Youth Without Youth (2007)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

good back-story, and good acting

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I'm quite upset that this film is rated so low and so few people are interested in the film. Youth Without Youth is a masterpiece. The story is thought-provoking, even though it doesn't really provide answers to the philosophical questions it raises.I guess that's why many people don't like this film—everything is so vague. It doesn't explain the scientific reasons behind those many weird things in it, because it's not Marvel Comics. It doesn't have a complete, detailed, linear story line, because it's not a telenovela. It's all about philosophy and religion. (The original writer Mircea Eliade was a philosopher and historian of religion.) Some people must have this deep fear that their life is meaningless—I know I do have this fear—your very existence is meaningless, you have lived in vain. Then what gives meaning to life? Dominic Matei's search for the origin of human language is more than an academic research, is a search for deeper understanding of humanity itself. From a religious point of view, because "in the beginning was the Word" and language was given to human (not created by human), it's also a search for metaphysical knowledge.Almost inevitably, Dominic fails; worse, he can never be with the love of his life. To some extent, his attempts and failures represent any person's attempts and failures.It's a good film that leads to some musings about life.

Francis Coppola's last mainstream Hollywood film was The Rainmaker and before that it was the critically maligned Jack. Since then the legend of cinema has walked away from being a director for hire. I guess he is still smarting from the failure of his Zoetrope Studios.In Youth without Youth Coppola turns to European art cinema and not for the first time. His black and white Rumble Fish was heavily influenced by the German Expressionist style.Tim Roth plays Dominic a 70 year old man in Pre World War 2 Romania, who is struck by lightning and is rejuvenated astounding his doctor (Bruno Ganz). Dominic is 30 years younger with a regenerated body, he even grows new teeth, he undergoes various tests put to him by his doctors. However it is not only the physical body that has improved, also his mental faculties have gone through a quantum leap. This also arouses the interests of the Nazis once the war erupts.Of course Dominic hides that he has an alter ego that converses with him and seems to have enhanced powers himself. Also whereas the older Dominic was striving to finish his life's work in the origins of linguistics, now he has the time to research and write further. He speaks many Oriental languages now he can read by just looking at a book.As the war rages on Dominic escapes to Switzerland to continues his research. In the 1950s, a meeting with a woman called Veronica who reminds him of Laura, a lost love turns the film further on its head. Veronica transmigrates to another soul back in time such as an early disciple of Buddha in ancient India. She keeps going back further in time speaking in ancient languages enabling Dominic to get very near to the first spoken text but at the risk of losing Veronica for good.The film is a mixture of vision and story. It could easily be something that could had been made by that other American filmmakers Terrence Malick or David Lynch. The film sets its stall out with the European Art-house cinema style, it is not a literal movie as the film feels dreamlike. You do wonder if this is all a dream of Dominic after being struck by lightning.The film is little known but I was surprised by how accessible it was and how much I enjoyed the film. Coppola has never been afraid to experiment and at times he has misfired badly. Even here some of the scenes set in India does not convince as they are too modern with modern cars driving past. There is even a shot of The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai that crops up in scenes set in Uttar Pradesh.However this is an intriguing, experimental even a slightly unnerving film. Roth should be given plaudits for drawing the viewer in and keeping them invested in his character.Youth without Youth shows the world that Coppola is still a master filmmaker.

Youth Without Youth (2007)It's close to impossible to tackle the big profound issues in a movie without coming off as pompous or bloated or forced. But you can't blame a guy for trying, and Coppola is a great movie director, so why not?"Youth without Youth" is about death, identity, love and true love, self-awareness, war, friendship, and beauty. Yes, up front, with some really inventive filmmaking decisions that work far better than they should, or than they would in another director's hands. For example, there are extended sections that are upside down, and some that are sideways. There are familiar tropes of a person looking at themselves in the mirror and then the mirror images moves differently than the person does. People talk about deep things, and our main character, played by Tim Roth, whispers advice to himself as we go.So there are things to appreciate here. But the first problem is Tim Roth. The role is too big for him. The main character here is supposed to have powers of some kind, and Roth has only the power to bore us. His screen presence is soporific. And he is the movie. Almost as a confession of this (or a revelation), in one brief scene Matt Damon does a cameo, and there is some spark in that man's smallest appearance that works, in cinematic terms, that is exactly what Roth needs. I want to imagine the movie reshot with Damon--or any number of charismatic actors--in the Roth's shoes.The other problem with the movie is less specific, but it might just be that the subject is overblown no matter what you do. It has echoes of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" but with mystical overtones. It presents life as not just a beautiful mystery, but an impossible one. It's a fantasy, a wishful dream. And once you get into the fantastic, you have all shackles broken, so why not fly a little? It's not just the drudgery of Tim Roth that weighs down the project, but a pace and perspective that plods. It wants too hard to be heavy, and it is.Real depth in movies can be seen in the highly personal (and affected) Ingmar Bergman films, or in more peculiar attempts like "2001." Even Coppola's own "Apocalypse Now" finds a way to explore meaning, indirectly and amazingly. But his ideas in movies shifted somewhere in his career so that a kind of silliness, or personal whimsy, has infected them. "Peggy Sue Gets Married" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" are just two examples of ideas that are ninety percent fabulous, but end up thoroughly tilted by some other quirk of tone or intention that derails it all. "Youth Without Youth?" Fascinating, watchable, cinematic. But also pompous, bloated, and forced.

This is the first movie that made me feel I should do something to warn unsuspecting victims. So... uhm... there must be something good in it if... after all, it did prompt me to action, right? Well... No, it's boring. Really, really, really boring. And stupid. The dialogues are stilted, all the scenes are forced, the development of the 'plot' is choppy and naïve (e.g., nazi officer demands: "We must take this man, Hitler is highly interested in him", doctor replies: "Uhm... no, I am a doctor and I say so, dudes"; nazi officer: "Grrr! I'll come back with a German doctor!"(?) Next, he and the rest of the German soldiers reluctantly leave the room, almost as confused as the audience). Or: a girl has an accident, survives and speaks nonsense and -out of nowhere- 234 scholars show up and take her to India, instead of going with the old post-traumatic stress hypothesis, they go with the "why, of course she must be channeling the thoughts and feelings of a dead girl from India!" theory. It is worth noting that a bunch of characters that seemed important or relevant to the plot die and are never mentioned again, their tragic deaths (no matter how close they were to the main characters) do not have any visible impact on anyone whatsoever. Characters are pulled into the screen and then kicked out to never be seen or heard again. They are all mere plot devices, they have no past, no family, friends, prior engagements, a job... anything. They are empty vessels waiting to be sucked in by the plot and shoved out of the screen when they have become useless. This movie doesn't even portray the shadow of anything human. Hell, the characters were stiff even if we find out they were terminators the whole time! Languages! After all the main character is a linguist, the movie must be language-aware, right? Wrong! Dominic Matei will speak English even when speaking to other Rumanians, while Matei still speaks Italian to Italians and German to Germans, English remains his choice when he has an interior monologue or a chat with an old friend. Let's not even go to the concepts, ideas or conflicts developed in the movie: the strongest attempt at developing an idea is: "Are you saying the end justifies the means?". Youth or old age are not even faintly explored or described. The rest is Coppola trying really hard to make some point (WWII happened sometime ago, Love or work?, languages: yes or no?), whichever it may have been it's certainly not worth watching this movie. In other words: compared with this film, any 'buy-now' ad clip is a masterpiece. Go enjoy something else, it won't be nearly as dull and poorly thought as Youth without youth is. Cheers.