Youth

Paolo Sorrentino is one of the most enigmatic filmmakers in Europe yet alone Italy incorporating a mixture of tales of an ageing man in Central Europe embraced by the performances of Toni Servillo in The Consequences of Love and The Great Beauty. 

Sorrentino has attempted English language film before with the Sean Penn vehicle This Must be the Place, a film using the oeuvre of David Byrne's Talking Heads back catalogue as a springboard. He returned for the aforementioned Great Beauty before this latest venture, Youth starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel.



They both play 80 year old veterans of entertainment who meet for their annual two week holiday at an elite spa in Switzerland. Caine plays a composer who could have been as great as Stravinsky yet is famous for a more popular composition he wrote for his singer wife from whom he is now estranged. Keitel is a film director who with two co-writers and an acting duo is attempting to create one last masterpiece to make with his ageing muse, played by a fleeting and glowing Jane Fonda.





Whilst we might be witnessing the twilight of these two men, they are surrounded by youth in terms of the young people who serve them or give them massages, Caine's daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) who is going through a separation from her husband who has fallen for a younger woman. 

Paul Dano, an exciting young American actor portrays a young accomplished actor who is most famous for playing a robot in a science fiction franchise picture; he would prefer to take risks with roles and his career, which leads to him taking on a future role as a famous world leader to show his range and craft, which shows an over reach on his behalf.
This pervading sense of youth and innocence is in stark contrast to the ageing men and the manifestation of end of existing exhibited by the inclusion of a man resembling Diego Maradona. While Caine and Keitel's character can continue to exist in the popular culture through composing or directing which has no age restrictions only a restriction by an individual's ambition, whereas Maradona has a limited shelf life due to physical demands. Even the newly crowned Miss Universe is restricted, she may want to get into acting as she states but she unfortunately will only ever be Miss Universe.



Keitel is keen to point out that all you have are memories and the craving for creativity and embracing your strengths, not yo be pigeon holed by one piece of work. 



Sorrentino has moulded a film that is about celebrity - a subject that fascinates him - ageing, loss and friendship. Caine and Keitel are two titans of screen acting and cleverly have never suffered by such pigeon holing in their CV, and their depiction of friendship is portrayed effectively with genuine affection and emotion.

A wonderfully odd and eccentric film with laugh out loud moments it can be included in the great pantheon of hotel movies (Lost in Translation remains the top), a hotel allowing fleeting friendships and moments. The film is stylistically shot with a great sense of space and environment, at times you sense the people could even be there against their will in a dystopic world, yet Sorrentino has a sure hand over proceedings helped by an ensemble cast of a refined quality and an eclectic soundtrack to boot.

Youth is available on Digital download from 23rd May and on DVD and Blu-ray from 30th May from Studiocanal.

Venting Post - These Times of Ours

Working in the customer service industry as I do can be somewhat frustrating - the customers are always right they say, even when they are wrong; is the oldest adage in the world, but come on you cannot come to a bar and complain that the beer is too gassy as one customer did the other weekend.  That customer was female which made the complaint both depressing and mortifying at the same time.  Have a wine dear next time.

Yet the other galling thing is having to work with people of very different generations.  You are aware that the generational gap is getting larger, and the gaps more apparent than before.  When I was growing up, my parents were very aware of who was Top of the Pops mainly due to there only being four channels and the more mainstream artists being more clear cut.

Nowadays, tastes and genres change from week to week rather than year to year as it did in the mid 1990s with Britpop.  How long did Britpop last for, it seemed since the release of Oasis' second album (What's The Story) Morning Glory? until the release of their disappointing third album, Be Here Now.

Yet I worry about the youth of today and what they are actually taught in their schools.  Apart from the necessary times table and algebra which is rendered redundant by the time they leave school for the final time.  The lack of mental arithmetic ability is bewildering in the youth, I continue to watch darts not because I think they are great sportsmen, but the numbers game is playing in my head.

Yesterday, I went for lunch at Langan's Brasserie in London, this restaurant was once owned by Michael Caine.  When I told my staff members of this fact, two of them were mute to that nugget of knowledge - the pair of them both under 20 did not know who Sir Michael Caine, one of our finest actors ever who has starred in Zulu, Alfie, The Italian Job and most recently as Batman's butler, Alfred.

This incident reminded me of the time another girl years ago had never heard of Bob Dylan, if Mr.Dylan had kept his birth name of Robert Zimmermann I could understand this oversight, but my God one of the greatest wordsmiths and musicians of the 20th century has been forgotten about by a new generation.  Even I am up to date and able to tell the difference between Labrinth and Tinie Tempah, although I still get Ant and Dec mixed up.

Later that same night the bewilderment rained down, when we watched BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and the vignette for Seb Coe was playing with his IOC colleague The Princess Royal appeared on screen to speak laudly of Lord Coe.  The other worker on this evening said, 'She looks like the Queen'.

I replied, 'That's the Queen's daughter'.

'The Queen has a daughter!'

It quickly came apparent that all of the staff did not know that our Queen of 60 years had been rather busy in the bedroom and had children other than Charles.  They did not even know that she had four children in total, and then the really good question was, 'So who was Diana's Mum?'

So members of the viral generation, thought Diana was born into the royal family, I had to remind them that Diana married into royalty much like Catherine Middleton has done.  Hence why it is called a Cinderella story/romance/plot device.

The fact about the Queen's motherhood was reinforced today when two more members did not know again about her four children, and they could not name either Andrew or Edward when prompted.  Apparently, the lineage of our Queen is not taught in our schools, as is nothing of our domestic history post World War II.  Millions of children are not learning about rationing, the Suez canal crisis, the troubles in Northern Ireland and the Falklands.

More and more of these incidents and accidents, the hints and allegations (sorry I've started quoting Paul Simon's 'You Can Call Me Al' - the beauty of stream of consciousness), will become more and more often so longs as children of this viral mE generation get their head out of the phones and into some more books.

Now if only they did not keep shutting down the libraries we used to know.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Journey 2 feels like an adventure re-tread of many books, serials and borrows freely from many monster movie adventures as we see our stars scooting around on the back of bees encountering larger than life animals and other creatures of nature.

The story revolves around Sean (Hutcherson), the angst ridden teenager who has to co-exist with his mum's new husband Hank (Johnson) on a journey to find Sean's absent grandfather, Alexander (Caine) who has mysteriously disappeared believed to be on an island.

As they crash land near the last known point of contact with Alexander, they enter the island and encounter big creatures that dwarf them by comparison - now they could have conceivably eked out tension by leaving the reveal of the grandfather for sometime.  Yet Alexander appears almost immediately, and joins them on this quest for more adventure - where the true quest should be to find a basis for a family.

The script is weak, yet in Caine and Johnson, they were lucky enough to find two actors of genuine charisma and humour who are able to exert a bit of character into any scene albeit flat ones; even Luis Guzman can entertain and hold your attention with any role.

The special effects are not that great, and would not look out of place in a 3D adventure ride at a theme park - yet it will have enough thrills to entertain children.

A mistake of the film's marketing was to have us believe that it was meant to be for children of all ages, where the term pre-adolescence would be a fairer assessment.

The sequel to the box-office hit, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, starring Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) and Michael Caine is full of fun and released on DVD, Blu-Ray and Triple Play out on Monday 28th May