Youth Without Youth [DVD]

Usually I can predict what is going to happen (more or less) after watching the first act of most films, but Youth Without Youth rips up the usual template and attempts to take you on a journey where the end is never in sight. It isn't wholly successful but is never less than stimulating and involving. It is the polar opposite of 99.9% of other films - the narrative is linear and yet manages to suggest that time is anything but. The ending is beautiful, explaining all yet at the same time throwing into doubt everything you have just watched. If Daniel Day-Lewis had played the lead in this film it would have had accolades heaped upon it. As it is, Tim Roth does his best to hold things together but - by his own admission - he does not quite understand what the director was trying to say and it shows. I was utterly captivated by this film. Deeply flawed but still wonderful, this is a glorious, crazy mess of a masterpiece.

For me: this film is either a work of absolute genius or is a surreal waste of time. The film captures your attention at the start; I like the `shock' element of seeing Tim Roth doubling in personality - this was done very well and adds a `dark' element to the film that keeps you on edge. The film also contains originality in that it's difficult for me to think of another film through which it can be compared.

The themes covered are interesting e.g. conflict between `good and evil', and the exploration of the origins of language appealed to me as a linguist. Unfortunately, I think there were too many ideas in the film and each one wasn't portrayed in enough depth. The plot lacked some-what and at the end of the film I felt a bit cheated because I was expecting something `more'. Overall: worth seeing but perhaps not owning.

This is the latest, and who knows perhaps even the last, from the supreme master film maker, Francis Ford Coppola. I am giving it five stars in the certain knowledge it will try the patience of not just the average movie watcher, but of the best part of the art cinema crowd as well. I have also purchased the novel by the Romanian philosopher, Mircea Eliade on which the film is pretty faithfully based, and which includes a moving forward from Coppola himself, who draws attention to the parallels between himself and Dominic Matei, the film/novel's central character. Coppola sees himself as a man coming to the end of his life, who has obviously had some successes in his chosen career, but who finds himself no closer to having accomplished the life's goal, which he set off in pursuit of at the start of his life. He declares quite frankly that he was not interested in making a film like any other, that he was not even interested in working within the constraints of established cinematic language and conventions. That the film is so relaxed with respect to plot or linear storytelling is part of the dream informed artwork he is seeking to create. For him, the film was to be his one last shot at trying to create a philosophical artwork in the medium of film, with the depth and scope that had managed thus far to elude him. Coppola extends his personal parallel with Matei's character in that for him, his encounter with Eliade's novel was like the bolt of lightning, that rejuvenated him, and allowed him to go on and accomplish the life's work that had come to seem ever more hopelessly out of reach. It is unlikely that Coppola is under any illusions as to how difficult the film is for audiences. He has bought to birth the artwork he needed to create in order to complete himself, and its audience reception will, in the end, be whatever it is. It is customary for critics to accuse such artists of being self indulgent, but then they are never the ones undergoing the difficult and painful labour of bringing something barely expressible into manifestation. However, Coppola is in that highly enviable artistic position of having the resources of his trade to hand that, if just one other person understands, then the whole heroic effort has been worth it.

So, it is a cinematic masterpiece in the straightforward sense the every shot is painstakingly considered, and IS perfect, regardless of whether the viewer is paying attention. Several exotic locations ensure a magnificent visual feast but, even in spite of this, the use of light and shadow and linear composition throughout are never haphazard or random. With regard to content it is a philosophical film, but in an idealistic vein of philosophy that probably places it at odds with the outlook of the times. Magical realist devices such as the mysterious powers of lightning and of reincarnation are used to create a narrative with a deliberately incoherent timeline, and which has a paradox at its heart. I do not believe that Coppola is declaring a belief in magic or reincarnation, or is expecting us to believe as such either. Rather he is using such devices to create a fairy tale that can take take us through to a deeper vision of what reality and consciousness are and can be, than that provided by the surface of everyday existence.

And now I will confess to the aspect of the film and novel that is for me the most moving and profound. Without wishing to give too much away, the crux of the story comes when the rejuvenated Matei, given everything he needs to accomplish his 'life's work', is forced to choose between a love that has endured across lifetimes, and the consummation of his great goal. We are presented with a myth or fairytale that has resonances with those of Faust and King Midas, but with a poignant twist all its own. Such new myths actually come along very rarely, and when they do they are cultural treasures of great price.

So in summary, this is a film that sadly too few will get or like, but for those few it will be more than just a movie experience. It is a story that has the power to take root in your heart, just like the rose that appears in Matei's hand at the end, and which just might lead your life to new and unexpected places.