The Best of Youth

This is "Giorgia" (Jasmine Trinca), who was briefly rescued from an abusive hospital by two brothers, while they were students, early in the film "The Best of Youth." The story of the brothers, "Nicola" (Luigi Lo Cascio) and "Matteo" (Alessio Boni), occurs over nearly fourty years, and aside from Giorgia, who inspired Nicola to specialize in psychiatry and who reappears several times during the film, we meet the brothers' parents, sisters, lovers, and their children.

Nicola is the film's main character. When his daughter asks him what she should do in response to a letter from her estranged mother, Nicola asks her whether she is happy. When she answers affirmatively, Nicola tells her, "Now is the time to be generous," and she was, and she and her mother enjoyed meeting after many years apart.

Nicola may have gotten his happiness from his mother, who, about the time his father was dying, thanked him for never being jealous of his siblings. Matteo got a love of literature from her, but when his life ended she was so full of grief that she threw some books from his apartment onto the pavement and was unable to continue to teach literature. But she overcame her grief through the love of Matteo's son and his mother's generosity, before she died.

The film may offer an answer to that age-old question: What is the purpose of life? Perhaps the film's lesson is that our purpose in life is to to help one another. But to help others can require a generous spirit, which can require happiness. Perhaps our purpose is to be happy first, then to be generous. We can enjoy being generous when we're happy.

The film (on two DVDs) is about six hours long, and it was never dull or uninteresting. It's episodic, so there are a lot of convenient breakpoints. I watched it over two days and think that it was a good experience watching it that way.

Recommended!

The post's picture is a picture of the film's poster, from Wikipedia's entry for the film.

The Illusionist

This is "Alice," near the end of The Illusionist, in tears after the aging magician she believed in has left her with a little money and a note reading, "Magicians don't exist." But the magician, "Tatischeff," had transformed her from an unsophisticated maid working in a remote, isolated inn into a fashion-conscious young woman of Edinburgh.

Alice had been captivated by the magician, who bought her gifts he could scarcely afford: a new pair of shoes to replace the worn-out ones she wore at the inn, then a fashionable coat, dress and shoes after she followed him to Edinburgh. And it was in Edinburgh where she met a young man. It is an at times delightful and at times sad film with what may seem to be a happy ending.

The Illusionist is an animated film and the attention to detail is striking. For example, a train's reflection in the water as it passes over a bridge is drawn convincingly, as is the reflection of a passenger in the train's window as he looks out the window. At one point, the film's coloring and light reminded me of the paintings of Thomas Kincaid, but the film's drawings aren't -- well, schmaltzy -- like Kincaid's paintings can be.

Recommended!

The Illusionist received several film awards and was nominated for an Academy Award --- Best Animated Feature Film -- only to lose to Toy Story 3.

The post's screen capture is from Blu-ray.com's review of the film, here.

Wikipedia's review of the film is here.