I wasn’t motivated to do much except to crawl up on my couch and watch a good movie today.
I decided on “The Best of Youth” (La Meglio Gioventù), a movie that follows two brothers living in Italy over a span of about 40 years. I have been wanting to see this movie for quite a while. My uncle recorded the movie for me in December when it played on the Sundance Channel. I don’t know why it took me so long to finally watch it. The fact that it is 6 hours and 8 minutes in length was probably one of the reasons. Not that I could not find six hours in my life as I waste enough time watching meaningless TV shows, but I think it had to do with the fact that it just seemed so overwhelming to sit down and watch a 6 hour long movie.
The funny thing is, halfway through the movie, I already knew that I did not want it to end!! I wanted more and more. It could have been 12 hours long and it still would not have been long enough. This was an incredibly moving movie that has now joined my list of all time favorites. I already want to watch it again.
I am not talented enough to do this movie justice by trying to review it on my own, so instead, I have provided a few partial reviews with links to each full review.
A. O. Scott, New York Times:
Orignally commissioned by Italian television as a miniseries, Marco Tullio Giordana’s six-hour journey through recent Italian history is nothing less than a masterpiece, combining epic sweep with precise, heart-rending intimacy. At the center of its sprawling story of family and politics are two brothers, Matteo (Allessio Boni) and Nicola (Luigi lo Cascio), whose entwined and diverging fates become a microcosm of Italy’s tumultrous transformation in the decades from 1966 to 2002…
David Edelstein, Slate:
This is the sort of movie you’ll recommend to friends and they’ll go, “Six hours! Are you nuts?” and then call you up and thank you in the middle of the night…
Two of the many positive comments from Amazon customer reviews:
B. Vincenzo “vincenzo”:
This is an amazing journey through human feelings, politics and history.
D. Kanigan:
The movie was a winner of the Cannes Film Festival Award, the Golden Space Needle Award and numerous others. And this unforgettable movie lives up to its billing even if it was a whopping 6 hour Italian movie with sub titles. After a slow building start, it is difficult to pull yourself away…
As you can probably tell, I highly recommend this film.
shave ice & gelato 
Love it love it love it! I saw it in the theatre, two three-hour parts on two different days. AMAZING. An such a great history lesson at the same time.
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Oh I just LOVE my possum poster. Today before school I got 2 of my students to print up six copies and tape them up around the school.
I just love it.
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This is really interesting to read, Girasoli! I’ve seen Best of Youth mentioned several times on the Slow Travel message board, in terms of great Italian movies. But I’ve also found the idea of a six-hour marthon a bit daunting.
You’ve convinced me, however, to put in on my ziplist. (Which is a Canadian version of Netflix) I hadn’t realized the film covers so much contemporary history, although it makes sense given the length and the subject.
Thanks for the idea! And I hope you’ve recovered from your tomato burn. Good safety tip!
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Yep, like Sandra, will need to add this to Netflix.
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Thanks for reminding me of this incredible movie. Dave and I watched it a year or so ago, and we too love, love, LOVED it! I had no idea it was six hours long though…I guess it was just that absorbing that we didn’t notice the time.
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