It seems rather strange that a film nearly six hours long could be this good. Yet, the story of Marco Giordana's ambitious La Meglio Gioventu a.k.a The Best of Youth (2003) is so rich it feels as if another six hours could have been easily added up. A project of paramount proportions La Meglio Gioventu follows two brothers, Nicola Carati (Luigi Lo Cascio) and Matteo Carati (Alessio Boni), through the turbulent history of Italy from the early 1960s all the way to 2000.

Formally divided into two parts La Meglio Gioventu touches upon a number of crucial for the history of Italy events: the disastrous flooding in Florence, the peak of the Red Brigades, the assassination of Judge Giovanni Falcone, the restructuring of the Italian automotive giant FIAT, and the student riots from the late 1970s. Indeed, this film has a very complicated structure which makes it almost impossible to describe in detail without disrupting the rhythm of what appears to be a classic Italian tale of love and friendship.

The foundation of La Meglio Gioventu is built around the struggle of the Carati brothers to find their way in life. Nicola, the more ambitious and dedicated one, becomes a doctor while undergoing a number of life-changing events leading him to an interesting relationship with a woman involved with the notorious Red Brigades. Matteo, a man with an uncanny passion for discipline, becomes a police officer only so he could discover that his heart is unable to tolerate the social ordinance of the Italian state.

Originally intended for Italian television La Meglio Gioventu offers much more than an engaging storytelling. It offers a look at the very core of the Italian society and a number of events that shaped its socio-political structure. Interestingly enough the film never really evolves into a boring collage of political affairs wrapped around with an overly-sentimental script. On the contrary, La Meglio Gioventu remains a profoundly intimate experience with an unusually rich storyline.

I see plenty of influences in Marco Giordana's film which lead back to some classic and some more recent Italian productions. The director's colorful camera work complimented by a truly timeless soundtrack implies familiarity with Bernardo Bertolucci's films about social unrest. Both Partner (1968) and his more recent The Dreamers (2003) are easily comparable to La Meglio Gioventu. I also detect in La Meglio Gioventu the suffocating sense of political paranoia which Marco Bellocchio was able to recreate beautifully in his films (the recent Buongiorno Notte (2003) about the kidnapping of Italian President Aldo Moro is a perfect example). Last but not least drawing parallels between Giuseppe Tornatore's elegant Cinema Paradiso (1989) and La Melgio Gioventu is almost inevitable; the two films most certainly offer the magic that classic pictures are made of.

It took some time for American distributors to acquire La Meglio Gioventu. In fact, in 2005 I nearly lost any hope that a local company will step up and distribute this film nationally. The delicate nature of La Meglio Gioventu, and precisely the fact that the film runs at almost 370 minutes, pretty much guaranteed the financially-dreadful stamp "art-house feature". Allow me to disagree with any such insulting evaluations: not only is La Meglio Gioventu one of the best family dramas you are likely to see it is quite possibly one of the most beautiful European films to be distributed in North America in a long, very long time.

Awards/ Recognition: La Meglio Gioventu is the winner of the Un Certain Regard Award (Marco Giordana) at the Cannes Film Festival (2003); winner of the David Di Donatello Awards for Best Director (Marco Giordana), Best Editing (Roberto Missiroli), Best Film, Best Producer (Angelo Barbagallo), Best Screenplay (Sandro Petraglia/ Stefano Rulli), Best Sound (Fulgenzio Ceccon); the Audience Award for Best Film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (2004); and the granted by the Seattle International Film Festival Golden Needle Award for Best Director (2004) among many others...

Final Thoughts: Lyrical, beautiful to watch, intelligent, without a doubt a film conveying the timeless allure of Italian cinema La Meglio Gioventu is not to be missed...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!