Spain, Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States are countries where in recent years interesting, difficult, controversial films have appeared, under the information about which they usually put a tag - a youth drama.
Now, when the competition between high-quality serial production and great cinematography is getting tougher from year to year, the more valuable are stories told in a coherent and beautiful cinematic language. Especially if these are stories about the young and for the young. And, as a rule, the highest quality products on the cinema market in the youth theme are also made by young people.
About films that amaze
A breakthrough into a different reality, an extraordinary existence in everyday life - these are the main distinguishing features of a good youth drama.
It is great when the geographical position and national character of the producing country leave their mark on the cinema. But it is especially pleasant when the national cinema is able to destroy the stereotype of the perception of the national character and refute other expectations, when it is able to surprise.
From the beginning of the 2000s, of the many cinematographic schools, Spanish cinematography was in the lead. Yes, such a phenomenon has happened in cinematography: it was in Spain in the last decade that a generation of young screenwriters, directors, producers and actors who know how to tell stories, know how to make high-quality cinema and, which is important for youth cinema, are able to write a high-quality professional sound for it, has grown up. …
"Restless Anna" and "Sex of Angels", "The Hanged Man's Game" and "Three-Piece Studies", "Three Meters Above Heaven" and "Three Meters Above Heaven. I want you”,“The other side of love”,“Seven days in Havana”,“When the clock struck thirteen”- this is a far from complete list of really high-quality and diverse films with exciting stories. Of course, the main theme in almost all of them is love. Her searches, gains and losses. And gaining or losing oneself with her: with elements of mysticism, as in “Troubled Anna” and “When the clock struck thirteen,” or by breaking patterns, as in “Etudes for Three,” “Sex of Angels,” or “Holy Motors Corporation” …
Evil tongues say that Spanish cinema is now somewhere in the middle between Pedro Almodovar and Bigas Luna: between aesthetics and provocative kitsch eroticism. Well, the golden mean is great!
With all the advantages of the new Spanish cinematic wave, it is impossible not to drop a little tar: often, when actors of the older generation of Spanish cinema appear in one frame next to young actors, it immediately becomes unnecessarily heavy. It becomes obvious that the theatrical system of existence in the frame, in which the artists of the older and even the middle generation were brought up, looks like a foreign, artificial formation and does not correspond at all with the documentary way of the existence of the young.
But in French cinema, everything is exactly the opposite. The most high-quality, interesting cinema among the French happens precisely when artists of the middle and older generation are present in the frame. This is probably why there are not so many films in the style of youth dramas, as such. Of course, it is very interesting to observe the state of the characters of very young artists in the Life of Adele, for example, but the film Café de Fleur may turn out to be much deep and exciting for someone. Perhaps a new cinematic generation has not yet grown up in France? Maybe.
Youth drama is, in fact, an eternal attempt to create your own world, to create unity with those who are close to you in spirit, it is a search for love in yourself and yourself in love. Only this gives an incentive to live.
In the meantime, to the already named two films, you can add two more: "Cold shower" and "Colombianu". And also cinema, created in cooperation with filmmakers from other European countries and the United States: "Trance", "Illusion of Deception", "Nymphomaniac", "Tourist", "Cosmopolis".
Lovers of a well-made Hollywood industry, when everything is done with high quality, sometimes even excessively high quality, from the poured and ironed dress on the heroine, the story itself to mathematically verified camera work and the glossy color of the frame, you can advise to watch the youth dramas of Great Britain and the USA: “Love and mistrust”,“The Kiss of Carmen”,“Kill Your Loved Ones”,“Broken”,“Lovers”,“Summer in February”,“Terribly Handsome”,“Ashes”,“Arthur Newman, Golf Pro”,“Dreams”,“At the bottom of the Land of Dreams”,“City of Thieves”,“One Day”.
By the way
Russian cinema is like a phoenix: it is permanently buried, but it lives by accident.
That is, by the way, when it is not at all appropriate: really good Russian cinema also takes place. Perhaps not always. Perhaps it is still very, very uneven, but there are already films when it is impossible to tear yourself away from the stories told in them, even if they are almost not collected together, as in one of the best films of recent years - "Stories." Or when you want to disassemble the film into separate clips and revise them to suit your mood the way you want it: this is probably how you can do it with Chapito-show. And then there are simple, difficult and extremely attractive and charming "Inadequate people", "A couple of bay" and "I will not tell." And timid attempts will reach the level of high-quality European-Hollywood cinema: "Until the night does part", "Suicides", "Courier from Paradise" and "The Dark World. Equilibrium".
About selection criteria
A mood that changes like the weather in spring is best enjoyed by the possibility of changing channels, changing countries and seasons.
The choice is really simple: if you want a surprise, real, perhaps rough, not polished art and a well-told, even if the simplest story - choose the Spaniards.
In general, if you want something ambiguous, but psychologically developed, then choose European cinema. Maybe even Swedish.
And if your heart lies in well-done stunts, expensive special effects, accurate glossy shots, impeccably beautiful actors, exciting, intricate stories with an unambiguous ending - then you are undoubtedly on the way with Hollywood.
“I know: a cool man lives somewhere inside you. And we will save him! " (From the movie "Inadequate People")
And Russian cinema is worth watching, if only because Russian actors of different generations can perfectly organically exist together in one frame, as, for example, in the film "A Pair of Bay", when the energy of temperament, talent and skill simply breaks through the screen. Because Russian screenwriters are increasingly writing simple human, and sometimes even exciting film stories. Because Russian cinema definitely has a future, since there are very young and young people who are already shooting high-quality Russian cinema and it is simply indecent to miss the formation of professionals who will eventually determine world trends.
