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PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Youth Without Youth"

By Omar P.L. Moore/December 14, 2007

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Francis Ford Coppola's film is a deep meditation -- and it has taken almost two weeks since initially viewing it for this critic to come to a decision on Mr. Coppola's "Youth Without Youth", a grand, haunting epic of kaleidascopic imagery and thought.  At first the verdict on the film was to pan it, but further thought and deliberation made that ever more difficult to do.  Tim Roth stars as Dominic Matei, a man who is supposedly dead -- or is he?  After literally being struck down in his seventies Dominic appears to be reversing his own aging process, flickering vibrantly with youth and a subconsciousness that allows him to remain lucid and energetic as a thinker as he revisits the strengths and failures of his life.  He falls in love, makes mistakes, sleeps with the enemy, and rarely doesn't think about it all, as he evades pursuit by nefarious forces both internally and externally, and confronts the emotions of fear, loathing and vulnerability.  "Youth" is based on Romanian writer Mircea Eliade's novella, and the film remains faithful to Mr. Eliade's original work as it tracks its lead character's journey through 30 years, from the 1930's and the onset of World War Two through to the 1960's, journeying to at least five countries.

 

The audience is saturated with some rich visuals and the color palette -- deep blues, golds, reds, oranges -- are second to none.  "Youth Without Youth" is beautiful and beguiling -- but beguiling in a non-manipulative way.  You are invited to view an artistic collage and either let the film wash over you, or send you to sleep.  It is clear that Mr. Coppola has crafted a deeply personal film, and he has wonderfully captured an era of filmmaking (the 30's and '40's) that he revisits and pays loving tribute to, mixing the fantasy, reality, dream and idyllic vestiges of a man trying to find meaning and purpose in his seventy-plus years of life, as well as the meaning in himself as a tangible human being.  One question that "Youth" implicitly asks is, does one change time or does time change one?  The film begins with a visual cue that shows time to be the thief of all hearts.  "Youth" asks its viewers to process a lot, and why not let an audience work?  Mr. Coppola has also thought a lot about this subject of age, time and reinvigoration, and about perception of life lived and appreciated, which is resplendent with contradictions -- exploration of human desire and deceit, and the quantifying of time and existence.  It is as if the director is reinvigorating himself after a ten-year hiatus -- much of which was no doubt spent thinking about the issues that Dominic ponders thoughout "Youth Without Youth".

Speaking of which, how does one come to terms with aging, with the brevity of life, with evaluating one's life, with thinking about one's life as it is lived in the moment or lived in the past?  And how does any film director convey this in moving pictures on a big screen without it becoming an exasperating and exhausting exercise?  Mr. Coppola manages to do so successfully if with slight trepidation and while on initial viewing his first feature film in a decade may to some be an incomprehensible assemblage of images, another viewing will likely make the experience somewhat easier, if not more satisfying, to grasp.  The time spent watching "Youth Without Youth" is like watching "Eyes Wide Shut" for the first time, only this film takes longer to grasp and decipher.  Mr. Kubrick's film was also a meditation based upon a classic novella (by Arthur Schnitzler), but its big screen characters were far less introspective than the ones here, in particular Dominic, who spends quite a bit of time with his own voices in his head.  Showing these voices and manifestations on film is a tricky enterprise to be sure, but Coppola is able with the help of great editing by Walter Murch to show distinct changes in Mr. Roth's demeanor and thought process, which look less like a gimmick than they could have.  To reiterate, there are some memorable images, some so dazzingly beautiful to behold that they are more than enough to make an imprint on the viewer, and Alexandra Maria Lara handles the three characters she plays capably and admirably.  She inhabits Laura, Veronica and Rupini, and undergoes a physical transformation that is startling -- physical not in terms of a metamorphosis, but physical in a manner that is visceral and performed with confidence and credibility.  Her characters are important to the film as she travels throughout epochs of human history -- but is she seen through her own eyes, or perceived through Dominic's?
 

"Youth Without Youth" is undoubtedly a challenging experience, and it requires a viewer to be have an open and lucid (not drug-induced) state of mind.  Coppola's film has an echo in one or two scenes of Kubrick's "2001", both edit-wise and visually where Mr. Roth's Dominic is concerned in at least one scene, but most of all "Youth Without Youth" stands a tribute and testament to yesteryear filmmaking and to Mr. Eliade's work.  Mr. Coppola's latest will take some appreciation, and it may be 20 or so years from now that the film gets its due, even if it doesn't attain a classic status.  Mr. Roth cooks up a feat of acting that cannot have been easy, as his Dominic takes numerous forms.  And the legendary Bruno Ganz has a small role as Professor Stanciulescu, and as always, does great work.

 

So two weeks since first viewing it, this critic opines that "Youth Without Youth" is a film which merits a careful look, some patience and a fresh perspective.  "Natural Born Killers" was a trip full of free-associational imagery that required another look to fully understand and appreciate, and many critics hailed it as a triumph.  "Inland Empire" took a look at an ethereal Los Angeles Tinseltown hooked on emptiness and questionable existence, and that film fit a certified David Lynch mode.  Here, Mr. Coppola, for all of his personal endeavor and meditation on the subject matter of "Youth Without Youth", is not so deeply self-conscious behind the camera, even if his new film's lead characters are in front of it.

"Youth Without Youth" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for some sexuality, nudity and a brief disturbing image.  The film's duration is two hours and four minutes.  The film contains dialogue in English, Chinese, Sanskrit, German, Italian and Romanian, with English subtitles.
 

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