Youth Without Youth (2007) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Romania is on the brink of war with Germany, and linguistics professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) has little left to live for. On Easter Day 1938, he crosses the street and is struck by a bolt of lightning. Badly burned and nearly dead, he amazes the doctors by healing in only a short time. He defies science and ages in reverse from 70 to 40. There's seemingly no limit to the wonder and love he can find in his new youth. He pursues lost dreams, endless knowledge and the secrets of life until his secret is discovered. Now he must use his increased intelligence to keep his powerful secret safe from the wicked powers that would use it for evil.

User Comment: ekisest from Romania, 4 November 2007 • It's been a while since I have written anything for IMDb. "Youth Without Youth" is not only a very personal approach to a barely known novella by Mircea Eliade, but also a homage to Romanian culture and civilization. I felt really good watching a legendary filmmaker like Coppola before the special screening (in Bucharest), walking on the stage and thanking sincerely to the Romanian cast and crew, and in the end, thanking all of us "for Mircea Eliade". I read Eliade's novella some months ago, and I found it difficult and "anti-cinematic", unlike "La tiganci" or other texts of his. "Youth" is, as I saw it, a meditation on time and the relation between human memory and identity. Eliade has been concerned with the theme of "la vita est sueno" (life is dream) for a long time, and his fiction shows it. Coppola also has been preoccupied with time, dreams and memory in his late films like "Peggy Sue", "Dracula" and "Jack". It might seem strange and paradoxical, but beyond the horror clichés and the gory make-ups, one can see lots of formal similarities in "Dracula" and "Youth...". The Italian American director is definitely bound to European Romanticism, and he tried to infuse a lot of new symbols (the mirror, the moon on the bluish night sky, the skull etc) to an already symbol-heavy-loaded narrative. Tim Roth is the ideal choice for the central character (old Dominic Matei that grows young after a lightning stroke). The rest of the numerous cast is composed mainly of Romanian actors, most of which are famous in our country. Iures is known for the international public also, and handles his role elegantly, as usual. Maria Lara is a Romanian-born German actress, playing the role of Dominic Matei's lady friend and lover. The relationship between Dominic and Laura is beautifully developed by Coppola's rewriting of the initial novella. Near the end of the film, there is a moment (shot in Malta) where Dominic decides to break away from Laura, because of the dreadful effects of his supernatural youth on her physical condition. Both actors are impressive in this delicate scene.

This film was, all in all, a pleasant surprise for me. I was expecting a more Hollywood-ish speculative and commercial-oriented style. Anyway, I personally (still) think the D.P. and the photographic department in general was overwhelmed by the magnitude of this project. Coppola should of thought more deeply about his choice, because Mihai Malaimare Jr. (the D.P.) and digital imagery was simply not enough ! It took over 2 years to complete this film anyway, so why didn't he use film instead of digital mediums? Was money really a problem here? Maybe Roth asked for a big fee, I don't know. This film won't be appreciated by a wide audience, because Eliade's literature is very special and restrictive (you need to fancy Romanian folklore and oriental philosophies in order to get into this). In fact, Eliade's novella was clearly inspired (as the main title shows) by one of the most beautiful and profound fairy-tales ever: "Tinerete fara batranete si viata fara de moarte" (hard to translate into English, but it might sound like "Eternal youth and life without death"). Even if you are not Romanian, you should check it out! It will change the way you feel about time and life, the way Eliade changed Coppola from an old mainstream Hollywood director into an arty European film experimenter.

Summary: Searching the eternal youth in Romania.

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** Diogenes81, 9 November 2007 • Some moviegoers, no doubt, will call Youth without Youth "deep", "exquisite", a "metaphysical experience", mentioning Hinduism, Buddhism and divine epiphanies; others will dismiss it in two lines as "unwatchable crap". I will do neither.

To give you an idea, this feels like a movie co-directed by a burn-out David Lynch and a clinically depressed Terry Gilliam, based on a book co-written by a drunk Jorge Luis Borges and Philip K. Dick on drugs. Get the picture?

This was a movie I wanted to like. The plot I had heard seemed ideal for a fantastic, bittersweet tale dealing with themes such as life, death, loss, and time. Unfortunately, the result is uneven to say the least: both too ambitious for its own good, and too chaotic.

Romania, 1938. Aging language scholar Dominic (Tim Roth) is struck by a lighting, and inexplicably, as he is cured by a helpful doctor (Bruno Ganz), he finds out he has become younger : he is 35 again. Besides, now he has an incredible memory, and his knowledge about languages is astounding. The Nazis soon find out about him, and Dominic escapes in Switzerland, where he is followed and has to confront a Nazi scientist.

In the second half - which feels like a different movie - after the end of the war, Dominic meets Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), identical to Laura (I like the nod to Italian poet Petrarca here - see the introductory dream, which is basically a "triumph of the Death"), the woman he loved (and lost) sixty years before. Veronica too is struck by a lighting (what about staying at home during storms?), and she begins to experience visions from her previous lives - she talks and behaves like a Princess from ancient India, then like a woman from Egypt... Dominic is able to understand her, and uses her mystical experiences for his study about the origin of languages.

Add to this : - some weird powers acquired by Dominic, who can read books by simply staring at them, and at a certain point is also able to control guns, like a low-rent Magneto; - a cameo appearance by a furry-fingered creature holding a skull- Shiva, apparently (?); - an incomprehensible subplot about a "double", played by Roth as a mix between Gollum/Smeagol of The Lord of the Rings (Coppola even uses the same camera tricks as Jackson during the "psycho" conversations) and Adolf Hitler. No kidding.

I like Roth (The legend of 1900, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead), but his performance here is uneven. As the quiet, decent Dominic he is nicely understated and convincing. I found him less solid as the already mentioned "double" - I suspect that Roth too did not understand what the hell he was supposed to play: an angel or a demon, Id or cold reason, or maybe a Jungian shadow? Beats me - and Roth too, I guess.

Luminous Alexandra Maria Lara is remarkable in a challenging and somehow thankless role (after a brief appearance, she disappears from the movie for the whole first half).

Although I have not read the novel by Mircea Eliade, I suspect two things: first, that it could be interesting, and make more sense than the movie; second, that the adaptation suffers from what is called "the slideshow effect": all the best bits from the book glued together with little regards for pacing (which here is totally off) and clarity.

If you like movies which answer neatly all questions, then avoid this one, or you'll want to murder someone after you leave the theater. If you enjoy incomprehensible movies with a weird fantasy twist and a bittersweet atmosphere, you might like Youth Without Youth. Only, if you understand what it meant, please give me a call.

Summary: An interesting failure.

[CSW] -2.8- This movie had an uneven pace and was more than a little confusing. I did grasp the concept talked of towards the end of the movie of the king that dreamed he was a butterfly that dreamed he was a king and the almost Zen aspect of duality that permeated this film. Read the second user comment above because this is not a film for everyone. Although I was glad to have watched it I feel that many people will not like it and also that it is not a movie I want to watch again.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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