Youth 2015

Septuagenarian best friends Fred Ballinger and Mick Boyle are on vacation in the Swiss Alps, staying at a luxury spa in Flims. Fred is a retired classical music composer who is approached by an emissary for Queen Elizabeth II with an offer to be knighted and to perform his popular piece, Simple Song #3, at Prince Philip’s birthday concert. Fred declines the invitation, insisting he has lost interest in performing, even though he still secretly composes in his mind when he’s alone. Beside him, Mick is a film director wrestling with a new project, gathering a group of writers to draft what he calls his “testament” for his latest film. The resort also hosts a resident actor, Jimmy Tree, who is researching for an upcoming role and chafes at being remembered only as a robot, a quirky young masseuse, an oversized Diego Maradona, and Miss Universe among others in residence.

As they spend days together, Fred and Mick confront growing memories slipping away and a sense that their futures may hold little more than fading echoes of the past. Fred’s daughter and assistant, Lena, is married to Mick’s son, but the marriage dissolves when Mick chooses a different path with Paloma Faith; Lena remains at the resort, venting her anger at a father who was chronically distant during her upbringing. The emissary returns, and Lena’s tears rise as Fred explains that he will not perform Simple Song #3 because the soprano part belongs to his wife, who can no longer sing.

Meanwhile, Mick completes his screenplay and feels a rare sense of satisfaction. The primary role is written for Brenda Morel, an aging diva who has starred in many of Mick’s films. Brenda unexpectedly arrives at the spa and reveals that she has chosen a television role over cinema, arguing that cinema is the past and that Mick hasn’t produced a truly strong film in years. The tension of their professional futures deepens into a personal crisis when Mick, feeling defeated, takes a fatal leap from a balcony in front of Fred, an act that unsettles the resort’s already fragile mood.

With Mick gone, Fred makes a decisive move—he travels to visit his wife, who now lives in a Venice care home in a state of senility. After that visit, he returns to the United Kingdom to conduct Simple Song #3 in front of the Queen and Prince, a moment that redefines his sense of purpose, even as memories and distances loom large.

The narrative unfolds with a series of surreal, dreamlike sequences that punctuate the emotional weight of the story: a monk levitates in the air, a music video featuring Paloma Faith appears in Fred’s imagination, Jimmy is seen dressed in an improbable guise reminiscent of a dictator, Fred conducts a field of cowbells in an almost otherworldly concert, and Mick envisions all of his former leading ladies gathered on a mountaintop—an imagined tableau that includes Brenda in a less glamorous television role. These fantastical interludes deepen the meditation on art, memory, fame, and the inexorable passage of time, while keeping the human core of longing, regret, and reconciliation in clear focus.