Review of Youth Without Youth (2007) by Kan T — 17 Oct 2008

Francis Ford Coppola returned to directing for the first time since The Rainmaker (1997), to direct what he called "the student film I never made", and it's a very weird piece indeed, and Coppola does let his pretentious operatics get the better of him.

Based upon a novella by Mircea Eliade, the film tells the story of 70 year old professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth), who is struck by lightning on Easter Sunday 1938, and it makes him younger. Doctors, including Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz), are left baffled, and the Nazi's want to experiment on him.

So, Matei makes refuge in neutral Switzerland, and years later, he meets and falls for Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), who was also struck by lightning, and talks in dead languages. It's good to have Coppola return to cinema after too long away, and whilst it is a beautiful film with some very good performances, it is confusing and it is a bit preachy with it's philosophies, (some of them still don't make sense), but it is well made, Coppola captures the era well, but something more could have come from it.