Screen scene
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 6, 2005 9:00 p.m.
“The Best in Youth” Directed by Marco Tullio
Giordana Miramax Films
You may think you are just too busy to watch a six-hour Italian
movie with subtitles. But if you spent your spring break watching
movies such as “The Ring Two,” “The
Pacifier,” and “Guess Who,” then it would appear
that you don’t mind wasting yourself on dull and monotonous
films. For the combined times of those three forgettable (and
regrettable) movies, you could be watching Marco Tullio
Giordana’s “The Best in Youth” (“La Meglio
Gioventu”). Made for Italian television in 2003, the immense
success in its homeland spawned worldwide distribution and
admiration, and the film has finally been released in the United
States. In terms of compelling storytelling and directing, the film
echoes “The Godfather,” minus the mafia relations and
all the crime-driven situations. It tells the story of the Carati
family from 1960s Rome all the way to the present day. Giordana
focuses on the family’s two brothers, Nicola (Luigi Lo
Cascio) and Matteo (Alessio Boni) as they navigate their way
through life, experiencing women, love, careers and family in very
different ways but always with each other. While Nicola settles for
a life as a successful psychiatrist, Matteo on the other hand joins
forces with the Italian police in the name of patriotism and
freedom. As much as it deals with coming of age, the film is an ode
to the Italian nation and the Italian people of the last 40 years.
It captures the student revolts, the Florence flood, and the
technology boom of the 1980s directly through the experiences of
its own characters. While American audiences are accustomed to
seeing the social turmoil of the 1960s as a phenomenon confined to
the United States, “Best in Youth” clearly shows that
Italy faced revolutionary impulses in its own right as well. The
forte of the film, however, lies in the way that it manages to
absorb the audience so completely in its drama. Because so much
time is spent getting to know the characters, and to know them
well, it is impossible to not feel consumed in their world. Beyond
simply making the audience care about the characters, Giordana is
able to somehow make the audience feel like it is an additional
character in the film. This may seem like an enormous feat, but it
is simply the result of fine craftsmanship in storytelling, which
appears to be absent in most major American studio films.
“Best in Youth” is a refreshing take in terms of the
depth in character formation. Despite all the wonderful and glowing
remarks that can be made about this film, there is no denying that
the length of the film makes it a hard sell. There exists a
preconceived notion that all movies have to fit neatly into two
hours, with doses of humor at the 30-minute mark, a climax at the
90-minute mark, and a nice resolution at the end. “Best in
Youth” sets out to defy this convention, and it uses the
extra time wisely. And to avoid having to make people sit in
theaters for a whole day to see it, “Best in Youth”
exists in two three-hour segments, making it possible to see the
first part and then take a break to take it in before heading into
the second. Just as it would be impossible to fit the entire
“Godfather” saga into two hours, it would be similarly
unfeasible to edit this film down. To all lovers of cinema, set
aside the time to watch this Italian film and you will find a movie
gem (with English subtitles, of course). -Emily
Camastra
