Best of Youth [The Italian Movie]

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes longer films that unfold over decades (it's hard to resist mentioning 1900). Although, the film's major weaknesses to me are that it skirts the issues of politics while not committing to any point of view - except to say that terrorists are bad - and that the first part spends forever on the "kidnapping" of that young girl...which is supposed to mean something metaphoric and lifeshaking to the two brothers, each separately. But when she comes back into the picture, it takes so long and pays off so little, it makes me wonder what the effort was. Then the second half seems so rushed for time, constantly sticking around each time period long enough to set off the plot devices, then moving forward another three years or so.

I really do like the film; these aren't major problems with it - it's just that the good stuff is so subtle and creeping up on you that it is much harder to praise it. The acting is magnifico indeed, and I enjoyed seeing the little psychological nuances gradually expand and come to a head within each character - doing things that wouldn't make sense all of a sudden unless we slowly saw them shifting towards that - more like real life in this sense, and one of the few great things you can benefit by (and absolutely should use) if you have the scale of canvas a six hour film provides.

If you feel like you're not going to like the movie already, don't go. But if you're at all curious, you absolutely must.

I got the hot-nose-bridge sort of crying multiple times during the film, though. Hour for hour, much more frequently than most movies. (I'm not a difficult cry at movies, believe it or not.)

I'd say this is intentional, reflecting how the politics lose significance as the characters grow older and more detached towards the times. It all ends in a 'growing one's personal garden' ideal.

http://bam.org/film/series.aspx?id=108

I read some good things on the Pasolini one.

Until the last two hours get rather scattered, attempting to tie lots of loose ends, this is almost great. The mother gives a heartbreaking performance.

Watched this last year, on the insistence of Scots-Italian friends. It's amazing, as immersive as Mad Men or The Wire. Thought the politics becoming peripheral and meh towards the end reflected what actually happened as much as anything. The English language DVD package is just awful, though - gives you no reason to pick it up at all.