Apr. 02, 2008 - Issue #650: Privatization

Youth Without Youth

Coppola can’t regain his Youth—not that it was so great anyway

The way Francis Ford Coppola is spoken about in film circles is almost as if he is carrying a deadly virus. Once he was making arguably the best films of the last century, and then, suddenly, nothing but air. What people fail to acknowledge, however, is Coppola has been an accomplice in mediocrity through much of his career. Even between Godfathers he was directing less than stellar films (Peggy Sue Got Married anyone?). In fact, it took a series of 1960s junk and nudie films before he earned any kind of respect.
 

It seems that Coppola bought into the discourse, too, despite its fallibility. In interviews leading up to the release of his first film in 10 years, the esteemed director spoke of needing to go back to the drawing board, clean his slate and start anew, like a hungry filmmaker holding his first camera. And yet, that too is an overstatement. Regardless of the modest outfits that Youth Without Youth is said to wear, it is dressed in sparkling, ostentatious  garbs. There is nothing first-timer about it; it is clearly a maverick’s movie. One thing that is clear about it, though, is how biographically symbolic it is to Coppola’s career.
 

Set in the late 1930s, Tim Roth plays Dominic Matei, a once-respected Romanian professor, now a lonely, elderly man slaving over the origins of human language and consciousness, his “life’s work.” (Coppola spent over a decade on a now scrapped epic, Megalopolis.) Dominic is so broken and frail that he even struggles to open an umbrella, a failure that leads to him being struck by lightning, sending a million volts through his body, and leaving his skin peeled and raw.
 

(This is where the symbolism to the director’s career ripens.) Dominic, in a full-body cast, is reversed to an infantile state, able to communicate only with hand squeezes, and looked after by a pack of nurses. When the cast and bandages are removed, he appears half his age both physically and healthily. The 70-year-old begins teething after his teeth are pushed out by new roots. He’s a medical miracle, and with his retro-aging, he finds himself with powers that almost qualify as superhero-esque: he learns languages in his sleep, can read books in seconds by absorbing words through the hardcovers and he splits into two entities—one with all the questions, and another, identical and invisible, with all the answers. It follows him like an uninvited mentor for the next two decades.

 

When the war breaks, he becomes a target of Nazi Germany, but he’s protected by the allies and spends years with a new Bond-like identity, travelling and exercising his new-found powers for the pleasure of money and women. That is until he meets Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), also electrocuted by lightning and rendered with unusual powers. More eerily, though, she has the same face as his first love from half-a-century ago.
 

Youth is a complex, discombobulating tale, and one that could never be classified as beginners’ work. It’s far too shiny and well-cut to qualify as such. It’s obviously tailored with a lifetime of experience making thrillers, romances, horrors—everything Coppola has specialized or dabbled in, but on one plate. But, still, it fails on many levels.
 

Although it spans most of Europe, it is almost strictly an English film. Instead of Romanian and German speakers, Romanian and German actors artificially deliver in English, and terribly, too. Save Roth and Lara, and an uncredited cameo by Matt Damon, the performances in Youth Without Youth are unbearably over-the-top, with the overwrought score continuously adding to the melodrama.
 

It also has the tendency to meander, capriciously halt and change paths, unconcerned with closure. The fat chunk during the war spent exploring Dominic’s powers seems wasted by the end results. And if there was ever an ambiguous ending, it’s the one found here.
 

Coppola’s return is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s, in that, after a 12-year hiatus, Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut failed to spark the same roaring sentiment that his previous films had. Story-wise, however, Youth Without Youth has more in common with The Fountain. But, as some critics predicted with Aronofsky’s enthusiastic sci-romance, Youth Without Youth may just require some generations until it’s fully recognized.

(Positive recognition is already finding its way to Eyes Wide Shut, after all.) In the meantime, it remains a convoluted, sometimes sloppy, but insanely ambitious work. One thing is for sure: it trumps Jack today and forever. V


Fri, Apr 4 - Wed, Apr 9 (7 pm, 9:15 pm)

Youth Without Youth

Written & Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Starring Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lar, Bruno Ganz

Metro Cinema, $10

SSS

www.imdb.com/title/tt0481797/

www.ywyfilm.com/

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