Cecil says: I don't really like films with lots of weird, surreal dream sequences and I really can't stand films with a plot line that has lots of self-referential bits about the turmoil of what it means to make a film. Youth had lots of both running throughout, but just enough of a plot line to wake me up every now and then and keep me involved.
A couple next to us left half way through and one of the group in front of us said at the end: 'well, that was the weirdest film I've ever seen.' They clearly never saw any Bresson films in the 1970s and 80s, though...
The couple who left missed the last scene, which was so moving and engrossing that it more than made up for the previous 90 minutes.
Michael Caine was brilliant throughout. Sure, he's aged, but he holds a part fantastically still, and portrayed the ageing process beautifully. He kept the film together, much more than Harvey Keitel ( though HK's role suffered in my eyes because his was the agonising film-maker part ). Jane Fonda gets a bit-part towards the end and performs it superbly, though without the impact someone like Vanessa Redgrave or Judy Dench can achieve in a couple of screen scenes.
The setting was weird: an exclusive spa that actually resembled at times a 19th century lunatic asylum; and I guess the idle and fading rich characters who stayed there are based on real people, but it's not really a world I can relate to.
No, this film is worth seeing just for the final scene, and you probably can't shortcut straight to the last five minutes because clearly Youth does succeed in getting across how it feels to be retired maestro Berenger. Without that build up, the last sequence wouldn't have had the same impact. And wow, it was quite a finale, with heart-rendingly beautiful music, composed just for this film. Now to find the soundtrack...
Overall **.5
Final scene *****
Bea says: I liked this more than Cecil, but perhaps that was because it caught me in a more introspective frame of mind and the film matched my mood well - in addition it was very beautifully shot in Switzerland (or what was a good copy for Switzerland if filmed somewhere else), and as a long term music lover I absolutely loved the soundtrack (the responsibility of David Lang, who also did Requiem for a Dream).
In that respect Youth reminded me of the film Elizabethtown, where the music had been so carefully and perfectly chosen for every moment, message and passing mood of the story. It also made me really listen to the lyrics of the 90s hit You Got the Love (the opening track, performed by Swing Band as the Retrosettes) for the first time ever.
The music added nostalgia to my mood, and that fitted for this film which was not really at all about youth, but instead about ageing, mortality and dying. I guess that as the babyboomers age we are going to see more material like this.
Cecil, who despite not liking the film also liked the soundtrack, did a bit of research and told me a very interesting story about the film's award-winning original song Simple Song #3 - the lyrics were composed by what google offered as frequently searched items...a great example of how we place our own meanings onto song lyrics.
Caine was of course excellent. Despite his advancing age his delivery and timing were perfect. I also really enjoyed Paul Dano's (Little Miss Sunshine) performance as the actor Jimmy Tree.
IMdB bills this film as a comedy - well, sort of, but I had tears in my eyes on more than one occasion, so a rather bittersweet one I'd say.
Things I didn't like? Some of it was written from a rather stereotypical male perspective (Miss Universe getting into the spa naked in front of the ageing Caine and Keitel? Perhaps supposed to be funny, but it was just rather bad taste and ogling to me). Some of it is a bit self-indulgent (films about films and the rarified lives of those who make them; in this I agree with Cecil).
But worth a watch, perhaps best seen on a contemplative, rainy Sunday afternoon (ha - I think I said the same thing about Carol, the last film we saw).
***