Youth. 2015. Italy/France/UK/Switzerland. Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. With Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz. DCP courtesy Searchlight Pictures. In English, Spanish, Swiss German; English subtitles. 124 min.
Played by Michael Caine with a kind of wistful charm and bemused cynicism, Fred Ballinger is a semi-retired composer who marks time by secluding himself at a posh Swiss Alps resort with his film director friend Harvey Keitel and daughter Rachel Weisz. Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth offered Caine one of his first experiences acting in front of a digital camera, and this meant “a new way of working that had been made possible by a change in the technology. Because everything was now digital and computerized, there was no need to stop work to change the film in the camera every ten minutes or so. At first that seemed like a big disadvantage for the actors learning their lines, because Paolo liked to do tremendously long takes that just kept going and going, and eventually someone was going to fluff a line or make a mistake. But the upside was, when one of us did dry, we didn’t have to cut and go all the way back to the beginning of the scene…. Plus, I learned how to conduct an orchestra. What a feeling! So I’m always learning my craft.”