The Best of Youth
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| The Best of Youth La Meglio Gioventù |
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| 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, Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa, Jasmine Trinca, Lidia Vitale, Valentina Carnelutti, Claudio Gioè |
| Distributed by | Miramax |
| Release date(s) | 2003 (Italy) 2005 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 400 minutes |
| Language | Italian, with some scenes in English and Norwegian |
| IMDb profile | |
The Best of Youth (Italian: La Meglio Gioventù), is a 6 hour film directed by Marco Tullio Giordana that originally aired in Italy in from 2003-12-07 to 2003-12-15 on Rai Uno, the state television channel, in four 100 minute parts. It was also given a theatrical release in Italy in which 40 minutes of the original broadcast were edited out. 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., the film 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 in this film, as its title comes from a Pasolini poem.[1] The film falls within the tradition of several Italian films that cover expansive times of Italian history through the story of one family, such as Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard.[2]
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[edit] Plot
La Meglio Gioventù is a family saga set in Italy from 1966 through 2003. It 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 2000s. 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.
[edit] 1966 summer
Two brothers go their separate ways after attempting to rescue a young girl, Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca), from an abusive sanitarium. The brothers are Nicola and Matteo Carati (Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni). We meet their parents, Angelo (Andrea Tidona) and Adriana (Adriana Asti), their older sister Giovanna (Lidia Vitale), and their kid sister Francesca (Valentina Carnelutti). And we meet their friends, their lovers, and others who drift through, including a mental patient whose life seems to follow in parallel.
Nicola qualifies as a doctor (and will pursue a career in psychiatry). Matteo, on the other hand, walks out of his final exam. He had been working as a "logotherapist" (a person who takes mental patients for walks) and his patient was Giorgia. Noticing that Giorgia has been wounded by electroshock therapy, he decides to remove her from the institution and take her along with him and Nicola — who are about to venture on a trip to Norway.
Eventually, Giorgia is captured by the police and taken back to the asylum. Nicola continues to Norway and gets a job as a lumberjack. Matteo returns to Rome and joins the army. The brothers meet again in Florence just after the 1966 Arno River flood. Here, Nicola meets a university student, Giulia (Sonia Bergamasco).
[edit] 1968 February
Nicola has moved in with Giulia, but the two do not marry.
[edit] 1974
Nicola and Giulia have a daughter named Sara. After some time, Giulia gets drawn into a secret Red Brigade cell. One night, she leaves Nicola and Sara and disappears into the terrorist underground.
Meanwhile, Matteo leaves the army to join the police force. He accepts an assignment in Sicily, a place corrupted by the Mafia. There, he meets a photographer in a caffè named Mirella (Maya Sansa). She wants to be a librarian, and he advises her to work at a beautiful library in Rome.
[edit] 1983
Years later Matteo walks into that same library and sees Mirella for the second time. They fall in love, and one evening, make love in a car. Eventually he pushes her away.
Because of his temper, Matteo is forced to leave Sicily. He decides to reside in Rome but refuses to visit his mother.
[edit] 1983 December
Mirella meets with Matteo with news for him, but he behaves so harshly to her that she does not tell him that she is pregnant with his child. On New Year's Eve, Matteo decides to finally visit his mother. Everyone is there to celebrate. Instead of waiting for the traditional toasts, however, Matteo decides to leave early and, at midnight, jumps off the balcony of his apartment and kills himself.
The family is devastated by the tragedy. No longer motivated, Nicola's mother quits her teaching job and lives a life in solitude in Rome. Nicola, feeling that he could have saved Matteo and not wanting to make the same mistake again, arranges for the capture of Giulia to prevent her from killing someone else or from getting killed. She is sentenced to two years in jail. During her jail term, Nicola visits Giulia and proposes to her but is rejected.
[edit] 1992 spring
Nicola finds a photograph of Matteo taken by Mirella. He is encouraged by Giorgia to meet with Mirella which, after some hesitation, he agrees to do. When he meets Mirella, Nicola learns about her son and that Matteo was the father. Nicola breaks this exciting news to his mother and they visit the boy in Sicily. Inspired by new meaning in her life, Nicola's mother decides to stay with Mirella and her grandson. She will die there, some years later.
Meanwhile, Sara, now in her early twenties, is still struggling with the poor choices her mother has made. She decides to move to Rome to study restoration and becomes engaged to Mimmo. During this time, Nicola finds out his mother has passed away and, as a result, travels to Sicily to visit Mirella and pay his respects.
[edit] 2000 spring
Having finally moved past the death of Matteo, Nicola and Mirella fall in love. Sara, now happy and strong, is encouraged by Nicola to confront her mother and try to patch things up. Giulia, now out of jail and in desperate need of love, embraces Sara, but is not ready to open up completely.
[edit] References
- ^ Mark Kermode. "The Best of Youth", The Observer, 4 July 2004. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
- ^ Peter Bradshaw. "The Best of Youth", The Guardian, 2 July 2004. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
[edit] Sources
- Sandro Petraglia & Stefano Rulli (2004). La meglio gioventù, un film di Marco Tullio Giordana, Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana. ISBN 88-397-1269-0
[edit] External links
- Miramax.com — Official page (USA)
- La Meglio Gioventù at the Internet Movie Database
- La Meglio Gioventù at Rotten Tomatoes
- La Meglio Gioventù at Metacritic
- La Meglio Gioventù at Box Office Mojo
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