CategoryDrama Movies

The Best of Youth

June 22, 2003 0 By Fans

(No Ratings Yet)

Plot

An Italian epic that follows the lives of two brothers, from the 1960s to the 2000s.

Release Year: 2003

Rating: 8.3/10 (10,145 voted)

Critic's Score: 89/100

Director:
Marco Tullio Giordana

Stars: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Jasmine Trinca

Storyline
Nicola and Matteo Carati are two brothers of Rome, who live the years from 1966 to 2000 and all the events which have signed this period. They begin their adventure, helping Giorgia, a young girl confined in an asylum. Then, after the flood of Florence, Nicola meets Giulia a talented piano player with a dangerous sympathy for the BR. Matteo, a rebel spirit entered in the police, will find the optimistic photographer Mirella. These four characters and many others will cross the years of terrorism and Tangentopoli.

Writers: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli

Cast:

Luigi Lo Cascio
–

Nicola Carati

Alessio Boni
–

Matteo Carati

Adriana Asti
–

Adriana Carati

Sonia Bergamasco
–

Giulia Monfalco

Fabrizio Gifuni
–

Carlo Tommasi

Maya Sansa
–

Mirella Utano

Valentina Carnelutti
–

Francesca Carati

Jasmine Trinca
–

Giorgia

Andrea Tidona
–

Angelo Carati

Lidia Vitale
–

Giovanna Carati

Claudio Gioè
–

Vitale Micavi

Paolo Bonanni
–

Luigino

Mario Schiano
–

Medicine Professor

Giovanni Scifoni
–

Berto

Michele Melega
–

Literature Professor

Taglines:
The possibilities were endless…

Details

Official Website:
Official site |
Official site |

Release Date: 22 June 2003

Filming Locations: Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Opening Weekend: €44,759
(Italy)
(22 June 2003)
(8 Screens)

Gross: $254,224
(USA)
(4 July 2005)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible:
In the scene where Mirella is driving the boat out of Sicily, the bottom of another white boat can be seen when the camera focuses on Andrea.

Quotes:

Sicilian Commissario:
What were you looking for, joining the Police?

Matteo Carati:
I wanted some rules.

Sicilian Commissario:
And what do you do, with these rules?

Matteo Carati:
I apply them

User Review

It does Italian cinema proud

Rating: 10/10

At last: an achievement contemporary Italian cinema can be proud of! Not
that the odd decent flick doesn't grace our screens these days; however,
when compared to Cinecitta's hey-day between the late 40s and 70s, today's
production is scant. The problem essentially is the dire lack of funding
and
scarce distribution. Most Italian films are either shown in hardly any
movie
theatres – if any at all – while American blockbusters clog the screens of
Italian cinemas up and down the peninsula for months (cliched 1960s
terminology such as "cultural imperialism" springs to mind!). It's a
familiar story…
Then a couple of years ago, Gabriele Muccino's meaningless movies started
being hailed as the harbingers of a renaissance. That's when I started to
despair for this country's ailing contemporary cultural heritage!
Muccino's
"L'ultimo bacio" (to be avoided like the plague!) and his latest,
"Ricordati
di me", are prime examples of Berlusconi-era cinema: pretty-to-look-at but
pointless, riddled with stoopid cliches, pre-packed, pre-digested
conclusions, conservative, moralistic and misogynistic undertones that
pass
for brave portrayals of modern Italy (yeah right), hollow cynicism and
shallow "portraits" of middle-class malaise that are merely a smug,
self-referential celebration of this milieu (Muccino's own). Fortunately,
despite his popularity in recent years, an increasing number of
intelligent
Italians share my views. And by the look of the Roman movie theatres
heaving
with people when I went to see La meglio gioventu' last week, they also
agree that Marco Tullio Giordana's last effort is worth the effort of
sitting in a cinema for almost 6 hours!
The movie is a mini-series (it will be shown by RAI television in autumn
2003). It was shown at this year's Cannes in the Un Certain Regard
section.
Now it's shown in two separate, 3-hour screenings in selected
movie-theatres
around Italy. This may sound like too much to bear even for the most
passionate of cinema-goers. But I cannot stress enough how successful the
experiment is and how effortless (and pleasant!) the experience. There are
almost as many opportunites to develop plot and characters as in a novel,
and one leaves the cinema with a feeling of having gotten to know and
grown
to love the characters over a period of time.
The story begins in Rome in 1966 and ends in the present day. Watching it
is
a wonderful way of getting a feel for Italian history in the last 40
years,
though without ever feeling like you're watching a dense, academic
"historic" film. Though it encompasses many historic events and nods
towards
innumerable themes, it is first and foremost about people. An Italian
family
in Rome – the Carati family – a Roman father, Milanese mother, two
brothers
and two sisters – are the hub around which other characters rotate. The
two
Carati brothers, Nicola (played sympathetically by Luigi Lo Cascio, also
seen in Giordana's previous film, "I cento passi") and Matteo (the dishy
Alessio Boni), are in some ways the main characters. But the spotlight
often
shines for long spells onto other characters – namely the lovely
"psychopath" Giorgia, Red Brigade terrorist Giulia, as well as Mirella,
the
feisty and beautiful Sicilian photographer (Matteo's almost-love
interest!).
Then there are innumerable other memorable portraits, all introducing a
social theme (such as Nicola's factory-worker friend, made redundant
during
Fiat's crisis at the start of the 80s, or Matteo's colleague, the
working-class policeman, who ends up on a wheelchair after a beating at a
political demonstration in the 70s). However, this is never done
heavy-handedly and all characters are first and foremost human beings who
can be appreciated as individuals transcending their backgrounds or
political leanings.
What I appreciated most in this movie was the lack of stereotyping. In
heavily-politicised Italy, this comes as a breath of fresh air. Thus
before
being a policeman, Matteo is convincingly portrayed as a cultured and
fiercely intelligent man whose emotional repression and desperate need for
rules are a tragic consequence of an ancient wound. And the
Teutonic-looking
Giulia, the terrorist, is multi-faceted and has a believable psychological
background which explains (but neither justifies or condemns) her choices.
This woman, who abandons her young daughter and loving partner to embrace
a
life of political extremism, is never portrayed as a villain (this is
innovative, considering how harshly "bad" mothers and wives are normally
represented in movies!).
All actors, with the exception of the wooden and heavy-featured Valentina
Carnelutti (she plays the Carati's youngest daughter, Francesca), are
excellent. Humorous and deeply touching moments perfectly counterbalance
one
another in a setting that flits from Rome to Norway to Florence (during
the
1966 flood) to Turin (during the student demonstrations of the late 60s
and
70s), then to Milan, Sicily and the Tuscan countryside in the present day.
Then Norway again, in a beautiful and poetic closing of the
circle.
Early on in the film, young mental patient Giorgia, whom Matteo is charged
with taking for walks while he's still a student, introduces the theme of
psychiatry and its evolution from the 60s to the present day. Franco
Basaglia, the revolutionary psychiatrist whose humane and futuristic ideas
ultimately shut down Italian asylums in 1979, is mentioned later on as
Nicola's role-model but the movie is never preachy or self-righteous about
this. Again, this complex theme is not imposed upon the viewer in a dry
and
academic manner, but is interwoven into a compelling and moving subplot
which involves both brothers and brings about decisive changes in both
their
lives. Similarly, the traumatic Mafia killing of the Sicilian judge
Giovanni
Falcone (early 90s) is evoked as it deserves, but again, never crowds the
plot.
There is far more that could be said about La meglio gioventu'! But I will
give no more away, just a warm recommendation to go and see this
accomplished piece of movie-making. The fact it won a Cannes prize makes
me
more hopeful of its release abroad, especially in the UK, where Italian
cinema is direly underrepresented (with the exception of movies that show
Italy in a quaint or picturesque light).

TagsItaly Rome

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