Youth Without Youth
A movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The hero is writing his “life’s work”. He becomes too old to finish. He is struck by lightning on his way (somewhere) with an envelope containing (something). And he becomes young again.
Another chance to finish his life’s work?
He meets a girl who looks like someone he loved when he was young: This lady experiences “soul migration” and regression. She speaks in ancient languages.
Another chance to finish his life’s work?
There are inferences that the scholar “knows things” (about time, language … “origins” / the meaning of life). But there is only ONE (total) revelation: You can’t finish your life’s work because you don’t believe in Nuclear Holocaust (something of the sort).
In the end he says that when he sees his friends again he will tell them “that thing that they all want to know” (not specified).
…
I’ve seen movies that purport to reveal great truths. Those movies fall flat because the revelations they make are not very revealing. This movie doesn’t reveal truths of that sort but nonetheless shows the mindset and tribulations of people who (at least claim to) know great things.
There are HINTS of paranoia, loves lost, sacrifices made; strange paradoxes (body doubles, visual incongruities, time warps); and great “evils” (Hitler, mad scientists, Nuclear bombs). But none of these are resolved to my satisfaction.
So, the movie leaves one with this “final” thought: Though there are suggestions that somehow love (or some other sort of gender confusion / identity crisis) might resolve “everything”; nonetheless, life is morbid. We psychotically BELIEVE in love, genius, greatness, and eternal youth as we EXPERIENCE bloody-red roses, Hitler, hallucinations, and finally death.
Romantic? Maybe not. But a lesson in really GOOD movie making.
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