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Movies / On DVD / Youth Without Youth
Youth Without Youth

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Youth Without Youth (2007)

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Reviews Counted:99

Fresh:30

Rotten:69

Average Rating:4.7/10

Consensus: Although visually appealing, Coppola's latest film mixes too many genres with a very confusing plot.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for some sexuality, nudity and a brief disturbing image.

Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:14-12-2007

Synopsis: Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair for the first time in nearly a decade with his ambitious parable YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. Set in Romania on the eve of World War II, the tale begins... Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair for the first time in nearly a decade with his ambitious parable YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. Set in Romania on the eve of World War II, the tale begins when 70-year-old linguistics professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is struck by lightning, miraculously restoring him to the flower of youth. Swaddled in bandages, blind, and mute, Dominic astounds his doctor (Bruno Ganz) with his swift recovery--new teeth, smooth skin, and a shining mane of hair--and even the young nurses start to take an interest in the dashing, vigorous septuagenarian. But things turn perilous when the Third Reich learns of Dominic's rejuvenation and wants to harness his new, superhuman abilities. On the run in wartorn Europe, Dominic uses his powers to keep one step ahead of the Nazis and finish his life's work, an expansive study on language and human consciousness. The unpredictable plot thickens when Dominic falls for Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), a beautiful young woman who reminds him of a lost love and, what's more, has also had a fateful encounter with lightning--leaving her possessed by the spirits of her past lives! As she journeys from Switzerland to Malta to India, Veronica's unusual predicament may hold the key to completing Dominic's encyclopedic masterwork, but perhaps at the cost of their new life together. Closer to baroque and risk-taking pictures like ONE FROM THE HEART than THE GODFATHER, Coppola's sprawling exploration of love, memory, and lost time brims with rich symbolism and inventive visuals. Based on the novella by Mircea Eliade, the philosophic film evokes the poetic enigmas and freewheeling narrative of a literary novel. As audacious as it is thought-provoking, YOUNG WITHOUT YOUTH is a compelling return from a cinematic master. [More]

Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke

Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke, Marcel Iures

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenwriter: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
Composer: Osvaldo Golijov
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Reviews for Youth Without Youth

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
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It's a fascinating train wreck in many ways, with flashes here and there of the painful disquisition on mortality it might have been. Salvaging much more was beyond me.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
12/14/07
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A long, mad film of plonking and studenty intellectualism.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
12/14/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Also featuring a small turn from Matt Damon, it’s a piecemeal, muddled affair that, were it not for that big name at the top of the credits, might never have been made at all.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
12/14/07
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

All those years making wine have clearly impacted on Coppola's storytelling abilities. Let's hope he recovers them before his next directorial outing.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
12/14/07
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's impossible to say for sure, but the moral of the story could be: don't waste your time.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
12/13/07
Stella Papamichael
Stella Papamichael
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Youth Without Youth is tinged with Coppola’s abiding, unquenchable affection for cinema. The eccentric narrative may baffle and meander, but there are glimpses of a great director getting the feel again.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
12/13/07
Matt Mueller
Matt Mueller
Total Film

Even ace editor Walter Murch struggles to give coherence to the professor’s fractured, episodic journey through darkening wartime exile in Geneva, to the brighter revelations of ’50s India and the sun-kissed Mediterranean.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
12/13/07
Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Coppola drags everyone on a humourless trudge through a jungle of pretension that will have most moviegoers glazing over long before an ending that really isn't worth the wait.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
12/13/07
Elliott Noble
Elliott Noble
Sky Movies

Far too bookish and strange to fully engage us. But it looks terrific.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/12/07
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

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

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/11/07
Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Finds the filmmaker admirably working without a safety net

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/27/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Nem mesmo a bela fotografia e a impecável direção de arte conseguem salvar esta bagunça narrativa que, sob a desculpa de promover uma discussão metafísica, faz Coppola parecer um cineasta em início de carreira.

comment Comment
01/19/09
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

Very much a film of this era, its director returning after a ten-year absence from the cinema with a peculiar little masterpiece about things unrecoverable in time.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
12/27/08
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

Youth Without Youth smacks of vanity project from the first poetic moments to the last, and whose vanity lays a stronger claim to the big screen than Francis Ford Coppola's?

Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | comment Comment
11/21/08
Ruth Hessey
Ruth Hessey
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

For all its flaws and there aren't very many, with Youth Without Youth you know you’re in the hands of a master.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
11/19/08
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
At the Movies (Australia)

Coppola may be back, but he's a long way from being back on form.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
11/14/08
Sandra Hall
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald

A stilted and inelegant work, well below par for Francis Ford Coppola

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
11/14/08
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

I'm here for the picture show.

Full Review Source: Projection Booth | comment Comment
05/12/08
Rob Humanick
Rob Humanick
Projection Booth

With all the nurses making moves on the suicidal old codger's renovated physique, Coppola's Youth Without Youth comes across as somewhere between The Godfather On Viagra and Apocalypse Then, Redux.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
05/09/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

Though not an easy film to grasp or possibly enjoy, it's nevertheless a mindblowing acid-like excursion into the secret world of Orientalism.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
04/13/08
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
all

Latest News for Youth Without Youth

September 24, 2008: Godfather On Viagra? An Audio Conversation With Francis Ford Coppola About Youth Without Youth Opens in new window
More...

December 13, 2007: Critical Consensus: I Am Legend All Over the Map, Chipmunks Hits Sour Note
This week at the movies, we've got the last man on earth (I Am Legend, starring Will Smith), Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (Alvin and the Chipmunks, starring Jason Lee), and mommy... More...

December 12, 2007: Walter Murch on Youth Without Youth: The RT Interview (With Exclusive Photos and Clips!)
This week, Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth hits theaters in limited release. The tale of a writer who becomes young again after being struck by lightning is a... More...

October 25, 2007: check out the US teaser Opens in new window
More...

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