Returning to questions of ageing that consumed his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth assembles a stellar cast in a Swiss health spa for some unsanitary issues.
His second English-language feature has considerable star power, with Michael Caine taking centre stage. Caine is an apathetic composer and conductor, living a life of dissolution. His companions in the health spa are a Hollywood star (Paul Dano) and a film director (Harvey Kietel) struggling to finish his latest film, along with Rachel Weisz as Caine’s jilted daughter. Regret for lost time is at the forefront of all of the characters’ minds, paired, as ever with Sorrentino, with effortless visual decadence.
Hailed ‘an infinity pool of beautiful hogwash’, the film attracted strong praise at Cannes 2015. A series of vignettes of overeducated people in an ethical mess, Youth is sure to capture those who swooned to The Great Beauty‘s similar mix of melancholy and aesthetic dazzle.