Finds the filmmaker admirably working without a safety net
Youth Without Youth (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:99
Fresh:30
Rotten:69
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Although visually appealing, Coppola's latest film mixes too many genres with a very confusing plot.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for some sexuality, nudity and a brief disturbing image.
Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 14, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $146,307
Synopsis: Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair for the first time in nearly a decade with his ambitious parable YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. Set in Romania on the eve of World War II, the tale begins... Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair for the first time in nearly a decade with his ambitious parable YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. Set in Romania on the eve of World War II, the tale begins when 70-year-old linguistics professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is struck by lightning, miraculously restoring him to the flower of youth. Swaddled in bandages, blind, and mute, Dominic astounds his doctor (Bruno Ganz) with his swift recovery--new teeth, smooth skin, and a shining mane of hair--and even the young nurses start to take an interest in the dashing, vigorous septuagenarian. But things turn perilous when the Third Reich learns of Dominic's rejuvenation and wants to harness his new, superhuman abilities. On the run in wartorn Europe, Dominic uses his powers to keep one step ahead of the Nazis and finish his life's work, an expansive study on language and human consciousness. The unpredictable plot thickens when Dominic falls for Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), a beautiful young woman who reminds him of a lost love and, what's more, has also had a fateful encounter with lightning--leaving her possessed by the spirits of her past lives! As she journeys from Switzerland to Malta to India, Veronica's unusual predicament may hold the key to completing Dominic's encyclopedic masterwork, but perhaps at the cost of their new life together. Closer to baroque and risk-taking pictures like ONE FROM THE HEART than THE GODFATHER, Coppola's sprawling exploration of love, memory, and lost time brims with rich symbolism and inventive visuals. Based on the novella by Mircea Eliade, the philosophic film evokes the poetic enigmas and freewheeling narrative of a literary novel. As audacious as it is thought-provoking, YOUNG WITHOUT YOUTH is a compelling return from a cinematic master. [More]
Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke
Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke, Marcel Iures
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenwriter: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
Composer: Osvaldo Golijov
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Release:
May 13, 2008
Reviews for Youth Without Youth
Nem mesmo a bela fotografia e a impecável direção de arte conseguem salvar esta bagunça narrativa que, sob a desculpa de promover uma discussão metafísica, faz Coppola parecer um cineasta em início de carreira.
Very much a film of this era, its director returning after a ten-year absence from the cinema with a peculiar little masterpiece about things unrecoverable in time.
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?
For all its flaws and there aren't very many, with Youth Without Youth you know you’re in the hands of a master.
A stilted and inelegant work, well below par for Francis Ford Coppola
With all the nurses making moves on the suicidal old codger's renovated physique, Coppola's Youth Without Youth comes across as somewhere between The Godfather On Viagra and Apocalypse Then, Redux.
Though not an easy film to grasp or possibly enjoy, it's nevertheless a mindblowing acid-like excursion into the secret world of Orientalism.
This pretentious, impenetrable and deadly dull film never resonates as anything more than an aging filmmaker's feeble grasp at his own lost youth.
This is the perfect example of what can happen when a producer/director/writer doesn't have to answer to anyone. Coppola makes an artistic mess.
It often feels like a dream -- specifically, someone else's, a nonlinear, illogical synapse explosion that's always fascinating to the person in whose head it detonated but not so much to those experiencing it secondhand.
So much of Youth Without Youth is impenetrable, and not in a way that makes you want to solve the puzzle, but in a way that makes you want to knock the puzzle pieces off the table and flee the room.
It would be easier to sit back and rest on his legend rather than press on as an average filmmaker, which is what Coppola has become.
A classic example of the “what-was-he-thinking?” movie, Youth Without Youth unfolds in a sort of formal dream state devoid of day-to-day normalcy.
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.
The suspicion that all this froth builds up towards nothing but some poetic imagery is inexorably realized and sours the magic of the second half of the film.
It's a clear case of an artist indulging his personal vision and getting so carried away by his muse, he's forgotten the most important rule of filmmaking: Other people have to sit through this s**t too.
Latest News for Youth Without Youth
September 24, 2008:
Godfather On Viagra? An Audio Conversation With Francis Ford Coppola About Youth Without Youth ![]()
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December 13, 2007:
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This week at the movies, we've got the last man on earth (I Am Legend, starring Will Smith), Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (Alvin and the Chipmunks, starring Jason Lee), and mommy... More...
December 12, 2007:
Walter Murch on Youth Without Youth: The RT Interview (With Exclusive Photos and Clips!)
This week, Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth hits theaters in limited release. The tale of a writer who becomes young again after being struck by lightning is a... More...
October 25, 2007:
check out the US teaser ![]()
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