The quickest way to express praise for Marco Tullio Giordana's La Meglio Gioventu (The Best of Youth) inevitably revolves around its six-hour running time. I first saw this in two consecutive three hour theatrical releases a couple months ago, and happily re-watched the entire film yesterday on DVD. I am certain to return for additional viewing--it's that engaging and full of humanity/Life. It shares structural characteristics of soap operas, yet develops nuances that far surpass that popular addictive format by interweaving its themes with Italian history during the past four decades.

Originally developed as an Italian television mini-series, Best of Youth tracks the Carati family from 1966 to 2003, primarily focusing on the two brothers--Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) and Matteo (Alessio Boni)--through historical backdrops involving hippie encounters, the devastating Florence flood, the Red Brigade, terrorist attacks, and massive Fiat layoffs. Without the narrative, the location shooting could serve as a European travel sampler: Rome, Norway, Florence, Turin, Palermo, Tuscany.

The brothers have great affection for each other, but they are opposites. Nicola studies science and relates well to women and people in general; in contrast, Matteo loves literature and has great difficulty relating to women. Although unspoken, Matteo gives out tortured signals of repressed homosexuality and self-hatred throughout the film. His calm demeanor harbors great resentments and occasionally explodes with extreme rage. Relaxed and natural only when with his brother or with buddy Luigino (Paolo Bonanni), he abruptly joins the military and police to control his impulses--a satisfactory alternative to monastic life for a non-believer. Matteo may resort to prostitutes, but he deliberately sabotages his only viable long-term female relationship.

In the beginning, the brothers are planning a summer trip to the "end of the world" in Norway after their final exams. The more gregarious Nicola has just passed his pre-med exams while brilliant, melancholy Matteo has deliberately flunked his poetry exam. Matteo has taken a job as a "logotherapist" (person who takes mental patients on walks) and becomes intrigued with Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca), a paranoid mental patient undergoing electroshock therapy. On impulse Matteo shelters her out of the mental institution and brings her along for the trip. This doesn't work out well, as Giorgia is discovered by the police. But we'll meet her again, as she inadvertently re-connects the brothers.

This marks a turning point for the two brothers, who now take separate paths. Nicola continues on to Norway where he eventually becomes a lumberjack temporarily while Matteo returns to Rome to join the army. They are re-united in Florence during the flood but inevitably must navigate different routes after hearing a beautiful blonde woman (Sonia Bergamasco as Giulia) playing a piano in the middle of the muddied streets--Matteo on to the police and Nicola pursuing a new love interest and psychiatric studies in Turin.

We also get to know an assortment of friends, lovers, and other relatives in the character driven epic, and watch them age and mature. Not all will make the whole journey, but children and grandchildren are born and grow. Some especially moving scenes take place with the Carati family. As they age, we see how they have lovingly supported their children through the years and have always been the family bedrock--the fighting and arguments only resulting from typical Italian debates when parents come from differing economic philosophies. The mother may desire security, but it was her husband's clever entrepreneurial spirit that first attracted her interest. When dying, both parents strive to protect their offspring from being a burden.

Much more narrative could be summarized, but there's little need to do so here. The story flows steadily and simply, invariably gripping whoever begins watching--the same kind of pull that draws a steady audience returning to favorite soap operas. But this film does so much more as it encompasses the Life cycle and recent Italian history on its vast canvas.

Nicola's medical professor advises him to leave Italy if he has any ambition and go to London, Paris, or America. Nicola meets him halfway by briefly flirting with Norway but rightfully returns when Florence's art treasures are threatened and never leaves. The professor acknowledges that Italy is a beautiful country, "but it is a place to die, run by dinosaurs." Indeed, bureaucratic roadblocks frequently impede Italian progress, yet they inadvertently preserve much of the old country's charm--a more relaxed lifestyle that centers on humanity and relationships. That same life force steadily flows through Giordana's wondrous The Best of Youth, marking it as a touchstone of Italian cinema. The recently released DVD has no special features, yet no cineaste complains when the raw film is this strong.