Youth

Retired composer and conductor Fred is taking treatments at a luxury Swiss spa, watched over by his daughter. He’s there with his old friend Mick, a film director who, unlike Fred, doesn’t plan on giving up his career just yet. Both while away the time reminiscing about their young days and their past loves and, fully aware of their age, they have no illusions about the future. They observe the lives of dozens of colorful individuals whom they meet or simply glimpse passing by, and who compel them to reflect on youth and beauty. Here, Paolo Sorrentino once again stages a “choral theatre of life,” where the motley characters surrounding the central figures each have a fundamental role to play – not as part of the almost nonexistent story, but as one of the constituents of the filmmaker’s design. This latter is stunningly rendered via image and music and, instead of a sense of decline and finality, the impression is more one of hope, reinforced by a wonderful and strongly emotive ending. Sorrentino’s new film was considered one of the best works in Cannes competition but, like The Great Beauty, it failed to win a prize.