Youth Without Youth (2007)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay)
Mircea Eliade (novella)

Release Date:

26 October 2007 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Sanskrit | Based On Novella | Hospital Scene | 1930s | Secret

Awards:

1 nomination

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
Andrei Gheorghe	...	Taxi Driver
Roxana Guttman	...	Gertrude
Dorina Lazar	...	Cook
Rodica Lazar	...	Teller
Anamaria Marinca	...	Hotel Receptionist
Hodorog Anton Mihail	...	Doru, The Guard
Mihai Niculescu	...	Vaian
Gelu Nitu	...	Policeman
Mirela Oprisor	...	Craita
Alexandru Repan	...	Dr. Chavannes
Dan Sandulescu	...	Nicodim
Andi Vasluianu	...	Intern

Also Known As:

Altra giovinezza, Un' (Italy)
Homme sans âge, L' (France)
Jugend ohne Jugend (Germany)

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA | Germany | Italy | France | Romania

Language:

English | Sanskrit | German | French | Italian | Romanian | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Ireland:15A | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Ana Aslan International Academy of Aging, Bucharest, Romania

Company:

American Zoetrope

Trivia:

Co-editor Walter Murch started working immediately after completing his previous movie, Jarhead (2005). He had to spend 6 weeks watching all the 170 hours of footage shot and watching the first assembly put up by Corina Stavila.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2007-12-15)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Middle Village

A heavy and complex movie with deep philosophical implications

I was flabbergasted to see that a lot of the comments for this film were negative. The fact that the movie is not of a commercial nature doesn't make it bad, it just makes it less accessible. In this manner, it is just as bad for movies as a science paper is for publications.

Anyway, the film is based on a book of Romanian Mircea Eliade, one that I didn't read. Actually, I didn't read most of Eliade's work for the very reasons people bad mouthed this film. Then I entered adolescence :-P.

The film, though, is a resounding success to me. Not only that it is well done, but at the end of it, it let me wanting to understand more and to read the book. Maybe I will one of these days. As the film is impossible to summarize here, I will get to a quick conclusion.

Bottom line: a heavy feeling film, with a complex script and a lot of philosophical ideas of Eliade's scattered through the story; also some of his personal obsessions: orientalism and the loss of the love of his life. I personally think it was a great movie, but it became a bit confused at the end.