A vacuous film about the upper class that would make Fellini cringe

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2016)

There are three main film elements here that run in different directions.
1. The characters were the wealthy elites in an exclusive resort without everyday cares that us plebes in the audience have. No sir, their concerns are maintaining great art as an octogenarian, or gossiping about other lives.
Michael Cain is a superb actor, and he can do class characters, but every time you think the film is going to mock its bourgeois characters, it glides along on gilded slippers to the next serious scene.
The sexism was par for the course of a male written/directed film - the women characters were weak. Although Jane Fonda did not take any prisoners, and 'Miss Universe' was stunning, naked or not.
Harvey Keitel's character was a film director/writer unable to write a good movie, which seemed meta as the director/writer of Youth wasn't able to overcome the same problem.
2. The cinematography was technically excellent, and a mash between high fashion and MTV. It screamed ART! Some scenes were trying to look like Fellini, without his flair or humor.
3. The dialogue was sometimes pithy and erudite, but too often it was wannabe-philosophical drivel. I think it is a class problem. How can a writer deliver the meaning of life, when his characters are the wealthy elite and his aesthetics fly first class? My partner and I laughed at the dialogue occasionally because it was so gag-worthy.
What I did like was the choppy scenes/editing that didn't flow with one another and even the bad surreal sequences. That gave the movie some avant-garde punch.
Two scenes were excellent - one were Michael Cain conducts a symphony with the cows - it was magical and unfortunately, too short; and (Spoiler Alert) the last scene where he conducts a real orchestra with superb singer Sumi Jo. Wow.