Coppola Opens “Youth without Youth” screened in Bucharest, Romania, October, 2007

Coppola Screens Eliade’s “Youth without Youth”
Coppola attends the premiere of his latest movie in Romania
Nine O’clock, October 23, 2007
by George Grigoriu

Bucharest – The film “Youth without youth” by Francis Ford Coppola has today the gala screening in Bucharest, only three days after the world first from the Rome Festival. (SEE: www.ywyfilm.com/)

The event will be attended also by the famous director together with part of the production team. Francis Ford Coppola, the maker of the famous trilogy “The Godfather,” of “Apocalypse Now” and of the well-known film about Dracula, will be accompanied by his wife and his son.


Lft: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara and F.F. Coppola (Photo © American Zoetrope)

Alongside Francis Ford Coppola, especially for the event will be present also the producer of the film, Anahid Nazarian, and the triple winner of the Academy Award, the editor Walter Murch. From the Romanian team of the film, present at the gala screening will be the actors Marcel Iures, Florin Piersic Jr., Andi Vasluianu, Alexandra Pirici, Adriana Titieni and Cristi Iacob, and the team of producers of the film, among whom Mihai Malaimare Jr., who signs also the image of the film.

An adaptation of the homonymous short story of Mircea Eliade, the script of the film is written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, marking his return to authoring his own films, alongside a production and direction team consisting chiefly of Romanians. Coppola thought to shoot “Youth without youth” as if at the beginning of his career, with a small budget and a young team who worked together with him 14-15 hours a day, for six months. “The team was very young and enthusiastic, eager to adapt to the only possible method to shoot this film,” stressed the director.

This is the first film of Coppola in the last ten years. According to New York Times, the film is a mixture of genres. Initially, the story of professor Dominic Matei (played by Tim Roth), which begins in Bucharest in 1938, is similar to an espionage thriller from WW II. But the political plot dissipates as Matei falls in love with a young woman who seems able to travel back in time, and the film becomes a strange combination of love, mystery and philosophical speculation.