Youth Without Youth (2007)

A love story wrapped in a mystery. Set in Europe before WWII, a timid professor is changed by a cataclysmic event and explores the mysteries of life.

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

Mircea Eliade (novel), Francis Ford Coppola

Stars:

Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tim Roth	...	Dominic
Alexandra Maria Lara	...	Veronica / Laura
Bruno Ganz	...	Professor Stanciulescu
André Hennicke	...	Josef Rudolf
Marcel Iures	...	Prof. Giuseppe Tucci
Adrian Pintea	...	Pandit
Alexandra Pirici	...	Woman in Room 6
Florin Piersic Jr.	...	Dr. Gavrila
Zoltan Butuc	...	Dr. Chirila
Adriana Titieni	...	Anetta
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mircea Albulescu	...	Davidoglu
Dan Astileanu	...	Professor (as Dan Astilean)
Cristian Balint	...	Grenzschutz
Dragos Bucur	...	Bartender
Theodor Danetti	...	Dr. Neculache

Storyline

1938, Romania: at 70, a professor of language and philosophy, Dominic Matei, contemplates suicide: the love of his life is dead, and he remains unable to complete his life's work on the origins of language. Then, he's struck by lightning. After a slow recovery, he grows younger. He must now avoid Nazis, who want to study and experiment on him. Some years later, he meets a young woman who has her own passage through a lightning storm. Not only does Dominic find love again, but her new abilities hold the key to his research. Is the sweetness of life finally at hand?

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Plot Keywords:

professor | language | lightning | romania | nazi | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexuality, nudity and a brief disturbing image

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [fr]

Country:

USA Romania France Italy Germany

Language:

English Sanskrit German French Italian Russian Romanian Mandarin Latin Armenian Egyptian (Ancient)

Release Date:

26 October 2007 (Italy)

Also Known As:

L'homme sans âge

Filming Locations:

Ana Aslan International Academy of Aging, Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$28,550 (USA) (14 December 2007)

Gross:

$239,495 (USA) (22 February 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Zoetrope, SRG Atelier, Pricel

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The modestly-budgeted film was financed by the director's successful vineyard in California.

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Goofs

During the 1950s period of the movie, Laura is transported across India in an Indian C-130 Hercules but the aeroplane has RAF markings. Also, Laura and Dominic hail a taxi whilst in India and are picked up by a London black cab rather than an Indian Ambassador cab.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Episode #5.40 (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Middle Village"
Written by Lev Zhurbin (as Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin)
Performed by Lev Zhurbin (as Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin) on viola and Balogh, Kálmán (cymbalom)

User Reviews

It's Like "Jack" In Reverse, By Which I Mean Good

A complex and challenging film, from one of the great American directors, and part of the continuing magical adventures of Tim Roth(The Legend Of 1900), this time around Roth is a linguistics professor trying to develop a theory of the origins of hum...(read more)an language and consciousness at his 70th birthday when he is struck by lightening that reverts him to his youth. Not only is he younger, but he discovers he can read whole books in minutes, see into dreams, and in the films most outlandish moments some limited telekinesis(but in all fairness it's his only way to stop an evil Nazi scientist who wants to jump start human evolution through electro shock). From there our hero meets a women who resembles one he used to know, who is similarly struck by lightening or near lightening which causes her to regress into previous lives. Naturally the two fall in love, and the odd couple are happy enough until her ancient language fits, get more frequent, and dive further and further into primitive languages, much to Roth's joy, though his love ages more and more with each regression.

Like I said Youth Without Youth is an ambitious mix of science fiction, world war 2 spy espionage, romance, meditation on death, aging, linguistics, the origins of consciousness, time, philosophy, the atomic bomb, multiple personalities, and reincarnation.

Watching Youth Without Youth is a bit like reading an overwrought but well written novel, where you can appreciate the skill of the speaker's use of language more than any profound statement being made. Not that Coppola's subjects are not profound, or treated, so, just that's it's done in such a way that at first view it's going to go over just about everyone's head. Author Mircea Eliade, is better known as a religious historian and academic, whose work is as rigorous as his fiction offerings. This is a well made and well performed film, but it's zeal gets ahead of itself on more than one occasion.