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Youth Without Youth
"Sometimes I ask myself if I will ever finish my life's work. " There is an extraordinary moment just a few minutes into Francis Coppola's first film in a decade. Dominic Matei (Tim Roth), an old man, is crossing a downtown street in Bucharest when he's struck by lightning. The force from the blow lifts him up off the road and into the air. When he comes to, he's in a hospital bed, covered head to toe in bandages. The doctors are amazed he's still alive. But they've many more surprises in store. His teeth fall out, yet x-rays reveal that new teeth are growing in. He can't speak at first, but Dominic indicates that he's more than70 years old. Yet when he emerges from his mummified state, he has the body of a man in his 30s. When Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz) makes further inquiries and visits Dominic's apartment, he is convinced his patient is telling the truth. To all intents and purposes, the electric shock has "regenerated" his flesh. Then, of course, there's the question of what it may have done to his mind� Much of this first act is exhilarating storytelling. Dominic is plagued with strange dreams - so strange, Coppola films them upside down. But then it appears those erotic trysts with the woman in room 6 may actually have occurred. And that she's a spy for the Nazis (the year is 1938). Stranger still, Dominic is having conversations with his double, who pops out and delivers him a rose, just to show that he can, all while Dominic sits there. Roth is fascinating as the old - new man; the way he carries himself and gradually adjusts to his renewed virility; the realization of telekinetic powers; the unique privilege and pathos of his situation. It's the actor's best role in a long, long time. That fine German actor Bruno Ganz (Downfall and Wings of Desire) is also a strong presence as the sympathetic doctor who tries to protect Dominic from the Nazis, understandably eager to get their paws on "the most valuable human specimen on the face of the earth".
The movie gets weirder. Without giving away too much, after the war Dominic is reunited with the reincarnation of the love of his life, Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara, also from Downfall), again through the interception of a lightning bolt. (Did he summon it down? It isn't clear.) But her reaction is different, and more traumatic for both of them. No one could accuse Coppola of playing safe. The film (based on a novella by Mirca Eliade) hops to Geneva, to India, to Malta, and finally back to Romania. Of course there's no reason to take this far-fetched yarn at face value just because Coppola does. That's the storyteller's duty, after all. He's obviously drawn to the themes of mortality, and, ahem, the mystery of human consciousness. Is that too big a fish for a tall tale? At times it feels almost like a 1930s B-movie melodrama, something Val Lewton might have made with Kent Smith and Simone Simon: clipped and direct, philosophical and literary. Except that at other times it's closer to one of David Lynch's explorations of the transmigration of souls: voluptuous and fantastic, risible and pretentious, as you like.
Interestingly, this very personal movie mirrors and echoes a trio of pictures generally regarded as impersonal commercial films: in Peggy Sue Got Married, Kathleen Turner played a thirty-year-old who relives her schooldays. In Dracula, Gary Oldman is an immortal. And in Jack, Robin Williams is a young boy who ages four times faster than normal, so he enters 5th grade with the body of a 40-year-old. All of these movies ask questions about the aging process, and imply that whatever a human being is, it can be distinguished from the body-shell that surrounds it. Tom Charity 
More information about Youth Without Youth » Critics' Reviews
First the good news. Francis Coppola is back in the directors chair, close to a decade after The Rainmaker,... read more on www.timeout.com Members' ReviewsReviews Voted Most HelpfulMost Recent Reviews |
Wally Hammond, Time Out