First and foremost this is an unforgettable excursion through image and atmosphere. Coppolla is a painter here, creating some of the most stunning images imaginable, one casually linked to the next. The photography recalls the hues that gained him...
- 29.March.2010
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- by: Democritus
- Democritus rated this movie
 10/10Must See
First and foremost this is an unforgettable excursion through image and atmosphere. Coppolla is a painter here, creating some of the most stunning images imaginable, one casually linked to the next. The photography recalls the hues that gained him fame in "The Godfather." Reading about that movie I may've learned the term "chiaroscuro" (that or undergrad art history). There is a bit of a gothic element here, grounded in a vague intellectual basis concerning the universal source of western language in a Sanskrit-related Indo-European root. But that's a sketchy frame which this discursive movie slides through as elusive narrative about time/eternal love. And a notion about the concept of "Orientalism" not only in the cinematic appeal of exotica to western eyes, but the mystery that is the Other, here popularized in twins or mirror images that appear through some aging & youthful cycles. Not for everyone, this lush, impeccably made vision offers a lost horizon of what may in fact be be nothing more than a fateful romance, but what a beautiful, intricate, intelligent ride. A great moody invocation of the early 20th c. I would have liked it anyway, but at the end I discovered the source was the important but relatively obscure writer Mircea Eliade, an expert on myth & symbol as well as much less-known as a rather dark novelist of Slavic subreality, such as settings placed during W W II. Just ignore all that if it means nothing to you, and don't let it scare you away from this movie, where all that is not directly bogged down. (I think Susan Sontag may have liked his fiction; I don't especially, although he is a great scholar of myth.) I bet I will re-visit this remarkable movie every 2 or 3 years, not only for the painterly skill of its consummate artistry (which suggests so much more than surface), but to see if, just by chance, there are other levels of meaning to be gleaned beyond its air of sweeping, gleaming mystery---like "2001: A Space Odyssey." 1.09
- 29.March.2010
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- by: Democritus
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Coppola's return to film-making is also his most ambitious film in years. Resurrection, consciousness, linguistics, and Nazis! All in the same plot!! May inspire conversations until 3 in the morning about the nature of self. This is the type of film...
- 10.October.2009
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- by: Chucky
- Chucky rated this movie0/10
Coppola's return to film-making is also his most ambitious film in years. Resurrection, consciousness, linguistics, and Nazis! All in the same plot!! May inspire conversations until 3 in the morning about the nature of self. This is the type of film where you're supposed to walk away with questions. That's frustrating for some people, and those people will find this film frustrating. Personally, I love a film that sets out to do something that most other films won't, and I can't wait to watch this again, listening to Coppola's commentary.
- 10.October.2009
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- by: Chucky
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This is definitely not everyone's cup of tea and has a pretty good chance of becoming a cult film. It explores major philosophic subjects from a dialectic angle, which might confuse pedestrians. In a nutshell: an elderly professor is challenged by...
- 20.March.2009
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- by: sethdellinger
- sethdellinger rated this movie0/10
This is definitely not everyone's cup of tea and has a pretty good chance of becoming a cult film. It explores major philosophic subjects from a dialectic angle, which might confuse pedestrians. In a nutshell: an elderly professor is challenged by his inability to complete his life's work. He is struck by lightning and gets the opportunity to observe life from a meta-human POV. He realizes that intellect, love, morals and reality in general are always ambiguous. One must have some intellectual baggage, life experience and artistic curiosity in order to appreciate the profundity of this film. Artistically, the film is very stylized and has a rather cold feel to it, something that might deter and alienate the viewer from actually empathizing with any of the characters. However, it's quite clever and stays with you after watching it. I would say that it felt to me a bit like a Darren Aronofsky film.
- 20.March.2009
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- by: sethdellinger
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One of the strangest movies you'll ever see, "Youth Without Youth" is also beautifully acted and photographed. It's carefully framed shots make it a very pretty picture to watch, but you'll be scratching your head to figure out what anything in it...
- 19.March.2009
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- by: Vic
- Vic rated this movie6/10Okay
One of the strangest movies you'll ever see, "Youth Without Youth" is also beautifully acted and photographed. It's carefully framed shots make it a very pretty picture to watch, but you'll be scratching your head to figure out what anything in it means. The film begins with an old man struck by lightening but instead of dying, he begins to get younger and smarter. That peaks the interest of the Nazis (the movie is set in Bucharest in the 1930s). This is only the beginning of the weirdness; the film gets far, far stranger. Still, it was made by Francis Ford Coppola so you know it's got some sort of overall intelligence. The "Making Of" on the DVD is short and better than usual; on my copy of the DVD, the English subtitles did not work (playing instead the director's commentary).
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