La Giovinezza (Paolo Sorrentino, 2015)

If Youth had proved to be a swansong for Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, it would have been a respectable way to go out. They play friends on a long stay in a Swiss hotel, the former a retired composer and the latter a director trying to make his 'testament' work, spending their days mulling over their lives.
There is always a danger of an artist disappearing up their own fundament when they make their main characters artists too, but on the other hand it's no sin to stick to what you know, provided you have something universal to say too. In this, Youth succeeds to a great degree, admittedly helped immensely by an arrestingly eclectic soundtrack and photography that will frequently leave you speechless. But it isn't beauty just for beauty's sake: images of this power reinforce the concept of the value and fragility of life, which works to support the central ideas of the film. Then, at other times, it's unexpectedly wryly funny too.
Thematically, this is the director recycling his preoccupations from his previous works such as The Consequences of Love and The Great Beauty; wistful musings on ageing, and it is somewhat odd to have a man in his mid-forties so fixated with the end of life. Again, it is also very stuck on the perspective of the self-involved wealthy white male. He will need another string to his bow sooner or later. But for now, you do have to marvel at the sheer command of atmosphere that Sorrentino has. It just leaves most other cinema looking heavy-handed and tawdry.

7/10