The Best Years

A film that tells the forty years of four friends alongside Italy's change across the same span. It begins in the early 1980s. Gemma, Giulio, Paolo and Riccardo are young; they go to political demonstrations, are eager about the future, and each imagines a different life. The film then moves in jumps, and with each jump the four drift a little further apart. Giulio rises through the law and his road leads to corruption; Paolo becomes a teacher; Riccardo tries to hold on in the film business. Italy's own story runs behind them: the television culture of the 1980s, the corruption investigations of the 1990s and the political order that followed. The structure connects to the Italian tradition of describing a country by following a group of friends across decades, and the film invites that comparison. Gabriele Muccino directed. Pierfrancesco Favino plays Giulio, Micaela Ramazzotti plays Gemma and Kim Rossi Stuart plays Paolo. A suitable choice for anyone who likes stories of friendship across long stretches of time and Italian melodrama. For a viewer looking for restraint, the film loads the feeling openly and supports it with the score.