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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Youth (2015): How Did I Get Here?

Youth is another interesting, luminous film from writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, his follow up to 2013’s  award winning The Great Beauty. I found each to be intellectually and emotionally exhilarating, pictures that stimulated and stayed with me for some time. The critical consensus seems to be that the earlier movie is the better of the two, and I’d probably agree, but not by much. My other household expert prefers Youth.  [Check out my review of The Great Beauty HERE.]

Youth may be, for Americans at least, the more approachable movie of the two. For one thing it is in English, thus no subtitles to deal with, so the nuance of actors’ expression are perhaps more readily understood. The storyline is also tighter and the inquiries at the core of the film are narrower, a bit more focused. At just over two hours, Youth is twenty minutes shorter than The Great Beauty, as well. Youth also features more recognizable stars, including Oscar winners Michael Caine (The Quiet American), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) and Jane Fonda (Julia) Oscar nominee Harvey Keitel (Bugsy, Taxi Driver), and up-and-coming star Paul Dano (Love and Mercy).

The setting of Youth is an elegant resort in the Swiss Alps, kind of an updated version of the Grand Budapest Hotel transported to Switzerland – a vacation retreat for the rich, redolent of the remote, peaceful sanitarium in The Magic Mountain (one where, however, TB is not a prerequisite for entry).  In addition to its beautiful location, the resort features a relaxingly slow pace and all the amenities one would want – fine dining, a health spa, country walks, a climbing gym, ski runs, medical care, lounges, swimming pools, evening entertainment, people watching, nudity, quietude. The clientele includes a diverse cast of characters: a Hollywood movie star called Jimmy Tree (Dano), a world famous former soccer superstar (now grossly obese), a masseuse with a magical touch, an elegant couple who never speak, an orange robed meditating monk, and the pop star Paloma Faith; as well as our protagonists, aging film director Mick Boyle (Keitel) and retired classical composer/conductor Fred Ballinger (Caine), along with Ballinger’s adult daughter, Lena (Weisz), who is also his personal assistant. (Any meaningful description  about Jane Fonda’s role could be a spoiler.)

Fred and Mick have been friends for sixty years, and while both are elderly and regularly commiserate about looming decrepitude (a running joke is their daily exchange on the futility of pissing), in other respects  they present some telling differences.

Early in the picture, an emissary from Queen Elizabeth arrives with an invitation for Fred to conduct Simple Songs, his most famous work, for Prince Phillip’s birthday celebration at Buckingham Palace. A knighthood is proffered if he will accept, but Fred declines, adamantly - citing “personal reasons”. To Lena’s repeatedly voiced concern that he is too apathetic, Fred responds,  “ I’m retired, I’m done – with work and with life.” Perhaps she’s right? 

By contrast, Mick is engaged in his latest project– working with a posse of young cineastes fresh out of film school to complete a screenplay for a new movie with the operating title  “Life’s Last Day”, which Mick proclaims will be his magnum opus, his testament.

Lena faces an unexpected and devastating emotional crisis as her marriage crumbles, and out of her grief repressed anger at her father resurfaces. Meanwhile, actor Jimmy Tree, researching an upcoming role, is studying everyone, cozying up to some, picking up mannerisms, sussing out their stories (and in so doing helping us notice things).

Everyone, seemingly, is at a crossroads.  Fred and Mick each have tasted success,  but while career continues to be a motivator for Mick, Fred’s thoughts are elsewhere. As you’d expect with octogenarians, there’s an attempt at a summing up - looking back at what life has wrought, at former loves, past mistakes, paths not taken. An ongoing pastime is checking out other denizens of the hotel, guests as well as staff; Mick and Fred (and we) size them up, reflecting on how these others may mirror or provide insight about their (our) own lives and what may lie ahead. Jimmy’s observations raise questions about the value and appropriate use of his craft. Lena catches the scent of newfound freedom, an opportunity to build a new and different life for herself.

Thematically, Youth reminded me of  Soren Kierkegaard’s aphorism “Life may be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” The film’s observations are frequently lovely and insightful, sometimes rueful (as when Mick visualizes all of the women he mentored/directed in his past movies), sometimes humorous (for example, a lovely, wryly funny nude scene, featuring a stunning Miss Universe [Madalina Ghenea]), and sometimes surprisingly sweet, such as a moment where Fred, sitting alone on a hillside overlooking a cow pasture, seemingly “conducts” a bovine orchestra.

As with The Great Beauty , the photography is top-notch and sometimes stunning.
The performances are terrific. The score and soundtrack are important and arresting (except the opening song, a number called “You Got The Love” - thematically appropriate but not likely to be a chart topper).  Simple Song #3, part of Fred’s masterpiece, Simple Songs, gets a gorgeous, moving rendition at the end and, coming after what we have learned along the away, may (if you are like me) stimulate the tear ducts.
 
Why the title, “Youth”?  As they say, you’re only as old as you feel. Life is desire, aspiration, and engagement, is it not? As Edgar Allen Poe wisely noted: “The best things in life make you sweaty.” Put more simply, life is for living, and if you embrace life you’ve got youth.  But I’m no philosopher (clearly); and Youth, the movie, is not quite so explicit.  

You should just see it (you’ll thank me). Then you can decide for yourself.

2 hours 4 minutes
Despite the title, the film is rated R, so not for youths.
Available to rent, streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu and elsewhere; and on DVD from Netflix.


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