The medium without the message (Youth Without Youth)

Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is an aging professor of linguistics in 1938 Bucharest. On a cold winter night, he finds his youth miraculously restored after being hit by what looks like lightning. Dominic's physical rejuvenation is matched by a highly evolved intellect and strange (super-)powers, which attracts unwanted attention from Nazi scientists.

Forced into exile, he continues his research into the origins of human language. His break comes when he encounters a woman who may or may not be the reincarnation of both his long-lost love and a 7th century disciple of Chandrakirti named Rupini. Rupini (Alexandra Maria Lara) seems to be undergoing a magical, historical regression of her own, speaking Sanskrit, Egyptian and eventually Babylonian as her trances take her closer and closer to the birth of human consciousness. Unfortunately Dominic's research threatens the woman's health - she seems to be aging in an accelerated fashion - forcing him to choose between his life's work and the great love of his life.

Now that, my friends, is a synopsis. The story is actually far more complicated but really, I don't want to spoil it for you. Suffice to say, The Rainmaker this ain't.

Francis Ford Coppola's first feature film in 10 years came to US and European cinemas and went without leaving a trace, except perhaps a bitter aftertaste in the mouths of some critics. Entertainment Weekly described it as "one soporific, depressed, deadeningly vague scene after another", while over Salon.com, Stephanie Zacharek writes that the film "appears to have been made by an individual who has fallen off the edge of reason."

The 40's style opening credits set the tone, we are, it seems, in for an epic, romantic period drama. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that the film's rigorous cerebral foundations are not the framework for the story, they are the story. Narrative cohesion and dramatic tension are sacrificed on the altar of a director's obsession with demonstrating his intellectual ambition.

Perhaps this is what happens when a master, revered for an oeuvre that includes The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and The Conversation, is asked to deliver the goods after a 10 year silence and, well, Jack. It's not surprising that Coppola attempted to manage expectations by shooting in secret.

Youth Without Youth is a fascinating folly, a rare Unidentified Filmic Object in that projects which are as expensive as they are un-commercial usually never get made. Drunk on idolatry, Coppola's producers, cast and crew weren't able to say "hang on, wait a minute, that is never going to add up to a coherent film, let alone a good one". It's the same kind of blind faith which has turned such impossible films as Inland Empire and Southland Tales into cult items rather than embarrassing flops.

Is it really that bad? Yes and no. Overlong and at times nonsensical, the story takes many turns, few of which are dramatically rewarding. Coppola makes it almost impossible to connect with his characters, who seem suspended between the past and the present, fiction and reality, film and literature. The lead performances are competent, if doomed. Tim Roth and Alexandre Maria Lara could have been excellent if they didn't look, at times, like they had no idea what the script was about.

The protagonists seem like conceptual inventions rather than three-dimensional characters. It's hard, for example, to feel for a man who'd sacrifice the love of his life in order to better understand the origins of language and, beyond it, the beginning of consciousness itself. Not that such intellectual pursuits aren't babe-sacrificing material, they're just not very cinematic. It doesn't help if, like me, you're not well-versed in the Upanishads, Lacan and the philosophical significance and symbolism - both in Western and Buddhist philosophies - of The Double.

The bored viewer is tempted, at times, to laugh at the film (it's impossible to laugh with it, Youth Without Youth has absolutely no sense of humour). The attentive viewer will, if he or she is willing to invest a little bit of effort, find much to enjoy in Coppola's convoluted, self-indulgent film. Its ambition and sheer scale - the film is set in Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India - guarantee a few jaw-dropping set pieces for example, beautifully photographed by Mihai Malaimare.

I venture that viewers with a keen interest in Eastern philosophy will benefit the most from this Faustian fable articulated around Hindu and Buddhist principles. Ignoring the narrative traditions of a Western storytelling paradigm is a laudable aim, especially from a filmmaker who has thrived with more conventional models. I don't think this hybrid movie succeeds in what it attempts to achieve, but it's a bold step in a rather interesting direction.



Youth Without Youth is out on Australian screens November 20th.

The medium without the message (Youth Without Youth)