Directed by:
Paolo SorrentinoScreenplay:
Paolo SorrentinoCinematography:
Luca BigazziComposer:
David LangCast:
Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, Jane Fonda, Tom Lipinski, Alex Beckett, Mark Gessner, Chloe Pirrie, Ed Stoppard, Madalina Diana Ghenea (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is a retired composer and conductor and his friend Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) is a working film director. The septuagenarian friends are on a vacation at a luxury resort at the foot of the Alps, where they ponder their children's confused lives, Mick's eager young writers and the other guests at the hotel which include aspiring actor Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano), diva Jane Fonda (playing herself) and Fred's daughter and assistant Leda (Rachel Weisz). Whilst Mick works to finish the screenplay for what he anticipates will be his final significant film, Fred expresses no interest in picking up his musical career again, but a request from a well-known monarch makes him reconsider. The star-studded cast also includes current Miss Universe Madalina Ghenea. (StudioCanal UK)
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Reviews (8)
(50th KVIFF) My last film of the fiftieth edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival should have also been the best. But it wasn’t. It disappointed. A lot. For me, Youth was an artificial and disingenuous bag of kitsch full of visual and audio beauty, poisoned by wannabe deep phrases and soaring but fake truths about life. In short, it has some scenes worthy of praise here and there (especially the less poetic and more humorous conversations between Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel) and others worthy of a punch in the face. There was at least one moment (the scene where actor robot Q is talking with a wise little girl in a shop) when I couldn’t stop my head and hand to spontaneously perform a facepalm. After the pretentious The Great Beauty, which lived up to its name maybe actually in spite of itself and its director, Youth falls flat on its face. The breathtaking craftsmanship of Sorrentino doesn’t deserve less than three stars, but I was tempted. 60 %
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I wouldn’t say that, from a philosophical standpoint, the movie Youth is worse than The Great Beauty. But its great advantages are the locations in the Swiss Alps, where there is a hotel in one valley for retired Western world stars from any industry. In the movie, you meet the standard professions. A fat soccer player, a miserable actor who starred in a role that is constantly being talked about by the public, a director who has his head full of thoughts about how to make his masterpiece, Miss Universe, who is of course very beautiful, or a composer who is tired by the fact that he composed something unique. All of them are here willingly, like on a vacation, to get some rest. They are all talking here, thinking, philosophizing, and they can, but don’t have to, be joined by their loved ones. And the nicest thing about it is that this movie was done by probably the most interesting European director of the modern era – Paolo Sorrentino, who appears to have learned those spectacular scenes from Stanley Kubrick himself. I am not giving it a full score only because there were so many ideas that I wasn’t able to get it all in those two hours. Nevertheless, it is still an unbelievable, not only movie experience with a finale that is exactly the sort of thing that makes movies so unique.
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Youth is an audiovisually opulent and superbly acted reflection on old age and youth that is both comic and tragic, with both opposites always used appropriately and effectively. The story is set in a seemingly ordinary spa, but inhabited by a variety of characters who can both make you laugh and move you with their behaviour and speeches. I really liked the beautifully colourful shots of nature and the overall camera work, which flirted with the people and objects around it. In addition to the captivating imagery, I was carried away on the film's enchanting musical score, which was impossible to ignore and perfectly completed the atmosphere of each scene. Each of the characters had something of their own story to tell, so I could hardly say which one captivated me the most. An artfully made film that could be considered a metaphor for life, as there are moments that make you smile as well as sad.
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Meticulous production design and great actors in a sometimes slightly bizarre reminiscence of a bygone youth. Searching for answers to old questions, asking new ones, coming to terms with the fact that time is bliss and everyone has to leave one day. Of course, there are some family injustices and a slightly troubled past, but Sorrentino handles the thematic impulses with grace and, at times, with a light dose of cynicism and irony, which suits the two ace actors, and as a result the viewer is spared unnecessarily hyped emotions or theatrical performances. But I can't avoid the feeling that this slightly ambient Swiss beauty could have been told a bit more deftly and better by the Americans.
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Sorrentino’s meditation is all the more pleasant for being formally modest. Set in a soothing, slowly flowing atmosphere of nature, recited by a wonderful acting lineup, Youth is a thread of life metaphors, some of which will delight by hitting the bull’s eye, while others ring of empty but playful intellectualism. I felt respect for the age-old wisdom of the two main characters, and I enjoyed my time with them. And the mature, wounded Rachel Weisz has her charms.
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