We follow the aging of the Carati parents and the progress of their four children above all, of Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio), smiling and slightly guarded, who grows up to be a psychologist, and of his handsome brother Matteo (Alessio Boni), whose rage for order finds him joining the police.

NEWYORKER: The Best of Youth

The old man was heavy and gray-haired, with eyes narrowed and mouth slightly open, as if he were asthmatic, but he was smiling as well as he could.

NEWYORKER: Free Radicals

In flashbacks to Hong Kong, cued by security-camera footage, we can see her smiling happily as, after the restaurant dinner, she spends a pleasant, slightly drunken evening in a glittering casino, during which this ordinary, messing-around woman infects virtually everyone she comes into contact with.

NEWYORKER: Call the Doctor

Mr. GRAVES: I'm sure that good Jack, with that great Irish face and a slightly out of place nose, must be looking down from heaven and then smiling.

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