There's a moment early on in the bright, roomy Italian melodrama Best of Youth that doesn't auger well for the rest of the film. In Turin, circa 1974, a medical student and his girlfriend have gotten trapped in a street protest and are about to be run down by the overzealous riot police, one of whom is his brother. While the two grew up very close, the last few years had seen them grow apart and this dramatic moment seems sure to set us up for a house-divided, North and South-type story that will use the brothers as symbolic of Italy's fractious extremes. Fortunately, that never happens, and as the film meanders along, it consistently shucks off any expectations of this kind, delivering instead a sumptuous story of a family, a time in history, and an entire country.The first (and last) thing that people know of Best of Youth is that it is six hours long. This is indeed true. But rather than a deterrent, this should actually serve as an enticement - it's a film that has room to relax. Best of Youth starts with two brothers who come of age in Rome during the golden year of 1966. There's scooters on which they can zip about the graciously aging city, American R&B tootling out of radios everywhere, friendly prostitutes to relieve them of burdensome virginity, and, in short, their whole lives in front of them.
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