The Best of Youth
Encyclopedia
The Best of Youth is a 2003
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...

 Italian
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 film directed by Marco Tullio Giordana
Marco Tullio Giordana
Marco Tullio Giordana is an Italian director and scriptwriter. His film Quando sei nato non puoi più nasconderti was entered into the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.-Director:*Maledetti, vi amerò...

. Originally planned as a four-part mini-series, it was presented at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival
2003 Cannes Film Festival
The 2003 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Elephant by Gus Van Sant.-Jury:* Patrice Chéreau, President * Aishwarya Rai * Meg Ryan * Karin Viard...

 where it won the prestigious Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...

 award. It was then given a theatrical release in Italy in two three-hour parts in which 40 minutes were edited out. The complete version was aired in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 from December 7 to 15, 2003 on Rai Uno
Rai Uno
Rai 1 is the primary television station of RAI, the national public service broadcaster, and the most watched television channel in Italy. It was born as Rai Tv from 1954 to 1961, called Programma Nazionale from 1961 to 1979, after called Rete 1 from 1979 to 1982, then called Rai Uno from 1982 to...

 in four parts.

In the U. S., the film was screened in several cities in two three-hour parts. The two-disc DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 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
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...

, again paid tribute to the director in this film, as its title comes from a Pasolini poem. 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
The Leopard (film)
The Leopard is a 1963 Italian film by director Luchino Visconti, based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel of the same name.-Cast:* Burt Lancaster as Prince Don Fabrizio Salina* Claudia Cardinale as Angelica Sedara / Bertiana...

.

Plot

The Best of Youth is a family saga
Family saga
The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time...

 set in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 from 1966 through 2003. It chronicles the life of an Italian family, the Caratis, but focuses primarily on two brothers, Matteo (Alessio Boni
Alessio Boni
Alessio Boni is an Italian actor.Boni was born in Sarnico. In 1992, Boni finished his theatre studies at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. The second of three, Marco is the eldest and Andrea is the youngest brother...

) and Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio
Luigi Lo Cascio
Luigi Lo Cascio is an Italian actor born 20 October 1967 in Palermo.He won David di Donatello for Best actor for his starring role in I cento passi.-Filmography:*2000: I cento passi*2001: Luce dei miei occhi...

), documenting their journey from the prime of their wild youth in the mid-1960s counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...

, to parenthood
Parenting
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood...

 and retirement
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...

 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.

1966 summer

Two brothers go their separate ways after attempting to rescue a young girl, Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca
Jasmine Trinca
Jasmine Trinca is an Italian actress.She began her career in 2001, chosen by Nanni Moretti for his award-winning The Son's Room, receiving the Guglielmo Biraghi prize as best new talent of the year...

), from an abusive sanitarium. The brothers are Nicola and Matteo Carati (Luigi Lo Cascio
Luigi Lo Cascio
Luigi Lo Cascio is an Italian actor born 20 October 1967 in Palermo.He won David di Donatello for Best actor for his starring role in I cento passi.-Filmography:*2000: I cento passi*2001: Luce dei miei occhi...

 and Alessio Boni). We meet their parents, Angelo (Andrea Tidona) and Adriana (Adriana Asti
Adriana Asti
Adriana Asti is an Italian actress.She was married to Bernardo Bertolucci.-Selected filmography:*Città di notte, by Leopoldo Trieste *Arrangiatevi!, by Mauro Bolognini...

), 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
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

). 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
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...

 and take her along with him and Nicola — who are about to venture on a trip to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.

Eventually, Giorgia is captured by the police and taken back to the asylum. Nicola continues to Norway and gets a job as a lumberjack
Lumberjack
A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...

. Matteo returns to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and joins the army. The brothers meet again in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 just after the 1966 Arno River flood. Here, Nicola meets a university student, Giulia (Sonia Bergamasco).

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
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, a place corrupted by the Mafia. There, he meets a photographer in a caffè named Mirella (Maya Sansa
Maya Sansa
-Biography:Maya Sansa was born in Rome the daughter of an Iranian father and an Italian mother. When she was 14, she started to study acting at her high school in Rome the "Virgilio". She then moved to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There she graduated in acting and was...

). She wants to be a librarian, and he advises her to work at a beautiful library in Rome.

Because of his temper, Matteo is forced to leave Sicily. He decides to reside in Rome but refuses to visit his mother.

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.

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 17 years in jail. During her jail term, Nicola visits Giulia and proposes to her but is rejected.

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 (Andrea) 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 art conservation and becomes engaged to Mimmo. During this time, Nicola finds out his mother has died and, as a result, travels to Sicily to visit Mirella and pay his respects.

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.

2003

The movie ends with Matteo's son, Andrea, visiting Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, specifically North Cape
North Cape, Norway
North Cape is a cape on the island of Magerøya in Northern Norway, in the municipality of Nordkapp. Its 307 m high, steep cliff is often referred to as the northernmost point of Europe, located at , 2102.3 km from the North Pole. However, the neighbouring point Knivskjellodden is actually...

, which is where his father and Nicola ventured to go at the beginning of the movie, but never completed their journey.

Sources

  • Sandro Petraglia & Stefano Rulli (2004). , Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana
    RAI
    RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

    . ISBN 88-397-1269-0
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