Italian Dir Paolo Sorrentino's YOUTH with Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel

Italian dir Sorrentino won an Oscar for best foreign film with The Great Beauty (2013.)  YOUTH directed & written by Sorrentino is an English speaking film set in a resort in the Swiss Alps starring an A list cast.  Caine is a retired composer/conductor beseeched to perform for the Queen.  Rachel Weitz is his distraught daughter. Keitel plays Caine's lifelong friend, a successful movie director (and Weitz's father-in-law.) While at this idyllic, isolated haven, Keitel is working on a new picture to star Paul Dano and Jane Fonda (in a small role in this film.)  Of course, there are no small parts, only small actors.  And, life is not a dress rehearsal, don't postpone joy.  Both Caine & Keitel play off each other with wit & charm. This exquisitely shot film is lush with meditative beauty, sensuality, joy, humor, sorrow, fame, legacies, music and endless emotions.  The film is a pastiche of heaven, hell & purgatory. Weitz and Dano are pitch perfect in their roles; Weitz the beautiful, bereft wife and Dano the frustrated actor.  There are minions of characters and they all add richness to the exotic fabric of the film.  Keitel tells Caine "we're all just extras" and "all we have are our emotions."  Dano refuses to take the role of Hitler; "we can all choose horror or pleasure and I choose pleasure."  Weitz accuses her father of being apathetic.  Weitz is proved wrong in her assessment.  Caine is the antithesis of indifference.  I was totally smitten with this artistic & stirring movie.  YOUTH deserves admiration and multiple Oscar nominations.  I left the theater levitating.  The only thing needed were more cowbells.  Oh blah dee - this is a must see!