Product Details

• Actors: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Sti, Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni
• Directors: Marco Tullio Giordana
• Writers: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli
• Producers: Angelo Barbagallo, Gianfranco Barbagallo
• Format: NTSC
• Language: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: LIONSGATE
• DVD Release Date: January 6, 2012
• Run Time: 368 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000C1VB8M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,991 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Best Of Youth" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

368 minutes of Italian TV miniseries--yes, that is indeed six hours' worth--comes unspooling in The Best of Youth, a stirring and beautiful experience. The film needs its running time to immerse us in the world of the Carati family from 1966 to near the present day. Two brothers are the primary focus: Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio), a responsible medical student, and Matteo (Alessio Boni), a troubled soldier. After a youthful road trip, their paths diverge, but each is carried along by the changing, sometimes violent, political weather of Italy in the 1970s and '80s. Life issues surge and ebb, with the increasing sense that Matteo is a lost soul, beyond even the help of the luminous woman (unforgettable Maya Sansa) who comes into his life.

Truth be told, The Best of Youth has some of the limitations of made-for-TV fare, from the simplicity of its themes to its cheap-looking makeup. (Those beards are not convincing.) But by the time you've spent a couple of hours with these characters, you're deeply invested in their joys and sorrows. At that point the measured pace begins to feel like the rhythm of life, and the people onscreen a mirror of ourselves. It's probably true that the cultural references and specific historic events will have more resonance for Italians than other viewers, but everything translates. Director Marco Tullo Giordana maintains the tone by allowing details to accumulate, and the location shooting, including a stint at the cinematically rich island of Stromboli, is consistently rich (his sampling of the music from Jules and Jim feels like a shortcut somehow, but who could argue that the music isn't perfectly in key with the melancholy mood?). The final act delivers an emotional coup de grace that has been thoroughly earned. And you'll feel like you earned it, too, having spent six hours with this moving film. --Robert Horton

Product Description

In the award-winning epic tradition of The Godfather and Cold Mountain, The Best Of Youth has wowed critics and earned honors at numerous fi lm festivals worldwide. As Italy explodes in an era of social unrest, a single ill-fated incident sends the lives of equally idealistic brothers Nicola and Matteo Carati careening in opposite directions. Divided by politics but bonded by blood, the next 40 years will find the brothers' divergent paths intersecting through some of the most tumultuous events in recent history! A stunning cinematic achievement - you don't want to miss this incredible motion picture!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

127 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and unforgettable: film as novel, December 10, 2005

By 

Nathan Andersen "film lover, philosophy profe... (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best Of Youth (DVD)

It takes some time to get into the story of this film, and the filmmakers take their time telling the story. With most films, that would be a criticism, but in this case it is a signal of what is distinctive and wonderful about this film -- easily one of the most worthwhile and compelling fictions ever created for the big screen. After about an hour and a half I was completely hooked and there was no chance I wasn't going to stay and watch both parts of this six-hour film, which is by turns touching, comic, and devastating. (It is not, by the way, that the first hour and a half are slow, but that they are designed to give you time to get to know the characters -- rest assured that the film is never boring -- unless the very idea of a subtitled film about people from another country bores you.) Liberated from the need to tell their story in a two or three hour scope, the filmmakers opted to make it not so much about a single event or action that affects the lives of a few people but about the people themselves as their lives unfold in complex and unpredictable ways in connection with the events taking place in Italy and in their families over a period of three decades: a wonderful cast of characters played by remarkable actors who show them convincingly aging and changing over the course of about thirty years. We have time to get to know them, and care about them as people, to the point where they become like family. It is hard to credit before watching this film the claims by numerous critics that after six hours they didn't want it to be over -- but in my case at the end I absolutely agreed. Though it is not strictly speaking necessary and the film already comes to a perfect conclusion -- and is probably impossible, given that the film ends in the year 2000 -- I found myself wishing there were a third part. In that sense, it is closer to television or to the novel than to most films. It is also close to television in its intimacy, told as it is mostly through closeups -- but it is wonderful to see that intimate attention to detail brought to life on the big screen. Still, for its scope and grandeur and power, and for its ability to connect intimate details to issues of extremely wide scope both historical and contemporary, it is very much a cinematic epic. There are a few moments that test the credibility of the audience -- but somehow it all works to give the kind of enjoyable and moving experience that we often seek but rarely find in the cinema. Definitely a film to see in the theaters if you get lucky enough to have the chance (Miramax has done a very poor job distributing this: holding on to it for a couple of years and then not knowing what to do with it and getting it out to only a few theaters: now it is running the College film festival circuit, so keep an eye out for it there; I got the chance to see it only because I brought it to the film series I run in Saint Petersburg, FL), but it is definitely a must when it comes out on DVD in February.

76 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece., December 28, 2005

By 

Benjamin (ATLANTA, Gabon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best Of Youth (DVD)

This Italian film is a masterpiece, one of the greatest works I've ever seen in my life. I'm glad I invested myself in the film when it was played in two parts at a local theater this summer. Director Marco Tullio Giordana's epic is six hours long, but attending the film was an incredibly moving and special experience. It's the story of two very different brothers, Nicola and Matteo, and how their family coped with the last 40 years of social, personal and political upheaval in Italy. The lead actors, Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni, each give powerful and believeable performances as their characters mature over 40 years. The scope of this film's story is gigantic, filled with fascinating, well-defined characters, and it never steps wrong. It has marvelous actors, a great script and beautiful cinematography. Most of my favorite movies this year featured some big quest or journey, an attempt to discover something new or find a way to grow, and THE BEST OF YOUTH featured the grandest journeys, the most interesting people, the most beautiful sites, the deepest tragedies and the most fulfilling discoveries. The act of going to the theater to see it - making two trips in two weeks - became an endeavor, and the movie rewards those who invest their time in it. This is the best movie I saw in 2005.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece to get lost in., June 16, 2005

By 

Paul Kolas "Paoluccio" (Worcester, MA USA) - See all my reviews

There have been precious few films in any language to offer the profound pleasures of Giordana's magnificent saga of life in Italy between 1966 and 2003. Centered around the lives of two brothers, Nicola and Matteo, the 6 hour running time becomes an afterthought as we follow them through the thickets of the Florence floods of 1966, the Red Brigades of the 70s, the Mafia scandals in Sicily in the 80s, up to recent times. Nicola and Matteo meet many people along the way who will affect their lives in unforgettable, and sometimes tragic, ways. Giordana's masterful direction pulls you into this story and never lets go. I've rarely been this moved and enriched by any movie, one that is supremely generous in its emotions and its enveloping wisdom. I can't recommend it highly enough and dearly hope it will be available on DVD as soon as possible.