La meglio gioventù – 1

La meglio gioventù provides a truly gripping picture of the Italian history of two brothers from the 1960s until now. The film is a massive hit in cinemas everywhere now, but at first it was produced as a mini-series for the Italian TV company RAI. The length, about six hours, offers every opportunity to the film to reveal the destructive effects of time on a human life, and to show how social and political changes influence lives, drive families apart and bring them back together again. La meglio gioventù does that in a very delicate way, and critics and admirers have already offered many comparisons: from Il gattopardo to Berlin Alexanderplatz. Nicola (Lo Cascio) and Matteo (Boni) share expectations, dreams and friends in 1966 Rome when the story starts. The calm, sensitive Nicola is going to become a psychiatrist and marry Giulia, whose extreme communist sympathies will make her diametrically opposed to the hot tempered Matteo, who becomes a policeman. But politics is no more important in the film than the 1982 World Cup or the floods in Florence. When it comes down to it, this attention for personal experiences means the film races past, like a fat novel you want to read in one session. The title `La meglio gioventù’ – Best of Youth – is both an anthology of poems by Pasolini, and an old Italian Alpine song.