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Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Marcel Iures, Alexandra Pirici ... see more see more... , André Hennicke , Adrian Pintea , Zoltan Butuc , Florin Piersic Jr.

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair after a ten-year hiatus with this adaptation of Romanian author Mircea Eliade's tome detailing the arduous journey of a professo... read more read more...r whose life is thrown into chaos as World War II looms ominously on the horizon. When the 70-year-old scholar is struck by lightning, his age begins to reverse as his mind grows infinitely more brilliant. Now determined to understand the origins of language and consciousness, the fugitive professor leads authorities on a wild chase through Romania, Switzerland, Malta, and India. Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Marcel Iures star in an ambitious low-budget drama trumpeted by Zoetrope as a "return to personal filmmaking" for the revered Godfather director. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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45% liked it

16,517 ratings

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30% liked it

102 critics

R, 2 hr. 4 min.

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Release Date: December 14, 2007

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DVD Release Date: May 13, 2008

Stats: 1,216 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,216)

  • LoughnerWasLucid
    February 1, 2012
    LoughnerWasLucid
    aw cool a new Tim Roth movee!
  • gokhale1
    December 1, 2010
    gokhale1
    Francis Ford Coppola directs this!

    That too after a hiatus of about 10 years after his court case drama, Rainmaker (1997).

    And that itself raises expectations! Alas...they all fall down..when this monumental mess of a film unfolds in front of your tired eyes!

    Set around ... read moreWorld War II, precisely the late 30s or early 40s, when an aged professor (precisely aged 70) named Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) who has become rather aloof, trying to finish his "life's work" which is a book based on the origins of human language! He is so lost in his world, but certainly tired, that he visits his favourite bar, the Select Cafe in his Pajamas and slippers on a snowy Christmas eve!

    Terribly bored of his existence, he decides to end his life in a place where no one knows him, somewhere in Bucharest. But fate has its own plans and Dominic gets struck by a deadly bolt of lightning somewhere in the streets of Bucharest!

    He miraculously survives this cataclysmic event and seems to have been transformed into a supernatural being who seems to have become younger and healthier...and everyone around him is intrigued about how it could be possible.....including Adolf Hitler!


    While the concept, based on the novella of the same name by Romanian author Mircea Elia, is extremely interesting, Coppola manages to turn this fantastic premise into a an almost terrible hodge-podge of a motion picture!

    The first hour is absolutely spellbinding when the story picks up momentum and you readily become interested in the fate of the miraculous Dominic Matei who is being treated by a Doctor, Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz in an unfairly wasted role). The plot takes some interesting turns in the first hour but things start to go horribly wrong in the next one hour upon the introduction of the supposed reincarnation of Laura (Alexandra Maria Lara), Dominic's ex, as Veronica!

    Further on, it seemed liked Coppola was missing making movies so much, he decided to blend a really fucked up cocktail of all genres that seemed to have made it big during the decade gone by when he was busy hibernating! So we have a psychological thriller mixed with a supernatural drama mixed with an eternal love story, garnished with a reincarnation angle with a spiritual Indian touch to the story!! He also seems to have seen Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain" in the midst of all this and decided to add a little bit of topping of that to his ambitious canvas!

    If only he paid a little more attention to the script and kept it more focussed....! Because as far as film-making is concerned, Coppola still has the touch, no doubt about it.

    Mihai Malaimare Jr.'s cinematography is beautiful...there are some great visual effects and spectacular imagery which surely make you sit up and take notice of what could've been!
    But the unfortunate silliness of this project in the second half hardly makes you care for all of the decoration! There is some painfully cheesy dialog between the two leads, and some awkwardly enacted scenes, which the actors seem to be clearly embarrassed to perform!

    Tim Roth does his level best with an immensely memorable performance as Dominic, to save this empty venture from drowning into nothingness, but no such luck!

    The first one hour and an interesting premise are all that remain of this doomed return to directing for Coppola!

    Hardcore Coppola fans will still give it a shot...others wouldn't really bother..and shouldn't!
  • pier007
    May 13, 2010
    pier007
    A non cohesive and flawed experiment with some incredibly poignant moments, a haunting love story and a score to die for. Tim Roth is a very gifted and highly underrated actor, capable of transmiting sorrow and anxiety quite easily. I only wish Coppola had concentrated on structu... read morere and pace a little bit more.
  • FilmFanatik
    March 2, 2010
    FilmFanatik
    Definitely an art house film. It's a very strange going but interesting.
  • puffchunk
    August 18, 2008
    puffchunk
    How did this guy make Dracula? Here's another movie where the director tried to be too cryptic, symbolic and other such words and ended up with an incoherrent piece of crap.
  • ceWEBrity
    June 25, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    There's a lot to admire about Youth Without Youth, but potential for entertainment is not exactly one of them. I love that this is mature, historical fiction (as borrowed from Romanian writer Mircea Eliade) rendered beautifully by a master filmmaker, but damn if this isn't dull a... read moret times. Frankly, the movie's lack of focus is a huge disappointment. I had to watch it in three chunks, each forty minutes long, before I couldn't stand to sit through it anymore.

    This got critically drubbed and made very little money (fortunately it was a low-budget effort), and I feel bad for Coppola because of that. It is a fantastic movie to look at, has actors of presence in Tim Roth and Alexandra Maria Lara, and offers up numerous good ideas by virtue of its source. Unfortunately, those stars are lost in the script they have to wade through, and that beautiful imagery just seems to swirl together without anything distinctive going on in it.

    This definitely could have been better.
  • flickfever
    December 18, 2007
    flickfever
    As far as existential, deeply profound and artistic films go--this one's got it all! I'll admit that Coppola's first film in 10 years is more like a David Lynch film--only in how out-of-reach it will be for most viewers; how inaccessible it is and how hard to understand it seems ... read moreto be. In short, the film will seem like pretentious, high-brow, arthouse crap to most people who aren't in the mood for something that requires more thinking than watching a Will Ferrell movie.

    The story of a man whose life (present and future) is changed by a sudden and striking event, leaves more questions than answers--but then again, film is supposed to that. There are soooo many themes running throughout this film (life, death, war, dream-states, time-travel, metaphoric transgression and the duality of man with his conscience--among others.)

    This film is truly a genre-bending romp and follows no preordained Hollywood formula (from its relatively unknown cast to its allegorical cinematography and symbolic art direction) the movie reveals one riddle after another and feeds us only scraps of truth (without truth) and fragments of answers (without answers.)

    I heard a woman after our screening complain that Coppola went from The Godfather--to this! The movie was obviously not meant for her. This movie is more along the lines of a Lynch, Aronofsky, or a Fellini film--highly cerebral and requiring a great amount from the audience.

    Though the slow pace and confusing storylines may make the movie seem like it's robbed some of you of your own youth, give this a chance if you like to be challenged at the megaplex. Although, this movie--you'll be lucky to find playing anywhere at all.

    If you're interested in seeing the film, get to the theater as quickly as possible because this movie is likely to be a complete failure at the box office and will not play very long--if at all.

    That being said, I loved the film for myself. I don't know how much I could recommend it to others, but selfishly, the movie was made for someone like me. I like to think and re-think meaning and purpose of a film instead of simply sitting in a theater waiting to be "entertained." I like to learn and knowledge is something that this film provides in heaps and loads.

    There is an abundance of intellectual wealth that somoene could gain from experiencing this film. Even though I couldn't recommend the film itself (despite my enjoyment of it) I am always eager to recommend a new, unique and challenging experience for moviegoers like myself. If the proverbial shoe fits...
  • dunmyer
    December 14, 2007
    dunmyer
    [font=Garamond][size=3]"Youth Without Youth," from living legend [b]Francis Ford Coppola[/b], is a visually lush, highly avant-garde film that is not for the casual movie-goer. Those wanting a movie, should go see "I Am Legend." Those seeking a work of art should get in line for ... read more"Youth Without Youth."[/size][/font]

    [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/Youth_without_youth.jpg[/img]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]While the film is imperfect (I can only give it a 7), its artistic and philosophical depth and ambition are staggering. It also at times uses cinematography in such a radical new way that it took my breath away. Sometimes young people say that there can no longer be any innovation, because everything has already been done. Here's a man who's been a radical innovator for decades, and still he finds ways to break new ground creatively. There is always room for innovation, if only one has talent. Mr. Coppola has it in spades. He also has tremendous daring. This is a very courageous film.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]"Youth Without Youth," based on a short story by world-renowned anthropologist and philosopher [b]Mircea Eliade[/b], could be interpreted in a million ways. It also operates on several levels, so one interpretation would never be good enough. My interpretation is that the film at its core was a meditation on the modern anthropological quest to understand the origins of human consciousness, a quest that is distinctively of the 20th century. In this sense, [b]I consider the film to be a rumination on the 20th century itself. [/b][/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]How did humans break away from other animal species to develop consciousness and language? [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]Was it an act of violence that caused the first thought? A trauma of some kind? Did the first thinker, for example, get struck by lightning? Will another act of violence usher in our next phase of evolution?[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]The film depicts an Eliade-like scholar (played by [b]Tim Roth[/b]) in the 1930s approaching the end of his life feeling anxiety that he won't have time to complete his life's work, which is to discover the origin of human consciousness. Lonely and alone he takes a trip to Romania, where he is promptly struck by lightning.[/size][/font]

    [img]http://www.origo.hu/i/0710/20071024youthwith.jpg[/img]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]He is essentially burned alive but somehow survives. He makes a stunning recovery and even appears to be reincarnated. When his bandages come off, this septuagenarian appears to be in his 30s. Quickly word spreads about this medical wonder, and soon every scientist in Europe wants to study him. The Nazis in particular are interested in his case. But he slips off to Switzerland under the guise of a new identity.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]This is not the only mystery though. The newly youthful scholar encounters a young woman who looks exactly like the love of his life, who left him decades ago. This is weird enough, but then this woman goes into a trance and starts muttering in a strange language, which turns out to be ancient Sanskrit. [/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]The scholar[/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3] happens to know Sanskrit and begins communicating with her. This is when "Youth Without Youth" starts getting really bizarre. The woman says she was in a cave near her home when some kind of violence knocked her unconscious. When she awoke she was in this foreign land. Oh, and one final detail: she was knocked unconscious about 1,000 years ago. This woman starts to become an entryway for the scholar into earlier forms of human consciousness.[/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]The weakest part of the film is when she starts turning into other people, speaking languages that are even older than Sanskrit. The scholar's hope is that she'll take him back in time so far that he'll gain some sense of the dawn of human language. The problem is that her changing transmutations started to seem silly. She goes into a trance and you think, Who's she going to be now? [/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]But happily the film doesn't dive into this element of the story too deeply. For reasons I won't bother to explain, the scholar ends up leaving the woman.[/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]But the weirdness doesn't go away, as he's left with a doppelganger of himself that talks to him as if he's a living alter-ego. This also becomes tiresome at times.[/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]Yet for all its weirdness, the film at its best is mesmerizing. And the issues it raises, the way it ponders the very origins of our species, is deeply fascinating. The only other recent film that goes to this level of philosophical speculation is "The Fountain," my no.1 film of 2006.[/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
  • gator681
    January 16, 2009
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]"Youth without Youth" starts in 1938 when Dominic Matei(Tim Roth), a seventy-year old linguistics expert, gets struck by lightning crossing the street in front of a train station in Bucharest. Somehow he survives. What is truly amazing is that as his wounds... read more heal, he finds himself getting younger, even growing new teeth. Along with his newfound youth, he finds that he has new abilities which are accompanied by an emerging alter ego. All of which makes Dominic afraid of what the Nazis would do to him, so he asks his doctor(Bruno Ganz) for false identification.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]Written, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, "Youth without Youth" is about mortality as viewed through the eyes of a man who has been frustrated by his inability to discover the origin of language and complete his life's work. At the same time, this scientist is confronted by clear signs of the supernatural. Original and as full of ideas as the movie is, it is ironic that the movie is as frustrating as Dominic's quest for knowledge. Perhaps it is the combination of superheroes and the intellectual but there is nothing to say that these two are mutually exclusive.[/font]
  • panta2
    January 1, 2011
    panta2
    I'll warn you first: if you manage to survive the first 45 minutes it gets better!

    "Youth Without Youth" is based on the novella of the same name by Romanian author Mircea Eliade and it was the first film that Coppola had directed in ten years since 1997's The Rainmaker. In t... read morehis film you'll find a very personal approach to a barely known novella by Mircea Eliade, but also homage to Romanian culture and civilization. People who read the novella found it difficult and "anti-cinematic"... it's some kind of a meditation on time and the relation between human memory and identity. The major theme of the film is "la vita est sueno" (life is dream) but Coppola said that he made the film as a meditation on time and on consciousness, which he considers a "changing tapestry of illusion," admitting that the film may also be appreciated as a beautiful love story, or as a mystery.

    I purchased this DVD and was ready to enjoy the experience which blurs dreams and everyday life and suggests that through visual and narrative experimentation the main character has begun the search for new ways of making meaning, new holy places for him and for us... but the problem in enjoying that search process was in the bad sound recording - I'll say the worst in the 21st century! Mumbling of the complicated philosophical theories is not something I prefer when having trouble with the full story!

    Disappointing work from one of my favourite directors... two hours and six minutes long!

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Critic Reviews

Ruth Hessey
November 21, 2008
Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Youth Without Youth smacks of vanity project from the first poetic moments to the last, and whose vanity lays a stronger claim to the big screen than Francis Ford Coppola's? Full Review

Steven Rea
February 7, 2008
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Youth Without Youth is so beautiful, in fact, that it almost transcends the epic bunkum of Coppola's script. But almost doesn't count, even when it is uttered in ancient tongues. Full Review

Tom Long
January 11, 2008
Tom Long, Detroit News

A terrible mess of mystical mumbo jumbo, but you have to give Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth this: It is one magnificent and interesting failure of a film. Full Review

Desson Thomson
January 10, 2008
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Unfortunately, Youth becomes so lost in its own conceptual, convoluted vortex, it becomes virtually incomprehensible. Full Review

Rex Reed
January 4, 2008
Rex Reed, New York Observer

Francis Ford Coppola's first film in 10 years deserves serious attention, but this massive dose of Nembutal only manages to render you too comatose to think. Full Review

Rick Groen
January 4, 2008
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

How's this for a ringing endorsement: Watching Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola's first film in nearly a decade, is like taking a philosophy exam. Full Review

Geoff Pevere
January 4, 2008
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

Not so much a bad movie as a dispiritingly unnecessary one (especially by a once-great director), Youth Without Youth ultimately boils down to a long, autumn stroll around the block to a place everyon... Full Review

Michael Phillips
December 21, 2007
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Too much of the film is a muddle, and it feels like work, not play. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
December 21, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

I'm all for bold screwiness, but this provocation seems labored despite the striking images. Full Review

Colin Covert
December 21, 2007
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Francis Ford Coppola's first movie in 10 years is a technically dazzling work, but humanly a bewildering one. Full Review

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