Francis Ford Coppola, Youth Without Youth

Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

by Kathryn Durfee
02/20/2008

Youth Without Youth reminds us that Francis Ford Coppola can still make a film, but shows that maybe he shouldn't.

Dominic (Tim Roth), is an aging Romanian linguist afraid of dying alone. Believing that he will never finish his life's work, a history of languages, Dominic decides to kill himself. He can't even accomplish this; as he is crossing a street in Bucharest on Easter Sunday in the late 1930s, he is struck by a bolt of lightning. The event certainly should have killed him, but by some miracle, he survives, though a bit crispy.

Surrounded by befuddled doctors, Dominic finds himself in the hospital. Strange things begin to happen. Years melt away as Dominic's body is rejuvenated. His hair grows thick again, his teeth are pushed out by a new set, and his health is that of a man half his age.

As it is just before World War II, scientists of the Third Reich appear. They are very interested in Dominic's case and believe that studying him could provide Hitler with the ability to perfect man and avoid aging. Fleeing to Switzerland, Dominic thinks he is safe. However, he is being seduced by a German spy. He also, during this time, develops a double or split-personality of himself. The two have long and convoluted discussions about the future of the human race.

Whew. So that's what I thought the movie was about going in. As it turned out, that story line only accounted for about a third of the film. Here's what else happens:

One day while hiking, Dominic encounters a young woman that looks exactly like the woman he loved in his youth. The woman is Veronica, and she is struck by lightning on her way up the mountain. How coincidental, you might say. The lightning strike bestows upon her the curse of growing old too fast. Dominic falls in love with her and takes advantage of the fact that at night, she takes on different personas from eons past, beginning with a Sanskrit-speaking Hindu nun and working backwards. Dominic thinks can finally finish his history of languages by observing Veronica's frightening ecstasies each night, but seeing the toll they take on her, Dominic ultimately sends her away, fearing that he will continue to suck the life out of her and ultimately kill her.

The story is based on a novella by Romanian Mircea Eliade, a scholar of religious history at the University of Chicago. Literary works don't always translate well to the screen, and I fear this may have been an instance in which more liberty should have been taken in order to make the film more palatable.

Youth Without Youth is certainly compelling, but only to a point. It is at times completely surprising, and at others laughable and predictable. For example, Dominic's doctor tells him, "You are the most valuable human specimen. Here, have some chicken."

I found myself intrigued by the possibility of a plot following a man endowed with eternal youth hiding from Nazi scientists, especially when Matt Damon (borrowed from The Good Shepherd, apparently) dropped in to offer Dominic the CIA's protection. The film spans so many years, though, that this plot is cut short. Youth quickly takes a sharp turn when Veronica is introduced. By that time, no one cares about the Nazis anyway.

Tim Roth performs well as Dominic. He gives depth and emotion to his character, who believes he is a failure and is meant to lose everything he loves. Alexandra Maria Lara doesn't manage to do the same with Veronica. Then again, it's hard to feel empathy towards someone howling at the moon in an ancient tongue.

With Youth Without Youth, Coppola appears to be making a film just for himself. Perhaps the director chose the project because he himself is Dominic's age (the pre-lightning Dominic, that is). I can see Coppola feeling a connection between the aging professor and wanting to rejuvenate himself by creating a meditation on life and death.

The final product drags its feet, going on and on with peculiar interactions between Dominic and his double and voyages to India to find old prayer caves and so on. The interesting and intriguing concepts of lightning (metaphorically) striking in the same place twice and the possibility of eternal youth are buried under the film's excess.

In the end, the pretty but vague piece tries too hard to cover too many years and fails to reward the audience. It is one thing to make a film for yourself, but another to make one that only you can enjoy. If only we could feel a connection to Youth Without Youth as the director did towards the novella.

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