Marco Tullio Giordana: The Best of Youth

Director - Marco Tullio Giordana
Writers - Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli

Cast                          ...               Character 

Luigi Lo Cascio        ...           Nicola Carati
Alessio Boni             ...           Matteo Carati
Sonia Bergamasco    ...           Giulia MonFalco
Maya Sansa            ...             Mirella Utano
Fabrizio Gifuni         ...             Carlo Tommasi
Jasmine Trinca          ...            Giorgia Esposti
Riccardo Scamarcio  ...           Andrea Utano
Andrea Tidona          ...            Angelo Carati
Valentina Carnelutti   ...             Francesca Carati
Camilla Filippi           ...            Sara Carati
Lidia Vitale               ...            Giovanna Carati
Claudio Gioe            ...             Vitale Micavi
Paolo Bonnani         ...            Luigino
Giovanni Scifoni      ...            Berto
Stefano Abbati        ...            Spacciatore

Part 1

The Best of Youth begins in Rome summer of 1966. Matteo is studying for exams. He is going to Norway after exams. Matteo picks up Giorgia at the clinic and she is out there. They talk at the library and he tells her he wants to read a poetry book to her. She doesn't like it and he takes her back to the clinic. One doctor takes advantage of the patients and has them wash his car for him. He says it gives them something to do. Matteo's parents are fighting at home because the father mortgaged the house.

Matteo goes out with his friends. They meet Cati who is a prostitute. She says no kissing on the mouth which is good because who knows how many dicks have been in there. Matteo spends more time with Giorgia and taking pictures with her. Later he develops those photos in a darkroom. His friend says the doctors are giving her electro-shock therapy. He sneaks her out of her sleeping quarters. He makes her coffee. They go to a city but a priest tells them her father left years ago.

They sleep in the priest's stable and Giorgia tells Matteo and his brother Nicola she has no father. He looks at her notebook of drawings and she goes hysterical. Matteo and his brother Nicola take Giorgia to her father but he thinks she should be back in the clinic. They go to the beach and later leave by train. Giorgia speaks in sign language. The police capture her and take her back to the asylum.

Matteo admits to Nicola he failed his exam and leaves by train back to Rome. Matteo returns to Rome and joins the army. Nicola lives in Norway as a lumberjack. He writes about people he met like an American coward, Martin, who came to Norway to avoid Vietnam.

The blonde Norwegian girl Nicola is sleeping with lets him know there has been a terrible flood in Florence. Nicola returns to Italy and meets up with Matteo. Nicola volunteers to help with saving books from water damage. He notices a girl playing the piano beautifully. Her name is Giulia.

As a police officer Matteo is extremely brutal. Giulia becomes pregnant by Nicola. They will call the child Sara. Nicola is a psychiatrist now and tries to end electro-shock therapy to the mentally ill. In Palermo Matteo talks to a superior who says he causes a mess. Nicola is in court and sees the judge give 5 years prison sentence to the doctors who performed electro-shock to their patients.

At dinner the people with Nicola discuss how half of the military's 2 billion dollar budget goes missing. Matteo's father needs medical treatment but keeps it a secret between Matteo's sister and him. Matteo meets a photographer in Palermo called Mirella. They talk about an Ingrid Bergman film. In one of the hospitals they find patients ties to their beds violating laws. Among one of them is Giorgia who Nicola remembers. Matteo works as a police officer still and finds a dead body in a slaughterhouse perhaps done by the Mafia. He yells at an onlooker and gets a leave of absence.

Matteo tries to talk to Giorgia but she is not responding to him talking to her. Matteo and Nicola's father dies after suffering old age. "Giulia gets drawn into a secret Red Brigades cell." (Wikipedia.org) A man from that organization gives her a briefcase with a gun inside. Giulia leaves Nicola.

Spring 1980 - Carlo and Francesca get married. During the wedding one of Nicola's friends says he got fired from Fiat. They argue about whether they can do this.

Part 2

Sara wonders where her mother is or whether she's alive. She talks to her dad, Nicola. Giulia has many different Italian passports and is planning something since she is against democracy and for communism. Giulia sees her daughter, Sara and Nicola in a museum. Sara looks at her but it is vague whether she recognized her or ignored her.

Matteo moves and gets a new job assignment. Giulia's face is on the wall in the police station. She meets with someone at the movie theater and is given some documents. Mirella and Matteo go to a bowling alley. After they make love in the car.

Nicola asks Carlo why he has bodyguards and he says he's been threatened. Mirella is angry with Matteo about lying about his name. At home the whole Carati family plays card games. Matteo drives home disturbed by something. At home Matteo jumps off the balcony and kills himself. The Carati family is devastated. Giovanna, Nicola's sister, talks to him. He plans to meet Giulia with his daughter in order to have her arrested and she is.

Nicola visits Giulia in prison and proposes marriage which she turns down. She says not to bring Sara anymore and for him not to come either. Nicola sends Giulia books on how to play piano by Bach and Beethoven but she tells the officer to return them to sender. Nicola watches Sara do fencing.

At a photography exhibit Nicola gets a catalog of the pictures. Matteo is in one of them. Giorgia is finally talking. She talks to Nicola about Matteo's photograph. Giorgia moves in with people who will take care of her outside the clinic. Giulia meets up with Mirella, the photographer, and they discuss Matteo.  She is the one who photographed Matteo. Nicola tells his mom she will be a grandmother. The boy's name is Andrea. She meets her grandson and they go fishing. The grandmother gives photos of Matteo as a boy to Mirella.

Sara now does art restoration and has a boyfriend called Mimmo. Nicola's mother dies in her sleep. Mirella wrote to him as the grandmother of Andrea stayed with them. Sara meets her mom again. She tells  her she's pregnant. Nicola and Mirella fall in love.

Andrea travels to Norway in 2003 and finishes the trip Nicola never completed.