Youth Without Youth

Youth Without Youth centres on Dominic Matei, an elderly professor of language and philosophy living in Romania as the Second World War approaches. After he is struck by lightning, he survives and begins to grow younger, his mind sharpened and his abilities extended in ways that draw attention from several quarters. The Nazis take an interest in using him for their own purposes, and he is forced to flee, taking on new identities as he moves across Europe. His flight is bound up with his unfinished research into the origins of language and with memories of a lost love, and he later encounters a young woman, Veronica, whose own experience of a lightning storm links her to him and to his work.

Francis Ford Coppola directed, wrote and produced the film, which followed a long gap since his previous feature, Supernova, and preceded Tetro in his filmography. Tim Roth plays Dominic, with Alexandra Maria Lara as Veronica and Laura, and Bruno Ganz, André Hennicke, Marcel Iureș and Adrian Pintea among the supporting cast. The production was made for about 5 million dollars and returned roughly 3 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from around 15,000 votes, and on TMDB the same figure from a few hundred votes, with the critics' rating lower at 5 out of 10.