The Best of Youth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Best of Youth/La Meglio Gioventù

Directed by	Marco Tullio Giordana
Produced by	Angelo Barbagallo
Written by	Sandro Petraglia Stefano Rulli
Starring	Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizo Gifuni, Maya Sansa
Distributed by	Miramax
Release date(s)	2003 (Italy), 2005 (U.S.A.)
Running time	400 min.
Language	Mostly Italian with some scenes in English or Norwegian
IMDb profile

The Best of Youth, (La Meglio Gioventù in Italian), is a 6 hour film directed by Marco Tullio Giordana that originally aired in Italy in 2003 on Rai Uno, the state television channel, in four 100 minute parts. (The original broadcast dates were December 7, 8, 14, and 15 2003.) It was also given a theatrical release in Italy in which 40 minutes of the original broadcast were edited out. The film chronicles the life of an Italian family, the Caratis, but focuses primarily on two brothers, Matteo (Alessio Boni) and Nicola, (Luigi Lo Cascio), documenting their journey from the prime of their wild youth in the mid-1960s counter-culture, to parenthood and retirement in the early 2000's. The film aims to show the interaction of the personal and the political, the ways in which small events may become turning points in the important choices made by individuals.

The film was a sensation in Italy, winning many national film awards, and was also the recipient of the prestigious Un Certain Regard award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In the U. S., it was praised by A. O. Scott, film critic of the New York Times, and was screened in several cities in two three-hour parts. The two-disk DVD of the film is similarly divided.

Giordana, who directed a film about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini, again paid tribute to the director, as the title of the epic comes from a Pasolini poem.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

La Meglio Gioventù is a family saga set in Rome from 1966 through 2003 that details the lives of two brothers, Nicola and Matteo Carati, who go their separate ways after attempting to rescue a young girl, Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca), from an abusive sanitarium. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Italian history, the film follows the characters through such major historical incidents as the flooding of Florence in 1966, the terrorist activities of the Red Brigades, mental asylum reforms, the student protests of 1968, Italy's elimination from the 1966 World Cup at the hands of Korea and its subsequent victory in 1982, and Tangentopoli and the consequent death of anti-mob judge Giovanni Falcone.