Youth
A reflective, visually sumptuous meditation on aging, creativity, and the fleeting nature of glory. Set at a luxurious Alpine spa, two lifelong friends — a retired composer and a legendary filmmaker — contemplate their past achievements and future irrelevance while surrounded by eccentric guests, surreal visions, and unexpected emotional revelations. Funny, wistful, and dreamlike, it's a film about life’s second act and the art of letting go.
DIRECTOR
Paolo Sorrentino
Actors
2h 4m • Rated M • Drama, Comedy • Italy/UK/Switzerland/France (2015)
Michael Caine • Harvey Keitel • Rachel Weisz • Paul Dano • Jane Fonda
The resort is populated by colourful characters interpreted by prestigious actors in highly amusing scenarios. Sorrentino is known for his technical sophistication, and here, every frame is composed with a visual and musical sensibility that elevates him to the very elite of contemporary cinema. It is obvious why he is so often compared to Fellini, and here, the Spa setting and existential crisis are clearly a homage to 8 ½. It was Sorrentino’s second English-language film, and it is executed with philosophy, humour, and exquisite craft, a treat for those seeking an English-language film at the Italian Festival. Paolo Rotondo
CRITICS ROUNDUP
Melancholic, stylish, and deeply humane
Oscar-winning Director, Paolo Sorrentino presents an elegiac ode to music, art, cinema and the inescapability of time. Michael Caine is Fred Ballinger, a retired Composer, who joins his film director friend Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) in a Swiss Alpine Spa. Their friendship is touching and hilariously drawn as they discuss love, life, art and their increasingly less active prostates. An emissary from Buckingham Palace arrives to invite the Composer to perform for the Queen, but Ballinger refuses.