Youth Without Youth

Name: Youth Without Youth
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance
Released: December 14, 2007
Duration: 124 min
Rating: 43
Cast: Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Tim Roth

2007

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Ratings

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6.7

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6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Ratings

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YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH

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Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 14, 2007

Starring: Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Tim Roth

Summary: Dominic Matei is an aging professor of linguistics who finds his youth miraculously restored after surviving a cataclysmic event. Dominic's physical rejuvenation and apparent immortality is matched by a highly evolved intellect, which attracts the attention of Nazi scientists and forces him into exile. While on the run, he reunites with hisDominic Matei is an aging professor of linguistics who finds his youth miraculously restored after surviving a cataclysmic event. Dominic's physical rejuvenation and apparent immortality is matched by a highly evolved intellect, which attracts the attention of Nazi scientists and forces him into exile. While on the run, he reunites with his lost love, Laura, and works to complete his research into the origins of human language. When his research threatens Laura's health, Dominic is forced to choose between his life's work and the great love of his life. (Sony Classics)… Expand

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 124 min

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Critic Reviews

Baltimore Sun - Michael Sragow

This film's playful visual language pulls you in rather than shuts you out; it isn't difficult to decipher, and it enables Coppola and his editor, Walter Murch, to navigate the story's many realms with a directness and dexterity that are refreshing. Read full review

The New York Times - Manohla Dargis

In this film Mr. Coppola blurs dreams and everyday life and suggests that through visual and narrative experimentation he has begun the search for new ways of making meaning, new holy places for him and for us. He may not have found them yet, but, then, he’s just waking up. Read full review

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) - Rick Groen

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. A really tiring philosophy exam, where the questions are elegantly phrased but damn confounding and not really conducive to right answers. Read full review

Slate - Dana Stevens

A vast, lumbering white elephant of a movie--but I sort of love it. Read full review

Washington Post - Desson Thomson

Unfortunately, "Youth" becomes so lost in its own conceptual, convoluted vortex, it becomes virtually incomprehensible. Coppola proves that even the best of our film artists can lose sight of what this medium is all about: entertaining, enlightening and including its audience. Read full review

Empire - Kim Newman

Not quite a complete write-off, but basically a folly. Read full review

Salon - Stephanie Zacharek

It's merely nutty, a picture that appears to have been made by an individual who has fallen off the edge of reason. Watching it was misery. Read full review

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User Reviews

StanleyKubrick

Aug 2, 2016

This is a unique film, even in Francis Coppola's diverse body of work, because it's his first surrealist film. Coppola was always interested in other film styles than the realism of his best-known work "The Godfather". In "Rumble Fish" he tried for example German Expressionism. In "ApocalyseThis is a unique film, even in Francis Coppola's diverse body of work, because it's his first surrealist film. Coppola was always interested in other film styles than the realism of his best-known work "The Godfather". In "Rumble Fish" he tried for example German Expressionism. In "Apocalyse Now" he already flirted with surrealism, but didn't go as far as he does in "Youth without Youth", which is a fully realized and genuinely surrealist film in many ways. The surrealist tradition of André Breton, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel wanted to achieve a dream-like state in the arts, a kind of 'dreaming with open eyes' where you couldn't tell anymore what was 'reality', imagination, fantasy or madness. Surrealism didn't care for coherence, a consistent narrative or 'making sense'. It wanted to destroy the very notion of common sense, identity, reality, ordinary norms and values. Surrealist art works through association and individual imagination, not through conventional logic. "Youth without Youth" tried to do in cinema, what Mircea Eliade's novella did in literature: It's a surrealist work of art, that can't be defined or classified, because it doesn't play by the rules. Coppola himself said, that he was inspired by "Last Year in Marienbad".and it definitely is similar to Alain Resnais' brand of surrealism. I find it impossible to judge this film as 'entertainment', because it tries to be an abstract work of art. Shot mostly in Romania, it's beautiful to watch and the digital cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. is gorgeous. The 'story' is sometimes moving, sometimes funny, sometimes thrilling, but always weird, surprising and unpredictable. It's a rich and strange film, maybe not without flaws, but it goes to places few people have been before. Watch it with an open mind and try to read about surrealism first, then this movie might make more 'sense' to you. If not, it's certainly an experience. 10/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ZakiyaK

May 3, 2009

This is one of the most intriguing movie I have ever experienced. It was so immense and captivating. I was drawn into the storyline and felt each scene as unfold.. Professor Dominique's character was so immmensed and realistic. I loved this movie so much! Thank you Francis Coppola.> This is one of the most intriguing movie I have ever experienced. It was so immense and captivating. I was drawn into the storyline and felt each scene as unfold.. Professor Dominique's character was so immmensed and realistic. I loved this movie so much! Thank you Francis Coppola.> This was a masterpiece creation.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

Lopez17

Nov 14, 2010

What is life? Life is a dream that you can sometimes wake up from and then it is not, there is no dream there is nothing but life, how do you define what you are doing or how you are living by simple means? How do you define where you go, what you do, or whom you meet? What is life but aWhat is life? Life is a dream that you can sometimes wake up from and then it is not, there is no dream there is nothing but life, how do you define what you are doing or how you are living by simple means? How do you define where you go, what you do, or whom you meet? What is life but a fleeting thing that begins one moment and then ends the next? However, out of death, there is life and out of life, there is death. There are no clear paths in life except for the ones that we make for ourselves, we try to comprehend the dire state of the situation that we are in, but we do not know the real troubles that this life holds for us. So I ask you if you had the chance to live your youth over again to do it all right to make better choices to change the unchangeable to undo the undoable to make your life something more than what it has turned out, would you?

Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" is a deep, morbid, highly complex, enthralling and mind bending films I have ever seen Coppola has crafted a movie that not only works as a piece of experimental film making but as a piece of expressionism and deep rooted meaning about the true nature of life. How this film plays with the many different emotions is astounding. Throughout the film, there are many questions that Coppola presents for the audience to answer. One of those questions asked is what is there to life and why do us as humans make the choices we do. "Youth without Youth" is an ingenious mix of genres that blends the bleakness of the morals of humanity with the dark and morbid reality of the limitations of life. This film is a fascinating portrayal of how age can be the enemy of our greatest achievements while we may find ourselves loved by millions or have won some prestigious award that makes you famous in time, our accomplishments and the person who achieved them are all but forgotten. In the case of seventy year old, Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) life has seemed to pass him by as a young man he had all the time in the world but now that he has just turned seventy years old it seems like there is no time for anyone or anything. After a lightning bolt strikes the elderly professor, he somehow returned to the days of his youth and given a second chance to rediscover all that time has taken away from him, to rediscover himself, to rediscover love and to finish the work he started so long ago. This film's story and premise so convoluted and disjointed that to try to describe this film would be all but impossible. It is kind of like describing the plot of â… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Trailesque

May 19, 2018

I stumbled across this FF Coppola film while trying to check out some of his post Godfather works. This has some of the qualities of a cult classic without question. It is arresting, it is weird, it is pretentious . . . woo boy, it is really something, but I hesitate to call it good.I stumbled across this FF Coppola film while trying to check out some of his post Godfather works. This has some of the qualities of a cult classic without question. It is arresting, it is weird, it is pretentious . . . woo boy, it is really something, but I hesitate to call it good. Based on a story by the Romanian philosopher Eliade, it concerns a man (played by Tim Roth) who, after being struck by lightning while on his way to commit suicide, begins to grow steadily younger. (This idea has been worked on in other movies, like the Benjamin Button tale.) Then the narrative spirals out of control, with Nazi pursuers, Indian mysticism, long lost languages, romantic passion, and the quest for the root of human communications all playing parts. The series of stunning images kept me from walking away. It was a viewing experience I won't forget any time soon.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ChadS.

May 17, 2008

Lightning strikes, and an old man becomes young again. A man who never ages is enough story for one film, but Dominic(Tim Roth), on top of being vampiric, also has conversations with a doppleganger. And then there's his baffling superpower; Dominic has the ability to read books with Lightning strikes, and an old man becomes young again. A man who never ages is enough story for one film, but Dominic(Tim Roth), on top of being vampiric, also has conversations with a doppleganger. And then there's his baffling superpower; Dominic has the ability to read books with the wave of a single hand(English majors will read this as an inside joke). If "Youth Without Youth" had a studio mentality, it would be "The Fugitive" with gorgeous cinematography. But then, lightning strikes again, and the film veers into "Altered States" territory. That Dominic would encounter a woman whose lingering byproduct of the electrical jolt, gives him just the right empirical information to finish his life's work, is just too paradigmatic for comfort.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

JayH.

May 8, 2008

Directors who can't edit their films to a reasonable length due to narcissism drive me crazy. Any movie, such as this one, that has painfully slow moving scenes needs to be edited and shortened. Other than that, the period detail is exquisite, fine costumes and cinematography. The Directors who can't edit their films to a reasonable length due to narcissism drive me crazy. Any movie, such as this one, that has painfully slow moving scenes needs to be edited and shortened. Other than that, the period detail is exquisite, fine costumes and cinematography. The story is fair, at best. As with so many of Coppola's films, there are flashes of brilliance, accompanied by too much pretension. Perhaps if he would get off his pedestal and actually watch one of his films...(The Godfather trilogy excluded..)… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

MichaelB

May 29, 2008

I can't believe I watched the entire thing.....whatever it was.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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