Youth - La giovinezza

(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 % (10.07.2015)

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. (08.11.2015)

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. (14.10.2015)

No, Paolo. Once again, it is a cold terrarium full of strangely academized reptiles. And the orchestra just doesn't sound loud, only unglued, as if each section is playing a different song. I was a big fan of it, and after seeing The Great Beauty, I appreciate the greater relaxation of the tone in places and the tendency toward absurdity, but overall it feels similarly weighted and unconvincing. In addition, Sorrentino is increasingly successfully colonizing the hard-to-imagine territory between a folk comedy full of truth and snobbish "art", which in places becomes quite unbearable. Back to the small things, please. (10.07.2015)

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. (27.10.2018)