Youth

Méditation formellement modeste et d'autant plus agréable de Sorrentino. Un fil conducteur de métaphores de la vie, dont certaines plaisent par leur coup de maître direct, tandis que d'autres tournent en rond dans un intellectualisme vide mais ludique. Insérées dans une atmosphère apaisante et paisible de l'environnement naturel, interprétées par un casting d'acteurs merveilleux. J'ai ressenti du respect et de l'admiration envers la sagesse des deux personnages principaux âgés, et j'étais bien avec eux. Et Rachel Weisz blessée mais mûre a quelque chose de spécial. (14/10/2015)

Il aura fallu Youth pour me convaincre que Sorrentino n’est pas, comme je le pensais, l’un des réalisateurs les plus surestimés de notre époque. À la différence de La Grande Bellezza, Youth m’a parlé. Ici, on a un film intimiste méticuleusement confectionné qui traite de la vieillesse, de l’amitié, de la musique, de l’art et d’autres sujets intéressants, lesquels méritaient d’être abordés et d’êtres exprimés à l’écran. Une expérience artistique impressionnante. (03/01/2016)

I wouldn’t say that, from a philosophical standpoint, the movie Youth is worse than The Great Beauty. But its great advantages are the locations in the Swiss Alps, where there is a hotel in one valley for retired Western world stars from any industry. In the movie, you meet the standard professions. A fat soccer player, a miserable actor who starred in a role that is constantly being talked about by the public, a director who has his head full of thoughts about how to make his masterpiece, Miss Universe, who is of course very beautiful, or a composer who is tired by the fact that he composed something unique. All of them are here willingly, like on a vacation, to get some rest. They are all talking here, thinking, philosophizing, and they can, but don’t have to, be joined by their loved ones. And the nicest thing about it is that this movie was done by probably the most interesting European director of the modern era – Paolo Sorrentino, who appears to have learned those spectacular scenes from Stanley Kubrick himself. I am not giving it a full score only because there were so many ideas that I wasn’t able to get it all in those two hours. Nevertheless, it is still an unbelievable, not only movie experience with a finale that is exactly the sort of thing that makes movies so unique. (08/11/2015)

No, Paolo. Once again, it is a cold terrarium full of strangely academized reptiles. And the orchestra just doesn't sound loud, only unglued, as if each section is playing a different song. I was a big fan of it, and after seeing The Great Beauty, I appreciate the greater relaxation of the tone in places and the tendency toward absurdity, but overall it feels similarly weighted and unconvincing. In addition, Sorrentino is increasingly successfully colonizing the hard-to-imagine territory between a folk comedy full of truth and snobbish "art", which in places becomes quite unbearable. Back to the small things, please. (10/07/2015)

(50th KVIFF) My last film of the fiftieth edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival should have also been the best. But it wasn’t. It disappointed. A lot. For me, Youth was an artificial and disingenuous bag of kitsch full of visual and audio beauty, poisoned by wannabe deep phrases and soaring but fake truths about life. In short, it has some scenes worthy of praise here and there (especially the less poetic and more humorous conversations between Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel) and others worthy of a punch in the face. There was at least one moment (the scene where actor robot Q is talking with a wise little girl in a shop) when I couldn’t stop my head and hand to spontaneously perform a facepalm. After the pretentious The Great Beauty, which lived up to its name maybe actually in spite of itself and its director, Youth falls flat on its face. The breathtaking craftsmanship of Sorrentino doesn’t deserve less than three stars, but I was tempted. 60 % (10/07/2015)