

Can art transform life? If so, I would elect "The Best of Youth" as a primary candidate for that possibility.

Almost never in my over 60 years of film viewing have I been as deeply affected, haunted by characterizations, poetic dialog and brilliantly unexpected turns...and breadth of scope. The nuances of relationship between people...in this case the Italian family Carati, their lovers, friends, wards...are so moving, so deeply portrayed and inhabited by the actors that I was not only moved to tears, but inspired. Here is a view of how human beings can live the humanity so desperately needed in this crazed and warring world...also presented as an integral part of plot and interaction...and this done without any sort of didactic or polemic foisting...All achieved through the intimate and profound struggles of the film's characters.

Imagination and the incredible sensibility of director (Marco Tullio Giordana),writers (Petraglia and Rulli) and actors (most outstanding: Luigi LoCacio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti and Jasmine Trinca) combine to offer a film that carried this participant (for that's what I felt) into a realm only experienced by exceptional literature.

As is obvious...I highly recommend seeing this movie.

I waste a lot of time reviewing cute but rubbishy science fiction and horror films on this site. I'm a bit out of practice with watching, and critiquing, actual drama! But of course, I still realize that the key to great drama is the characters - and they make this epic Italian miniseries-turned-movie work, and work beautifully at that.

"The Best of Youth" focuses on various members of the Carati family and their friends, advancing from the 1960s to the near-present as it chronicles their lives in the context of social turmoil in Italy as a whole. For the most part, the story never drags, and every single character is compelling and sympathetic.

Many of the character have flaws, but they're not bad people - just complex. Many tragic things happen, but the film never wallows in misery, except on one wholly justified occasion. Moral conflicts are explored not in black-and-white, but in shades of grey. In other words, "The Best of Youth" is rich with the kind of warmth, complexity and subtle nuances that you tend to miss in most American dramas - even the ones that win Oscars.

I won't spoil the plot, really - I'll just say that both of the main characters, brothers Matteo and Nicola Carati, are charismatic and cool and well worth six hours of screen time. They're also very different, which keeps things interesting.

Are there any significant flaws here? Nah, not really. My interest waned a bit during some segments, particularly the historical ones that aren't explained that well. There's also a bit of cheesy makeup and blue screen, but that can be excused because this is really a TV production, as I understand it, not a big movie. Besides, I sort of love production flaws. They're fun, aren't they?

On a totally pointless note, I'd like to mention a strange plus of "The Best of Youth" - much of the cast is totally gorgeous. Guys and gals alike have reason to rejoice here...

One final random thought. While I'm glad that "The Best of Youth" was distributed and well-received in the U.S., I'm annoyed that it was publicized as being "like the Godfather" or "like the works of Scorcese." It's nothing like the Godfather, it's nothing like Scorcese. The marketers seemed to have believed, unfortunately, that U.S. audiences are only interested in Italian criminals, not normal Italian people. This sort of irritates me. (Note my surname and you'll figure out why!) But such concerns have nothing to do with the actual movie, which is pretty much flawless.