DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Youth without Youth

By Jeff Swindoll May 15, 2008, 14:03 GMT

Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t been in the director’s seat in the last ten years. He now steps into this fantasy about an aging academic who is struck by lightening and regains youth. Can Coppola regain his directorial prowess of his youth? Read on and find out.

In 1938 Romania on Easter Day, Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is a seventy-year-old professor crossing the road. While doing so, he’s struck by lightening and his charred body falls back to Earth. When he’s taken to the hospital, strange things begin to happen to him. His teeth fall out because new teeth are pushing in behind the old and he finds that he’s aged backwards to the age of forty. He comes to the attention of Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz) and he also comes to the attention of the Nazis who spirit Dominic away to a secluded retreat so that they can further study him. He pines for his lost love Laura (Alexandra Maria Lara). Escaping from his Nazi captors Dominic goes into hiding and on the run from the Nazis. He also begins to develop what appear to be supernatural powers. He later comes across Veronica (Lara, again) who is the vision of his lost love. However, things begin to get even stranger. Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t been in the director’s chair since the Rainmaker in 1997 (besides an uncredited turn on Supernova in 2000). He adapts the book by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. Coppola still has the touch certainly, but where the film seems to veer off the path is in the story. I’m not familiar with the novel, but the film seems to have a strange plotline that will probably be lost on most viewers. It seems a treatise on time, lost youth, dreams, reincarnation, language and perhaps even split personality.

I can’t say that I really understood it all, but the film does offer some very good compositions and shots. I also thought that Tim Roth was good in the starring role. Most audiences usually frown upon things that are experimental and strange. I would imagine the large chunks of untranslated foreign language didn’t help matters much. The DVD has some strange subtitling in that the film is presented with only French subtitles (and a French language track). There are English subtitles for Coppola’s commentary but none for the film. I found the film to be an interesting one and certainly one that Coppola took a personal interest in. However, I think Youth without Youth will be an acquired taste for most and will seem somewhat distant to most of the director’s fans. Youth without Youth is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary with director Francis Ford Coppola. Next is the 8 minute “Making of Youth without Youth, the 26 minute “Music of Youth without Youth, and the 18 minute “Youth without Youth: the Makeup.” You can also access the film’s 4-minute end credits from the special features menu since the film doesn’t have any. Finally, there are previews for other Sony DVDs. Youth without Youth is going to be an acquired taste since it deals with some metaphysical issues. Coppola still knows how to put some sumptuous visuals on the screen, but the story he’s chosen will fail to capture some viewers. Those willing to give it a chance will find a well-made film but also a strange one. Youth without Youth is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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