Film:

Extras:

( Max score: 100 )

94

Product Description :

Francis Ford Coppola returns to the realm of his mastery with a new film about growing young. A bolt of lightning strikes Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) so close to death that he begins to age backwards. When he grows from 70 to 40 in a week, he draws the attention of the Nazis and the world. Now he's running for his life with a new love and no hope of knowing his phenomenal fate.

I just didn’t connect with this film. It started out just fine with Dominic Matei (Roth) as a lonely 80 year old professor who by happenstance is struck by lightening while crossing the street. He wakes up in the hospital and can barely move or speak. He communicates with the hospital staff by squeezing the doctors finger. He makes a miraculous recovery and as he heals grows younger. He ends up being approximately 40 years younger and his recovery has gotten the attention of the medical community. This eventually leads to the Nazi’s taking an interest in him as well. There are a series of flashbacks that detail some of his life and a love interest that didn’t pan out. He is befriended by one of the doctors who begins to study his progress in an attempt to ascertain why he has grown younger. He exhibits new intellectual abilities that allow him to speak various languages and to read/absorb entire books simply by holding them in his hand.

Problems begin to arise. The first is that he begins having dreams about sexual encounters with a strange young woman. He also begins to appear to suffer from split personality syndrome and begins talking to himself. It is then revealed that the dreams he is having are not dreams at all and the woman he has been sleeping with is also staying at the same facility and is affiliated with the Nazis. The Nazis take are more fervent interest in Dominic and begin to pressure his doctor friend about obtaining him. When the doctor refuses he suddenly disappears. Dominic is later approached by a Nazi posing as an interested Doctor. When his intention is discovered the Nazi pulls a pistol and attempts to kidnap Dominic. At this point Dominic uses a mental energy field (?) to force the Nazi to turn the gun on himself.

The above was offered to provide a brief glimpse of what the story was like up to the point where I think it just turned south and lost me. From there the time period moves back and forth which made it hard to figure what year it was. He meets two young women while hiking. One of them looks identical to his young love interest from years earlier. They are looking for directions and he warns them about an approaching storm. He stumbles upon their vehicle later on and finds the driver dead and the young woman a short distance away in a small cave. He approaches her and offers her his help. She not only has no idea who he is but begins speaking in an ancient Hindi language. He can of course understands it and communicates with her getting her to come out and go with him to the hospital. Specialists are called in and you are then lead on a series of unexplainable scenarios involving her. His alter ego/personality appears from time to time to put in his two cents. She has visions and undergoes recessive mental breakdowns which have to do with HER Hindu (?) alter ego/personality whose name is Rupini. Eventually she snaps out of that and recognizes him as the person who gave her directions on the mountain that day. They then fall in love…….it continues down a convoluted road that does not seem to lead anywhere. Did I mention that she then begins to age at an accelerated rate because she is around him? The ending is even more unsatisfying.

I had a hard time sitting through this film once it got to the point outlined earlier. If I missed something than I would be happy to hear from fans of the film to get some insights.

The rating is for sexual content, nudity, language, violence.

REFERENCE = 92-100 / EXCELLENT = 83-91 / GOOD = 74-82 / AVERAGE = 65-73 / BELOW AVERAGE = under 65

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**My audio ratings are based upon a comparative made against other high definition media/blu-ray disc.**

(Each paw rating is worth 4 points with a max of 5 paws per category)

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**My video ratings are based upon a comparative made against other high definition media/blu-ray disc.**

Youth without Youth comes to Blu-ray Disc featuring 1080p MPEG-4 (AVC) encoded video that has an average bitrate of 32 mbps. The Lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 channel audio had an average bit rate of 3.6 mbps. Both were of reference quality.

This video presentation had a lot going for it. Detail was abundant from almost every perspective which gave images surreal depth and dimensionality. Object detail was as good as I have seen and offered superb rendering of the minutia in clothing, backgrounds, skin/facial features etc. Exterior shots demonstrated distinctive and resolute definition which made them look extremely lifelike in character. Colors were bold in nature without over saturation or blooming. The period clothing worn in the film was made up of neutral tones like beige, brown, grey and black. Subtle tonal variations within these was noticeable which gave them deeper symmetry. Skin tones were a little on the hot side which gave them a golden hue that I noticed but didn’t see as detrimental. Contrast and blacks had plenty of dynamic range. This made scenes that had dark and light elements look great. Shadow delineation was quite good as it delivered plenty of dimensional depth and gradation. This was noticeable in the film’s opening moments as well as during the dark alley way encounter in the second act. Occasionally some of these elements were not rendered as well which I attributed to a very slight case of black crush. I saw no signs of video noise or compression related anomalies. This was very sharp, clean and highly detailed high definition video.

The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack was audibly superior in its rendering of dialogue. Tim Roth does quite a bit of narration (more of a running dialogue) throughout the film. The subtle texture and defining intonation in his voice were discerned with ease. The sound of his voice during these scenes sounded unlike any others in the film which made it stand out by comparison. The same was true of Alexandra Maria Lara when she took on the persona of Rupini and began speaking in differing dialects. I was surprised at the dynamic and sometimes aggressive nature of this mix considering the film’s subject matter. The surrounds are used a great deal to provide not only ambient background detail but also discretely to produce directional effects. This was startling at times which of course made it very effective. Early in the movie Dominic (Roth) is struck by lightening as he crosses the street. The strike itself was quick, forceful, and vigorously active as it emblazoned Dominic with electrical energy leaving him badly burned and near death. The music used in the film is as big a part in its telling as the narration and it is reproduced with precise imaging and instrumentation that is clearly outlined. Bass response is excellent when used in conjunction with the dynamically active elements present in the mix. I noticed that the audio seemed to have higher volume levels when compared to some TrueHD soundtracks. I didn’t see it in any way as a problem but thought that I would mention it. This was an impressive audio presentation.

The bonus features were quite interesting. The music and makeup features were presented in high definition while the making of was not. The best two features were the high definition offering which was a good thing. The making of was a bit slow and boring as it looked at the film’s production from too much of a documentary style setting. It was apparent that the interviews had been edited and brief clips were included which made them seem to lack focus. They felt too robotic and it seemed liked no one was having any fun. The music feature was similarly documented but the information regarding how the music was composed, orchestrated and then used within the scope of the story was intriguing. There were interviews with the music production personnel, composer, producer, Director and conductor included. The makeup piece ran along similar lines but had more of a personal feel. It documented the extensive use of makeup in the movie and what was required of Tim Roth each day to get into it. The camera was rolling during discussions between Director Coppola, Roth and the makeup designers regarding how it worked and what it was like for Roth having it applied as well as wearing it.

The Director’s commentary didn’t add any information that was radically different from what was contained in the feature documentaries and was pretty dry. There are several current release high definition Blu-ray trailers included as well.

Youth without Youth is based upon a novella by Romanian writer Mircea Eliade which was adapted into a screenplay and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I have no idea what the novella was like but the film was vague, inexplicable, and at times nonsensical. Sony has brought it to Blu-ray disc day and date with DVD featuring superb audio and striking video quality. This is not new territory for Sony who has consistently offered some of the best high definition Blu-ray disc releases to date. I would recommend a rental of this one to see if it is up your alley. I assure you that you will be pleased with it from a technical perspective.

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