Youth Without Youth

Posted on 21. Jul, 2008 by Brian Wortz in 1080p, 2.35:1, AVC MPEG-4, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (English), Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (French), Drama, Reviews, Sony Pictures

Francis Ford Coppola returns to filmmaking after a 10 year hiatus of winemaking. While I admit I do enjoy his wines, it is nice to see the man returning to his other, well, hobby at this point. For his return, he has chosen to tell a tale based on a Romanian novel and via his own financing at a lower-budget. The end product is a quiet, dramatic look at man’s life and how he may relive it if given the chance. Part WWII period-piece, part superhuman sci-fi (yes, you read that correctly) the film doesn’t quite live up to Coppola’s masterpieces but is still a decent addition to his cannon of films.

Youth Without Youth begins with elderly professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth in heavy makeup) shedding tears over his troubled life. We are presented with a man who has lived his life, never fully having the life he desired with his loved one (Alexandra Maria Lara), nor completing his life’s work in the study of linguistics throughout human history. By miraculous incident, Matei is struck by lightning and lives. Not only does he live, but when all is said and done, and the bandages are removed, Matei appears to be a healthy 40+ year old man with a rejuvenated mind and libido. In fact, his mind is actually superhuman. He is able to interact with his metaphysical other, bending dreams and reality together in such a way that at first confuses both himself as well as the audience.

His recovery is documented via voice recording and through correspondence with his physician (Bruno Ganz) who publishes a study about Metei. Nazi scientists are of course, very interested in Matei’s case, which causes Matei to flee to Switzerland to live incognito for several years.

The film then moves into a different direction as Matei comes in contact with who we might believe to be his love reincarnate (also played by Alexandra Maria Lara). Veronica (as she is now named) after also being struck by lightning, is found hiding in a cave speaking an ancient India language. Being of superhuman mind and a linguist, Matei believes and convinces her physicians that she is channeling the spirit of Rupini, a 6th century Indian woman. As Veronica spends increasingly more amounts of time with Matei as they fall in love, she is able to channel older and older spirits. Matei uses her channeling abilities to continue his life’s work into the history of linguistics with Veronica as his guide. Without giving away any more of the plot than I already have, I will say that things don’t go as well as they could, as Matei ends up making a trip back home after being gone for many years. His journey, in effect goes full circle.

Video

Interestingly, the film is shot intentionally with very little camera movement. Coppola attempted to challenge himself by choosing not to move the camera except in a few scenes he thought it necessary. He also had the intent of never spoon-feeding the audience and used an antiquated title sequence to give the viewer the feeling right from the beginning that they were watching a film that was actually made during the time of WWII. The film has an overall soft and warm look to it, rightfully delivering the antiquated film look. That being said, the film was shot digitally, so it looks very good throughout. While the colors are often muted, darker tones, detail is highly evident, and blacks were thoroughly pleasing to me. This won’t be demo material, but the AVC Blu-ray transfer is excellent overall.

Audio

The score for Youth Without Youth is quite good and the sound effects surprisingly dynamic. The Dolby TrueHD track was very immersive and rich which complimented the visuals nicely. Dialog was clear as expected and the 5.1 effects were used nicely. I especially enjoyed the lightning strike as it offered some nice punch to my sub. Overall I enjoyed the track more than expected considering the type of movie I was watching.

Special Features

I enjoyed Coppola’s commentary track as it was a good mix of personal and professional. While he offered only simplistic explanations of the somewhat convoluted story, he was a little more forthcoming about some of the technical sides of the film. The remaining extras offered little addition to the film itself, but were appreciated nonetheless.

Audio Commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
The Making of Youth Without Youth
The Music for Youth Without Youth
Youth Without Youth: The Makeup
End Credits

Final Thoughts

I had no expectations going into to Youth Without Youth, and I think that is the best way to view this film. If you are only looking for Coppola’s next masterpiece, you will have to look elsewhere. If you are interested in a flawed, but thoroughly engaging experiment in philosophy as well as filmmaking, Youth Without Youth delivers. With a solid transfer and a very nice score, for the open-minded crowd, this Blu-ray makes a great rental. For the mainstream audience, they may be left scratching their heads. I say, have a nice glass of wine and enjoy!