Rome in Six Hours and Four Decades - New York Times includes a big plug for Best of Youth:

No movie did that quite as powerfully or completely as "The Best of Youth," Marco Tullio Giordana's
six-hour chronicle of recent Italian history told through the lives of
an ordinary Roman family. Originally made as a mini-series for Italian
television, this film gestures back toward the tradition of politically
astute historical filmmaking exemplified by masters like Luchino Visconti and Bernardo Bertolucci.
It is an intellectual as well as an emotional feast, with dozens of
superb performances, especially from Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni
playing two brothers caught up in the social and political turmoil of
the 1960's and 70's. Mr. Giordana has made a movie so full of life that
even after six hours of screen time and four decades of history, you
wish it would go on.

Laura and I just can't make it to the showing at the Balboa Theater so we'll just have to see it on DVD.