Youth Without Youth seems to be Francis Ford Coppola's attempt to make a David Lynch film. The end product is in fact remarkably similar to Lynch's most recent film, Inland Empire, also released in 2007.
Tim Roth plays Dominic, an elderly Romanian man who is struck down by lightning outside a train station. As Dominic recovers in hospital, emerging from beneath layers of bandages, it becomes apparent that he is somehow becoming younger he is re-born as a young man.
As Dominic comes to terms with his new situation, the film also flashes back to his past life. Flashbacks in time reveal two great tragedies in Dominic's past. A brilliant but flawed young man, he spurned and lost his one true love, Laura, and spent the rest of his life trying to finish a solitary book, a study of the origins of language.
Re-born as a young man, Dominic appears to have a chance to set right his miserable past. As well as finding his youth again, he finds that he has acquired magic powers, including the ability to absorb information instantaneously from books. He begins to work feverishly upon the completion of his academic masterwork.
The re-born Dominic then meets Veronica, who is essentially the young Laura re-born in this new world. When Laura suffers an accident, she begins to regress through time, imagining herself as historical figures and speaking in ancient tongues. Through her, Dominic rediscovers his happiness and steps closer towards completing his life's work.
At the same time, the darkness of Dominic's past rises to the surface of the film. His personality splits in two and he converses at length with his sinister double. Laura's health deteriorates drastically as a result of her regression through past history and language. In the emotional climax of the film, Dominic chooses to part ways with Laura, thus sacrificing his life's work whilst saving her life. This act seems to be Dominic's noble re-imagining of his past, where he failed to grasp his chance with Laura and then extinguished the rest of his life in fruitless academic endeavour.
Any meaning extrapolated from this film is inevitably shaky due to the nebulous plot structure. The scattering of the story across time and place and the blurring of real and imagined worlds has earned comparisons with the work of David Lynch, Philip K. Dick and the like, but Youth Without Youth does not compare favourably to their better work. The fragmentation of the plot is such that this film, rather than polarising opinion, will leave many people confused and dissatisfied.
That said this is still much to admire here. Tim Roth, playing Dominic's past and present incarnations, makes a commendable effort to pin together the fragmented story. Alexandra Maria Lara portrays Laura's disintegration in harrowing detail. The exotic locations, from Romania to India to Malta are dazzlingly photographed, and Coppola develops a distinctive visual style through the repeated use of upside-down shots and reflected images in glass and mirrors this complements the unusual angles and parallels in the storytelling.
This is not a satisfying film to watch; too many loose ends are left untied. If you, however, you like films that pose lots of questions and better still if you have seen and admired Inland Empire then Youth Without Youth is worth your perseverance.
Tim Roth plays Dominic, an elderly Romanian man who is struck down by lightning outside a train station. As Dominic recovers in hospital, emerging from beneath layers of bandages, it becomes apparent that he is somehow becoming younger he is re-born as a young man.
As Dominic comes to terms with his new situation, the film also flashes back to his past life. Flashbacks in time reveal two great tragedies in Dominic's past. A brilliant but flawed young man, he spurned and lost his one true love, Laura, and spent the rest of his life trying to finish a solitary book, a study of the origins of language.
Re-born as a young man, Dominic appears to have a chance to set right his miserable past. As well as finding his youth again, he finds that he has acquired magic powers, including the ability to absorb information instantaneously from books. He begins to work feverishly upon the completion of his academic masterwork.
The re-born Dominic then meets Veronica, who is essentially the young Laura re-born in this new world. When Laura suffers an accident, she begins to regress through time, imagining herself as historical figures and speaking in ancient tongues. Through her, Dominic rediscovers his happiness and steps closer towards completing his life's work.
At the same time, the darkness of Dominic's past rises to the surface of the film. His personality splits in two and he converses at length with his sinister double. Laura's health deteriorates drastically as a result of her regression through past history and language. In the emotional climax of the film, Dominic chooses to part ways with Laura, thus sacrificing his life's work whilst saving her life. This act seems to be Dominic's noble re-imagining of his past, where he failed to grasp his chance with Laura and then extinguished the rest of his life in fruitless academic endeavour.
Any meaning extrapolated from this film is inevitably shaky due to the nebulous plot structure. The scattering of the story across time and place and the blurring of real and imagined worlds has earned comparisons with the work of David Lynch, Philip K. Dick and the like, but Youth Without Youth does not compare favourably to their better work. The fragmentation of the plot is such that this film, rather than polarising opinion, will leave many people confused and dissatisfied.
That said this is still much to admire here. Tim Roth, playing Dominic's past and present incarnations, makes a commendable effort to pin together the fragmented story. Alexandra Maria Lara portrays Laura's disintegration in harrowing detail. The exotic locations, from Romania to India to Malta are dazzlingly photographed, and Coppola develops a distinctive visual style through the repeated use of upside-down shots and reflected images in glass and mirrors this complements the unusual angles and parallels in the storytelling.
This is not a satisfying film to watch; too many loose ends are left untied. If you, however, you like films that pose lots of questions and better still if you have seen and admired Inland Empire then Youth Without Youth is worth your perseverance.