Marcello Mastroianni in a photograph by Paolo Di Paolo (Little Bear Films)

According to Bruce Weber, Italy “makes your heart go faster.” The veteran fashion photographer and director has composed a visual love letter to the country—or more specifically, to its gritty black-and-white past—through the rediscovered story of Paolo Di Paolo, an elderly photographer still triumphantly alive and taking pictures. Less voyeuristic than Weber’s Let’s Get Lost, less pugilistic than his Broken Noses, A Treasure of His Youth: The Photographs of Paolo Di Paolo shows off the filmmaker’s more beatific, generous side. It’s a labor of love with a charmed dolce vita vibe.

In a voice-over at the outset, Weber recounts his lifelong adoration of Italy while a montage unfolds of evocative archival footage and still photography evoking the nation’s exciting postwar years. The director has a certain idea of the nation: resilient, sexy, inventive, getting by on its wits, and grateful to be alive. In rediscovering Di Paolo, Weber has found not a muse but a mouthpiece, a living embodiment of his vision. The director even identifies with his subject by shooting him mostly in high-contrast black and white, a tribute to Di Paolo’s artistry and history. 

Now in his nineties, Di Paolo recalls living high in Italy’s golden age of the 1950s and 1960s. The good-looking young photographer relaxed with movie star Marcello Mastroianni, exchanged observations with provocateur Pier Paolo Pasolini, flirted with diva Anna Magnani, and captured their essence in pictures. He also took whimsical yet strongly framed and powerful shots of ordinary people going about their daily business. Di Paolo’s photos are remarkable for their unsentimental warmth and sympathy with their subjects.

The photographer was lucky to have an ideal place for his work at the scrappy Il Mondo newspaper, which showcased photos independently of text, letting them stand alone to tell their own story. But by the late 1960s, the growth of television and paparazzi pressures had taken the fun out of the game for Di Paolo: “They wanted the scoop.” He abandoned photography, sitting on an extraordinary trove of photos until his adult daughter dug them up. Dealers and exhibitors came running, then Weber arrived. Di Paolo’s totally hip today, his cachet underscored by a soundtrack studded with Barry White, Shirley Horn, and a retro-chic love ballad by Italian crooner Tino Rossi

Weber reflects on Di Paolo’s newfound fame a few different ways. He filters it through nostalgia, filming a meeting where memories are shared with Roman producer, aristocrat, and ace namedropper Marina Cigogna. He celebrates the second wind’s effect on the photographer’s proud family with affectionate scenes of Di Paolo holding court with his wife, daughter, and cheeky grandson. And he captures Di Paolo back in action, shooting pictures at a contemporary Valentino show in Rome. Always plainspoken, savvy, and charming, Di Paolo firmly takes his stride among the models and stylists. 

A Treasure of His Youth isn’t pure gold. Images of Italy may strike some sensitive viewers as stereotypical, and the movie runs on one mellow speed for a bit too long. But overall, this documentary is a treat. It’s a challenge to bring together an inspiring life story and a testament to style, yet Weber’s genuine fascination with an Italian man and the Italian look he helped create pulls these elements together and makes them greater. If you’re in the mood for something stylish, breezy, yet moving, A Treasure of His Youth should provoke a bravo or three.