Youth Without Youth | 
 enlarge | Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Actors: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke, Marcel Iures
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 6062
Format: Ac-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), German (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), Romanian (Original Language), Russian (Original Language), Sanskrit (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 125
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 22528
UPC: 043396225282
EAN: 0043396225282
ASIN: B0014FAIZC
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Francis Ford Coppola returns to directing for the first time in a decade with the fascinating if perplexing Youth Without Youth, a kind of science-fiction tale of mythic proportions based on a novella by the late Romanian historian and religion scholar Mircea Eliade. Tim Roth stars as elderly linguist Dominic Matei, whose life work--uncovering the roots of human language--has been stymied throughout his long and undistinguished career. Struck by lightning while crossing a Bucharest street in 1938, Matei not only survives but goes through a physical transformation, reverting to the age of 35 and remaining ageless for decades to come. Trying to remain incognito, Matei is pursued in Europe by Nazi intelligence as well as journalists, acquiring strange powers and communicating with a sort of psychological double of himself. Throughout, Matei finds himself unable to escape a cyclical destiny, particularly when he falls for a woman (Alexandra Maria Lara)--physically! similar to a lost love in his pre-lightning life--whose apparent possession by ancient, Indian deities is useful to his work but dangerous to her. The episodic film lurches along with the logic of a dream siphoned into waking life, a constantly shifting consciousness that suggests Matei exists in several planes of experiential reality simultaneously. Coppola has been down this hallucinatory road before, perhaps most spectacularly in Apocalypse Now. But it is not hard to see how Youth Without Youth is a very personal film for him and somewhat of a parallel to his career, which seems rejuvenated with the release of this complex movie, so full of the kind of technical and stylistic flourishes that brought Coppola legions of admirers and detractors years ago. --Tom Keogh Stills from Youth Without Youth (click for larger image) Beyond Youth Without Youth 
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Product Description
Francis Ford Coppola returns to the realm of his mastery with a new film about growing young. A bolt of lightning strikes Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) so close to death that he begins to age backwards. When he grows from 70 to 40 in a week, he draws the attention of the Nazis and the world. Now he's running for his life with a new love and no hope of knowing his phenomenal fate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Confusing, boring and pretentious June 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There were great expectations with this movie, ten years after the latest Coppola movie.The result, however, seems very disappointing. There's no doubt that the photography is gorgeous; but that's all about its merits. Actually, there's about 8 to 10 movies in here and none makes complete sense. The first plot about a 70 year-old linguist who is literally hit by a thunderbolt and regains youth takes you to another one and then another and then another, with thin (or none)substantial relation between them, being its pretentiousness the only linking root. Crowded with bizarre characters, the confusing story depicts - besides the hero - a wise scientist, a bunch of nazis trying to kidnap the linguist, a girl with memories of lost love, spies, more nazis and many more. The intriguing anecdotes take you from Rumania to India, Malta and Switzerland, but actually the movie goes nowhere. I's hard to make much sense out of such a muddle. And it's also hard to believe that this pretentious, over-plotted, awfully boring and sometimes ludicrous hotch potch belongs to the same creator who gave such masterpieces like THE GODFATHER TRILOGY or APOCALYPSE NOW.
 A good film at last !!! June 11, 2008
This fascinating film is not "run-of-the-mill". Flooded with thousands of titles every year we struggle in a deep deficit of films that appeal to intellectual speculation. Based on an excellent story by Mircea Eliade, it takes Coppola to deal with the unreal with the same objectivity as with the real. Excellent interpretations.
 Partly Brilliant, Partly Pretentious, Partly Radiant June 5, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have very mixed feelings about this film. The idea of two people struck by lightning - one who grows young and the other who grows old - who just happen to fall in love is, to put it bluntly, an absurdity. Yes it is true that the director explores some interesting philosophical ideas, particularly Eastern wisdom, but overall I found the project disjointed and imperfect. Some of the powers of the main protagonist, such as
digesting a book's contents by merely passing his hand over the volume, are utterly unconvincing. Interesting ideas, beautiful cinematography, and good acting cannot overcome weaker plot and poorer editing. As it turns out, I much preferred that other (science) fiction movie about a person struck by lightning, entitled "Powder."
A Visually Stunning, Provocative, Intelligent Art Film May 31, 2008
141 out of 142 found this review helpful
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH is for this viewer one of the most creative and genuinely intelligent and beautiful films to be released in some time. Francis Ford Coppola has utilized the finest points of his gifts as a movie creator and the result is a mesmerizing, quasi-hallucinatory exploration of the fine book by the Romanian writer Mircea Eliade. Not only is Coppola's screenplay challenging and complex, it is also a well-developed guide to making visual the concept of Eliade's at times perplexing story. The cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. is moody and captures the surrealism of the tale, and the musical score is by the great contemporary composer Osvaldo Golijov who has taken every element of Romania mysticism and culture and translated them into a miraculous musical brocade.
Dominic Matei (Tim Roth in a brilliant performance) is a 70-year-old professor whose sheltered life has been spent in his thwarted exploration of the origin of language. The old man is struck by lightning and survives under the care of puzzled physicians and as he shows signs of life, Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz) is at his side, helping Matei to learn to communicate and eventually accompany him through his complete recovery. Matei grows young in appearance and is able to time travel through the decimation WW II brought to his native Bucharest, altering his identity as he is given a second chance at a life he never experienced, a life that includes a love affair with a woman who closely resembles his early love Laura and now falls in love with him as Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara). In a Dorian Gray mode Matei lives for years as an ageless man, able to communicate with his 'double' who is visible only to Matei. His condition intrigues the interest and suspicions of both the Nazis and journalists and academic colleagues until certain tidal events change Matei's course and he regresses into old age, retuning to the moment of time when he was first struck by lightening. It is a story of the quest of eternal youth and the Faustian consequences that accompany that journey.
The tone of the film is operatic and with the majority of the cast drawn from some of Romania's finest actors, the quality of performances is uniformly outstanding. Tim Roth is remarkably superb in this challenging role, a performance that deserves acclaim from a very wide audience. YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH is Coppola at his finest. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, May 08
Spoon Fed and Brain Dead Need Not Apply May 18, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Tim Roth is great as an elderly Romanian professor of languages who is struck by lightning and made young again. Francis Ford Coppola's first film in ten years is visually inventive, dense and demanding - so naturally almost no one went to see it. It's off the wall, over the top, confounding and camp. Also very beautiful. A shot in the arm by a genuine artist that's miles ahead of the phoney art movies that got all the acclaim in Aught Seven.
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