La meglio gioventù

The film starts in 1966. The Italian family Caratia is living the good times. Father is a businessman who sees money everywhere and mother is working as a teacher in Italian literature. The two sons, Nicola and Matteo, both around 20 years old, decide to go on a trip to Norway. Right before their departure, Matteo meets Giorgia during his voluntary work in a mental hospital, where she is treated with electroshock therapy. Matteo thinks the hospital doesn't do her any good and decides, together with Nicola, to bring the pretty patient back to her father. On the way Giorgia is arrested by the police and from here Matteo and Nicola split up too.
Nicola departs to Norway by himself where he starts working at a sawmill, until he sees images of the floods of Florence from November 1966 on television. Museums were flooded and the water destroyed many cultural treasures. Even today these pieces of art are being restored. Young people from all over Europe came to Italy in those days to help save the pieces of art and Nicola decides to go as well. In these days, Matteo works for the police, serving the army in Florence. At this point they meet again. Nicola decides to go to Turin together with two of his friends while Matteo stays with the police. In Turin the two brother meet again. During the student protests in 1974 in the time of the rise of the Red Brigades, Matteo sees a friend of his getting severely beaten by a communist during work. Giulia, Nicola's girlfriend and also a hardcore communist, tells Matteo not to pity his friend. These different ambitions break the two up even more.
While we see Matteo losing his faith in humanity, renouncing his name and becoming lonely more and more, Nicola retains the warm and tender qualities of his father. Two brothers grow apart because of different political and ideological beliefs, but they keep finding each other, because blood will tell.

What makes this film different from other dramas? How can a movie glue me to the screen for more than six hours?
The film doesn't draw lots of people to the cinema with its soundtrack and it is not an artistic masterpiece. No, this film grabs you carefully, lets you enjoy it for a while, drags you along and only lets go at the end. Figures with character, real people. Character traits are recognizable and make you think what you would do in the turbulent time in Italy after the Second World War. Like the convictions of the two brothers change together with society during the years, you also change during the film. The director shows how the changes in 40 years of Italian history change the views of life of the characters too. It makes me think about what events hit me, influenced me and what made me the person who I am now.

A movie in which the moments without dialogue, without action or even movement hit me the most. We see Matteo who radiates tenderness in his youth, but during the film he develops a more and more cold personality. We see Giulia who loses love in her eyes because of her stronger left-wing beliefs. And on the picture on this page we see Giorgia; with her look she shows what she has been through and she talks with her eyes about fear of the outside world, doubts and lovesickness.

After three hours the first part finished. I ran to the DVD player quickly, changed the disks and could then again enjoy three more hours of romance, hatred, love, fear, sorrow and happiness, commitment and breaking up, life and death.