Has Anyone Actually Seen Youth Without Youth?

Because, for a film by fucking Francis Ford Coppola (the alliteration!), it feels very lonely over here in the "People Who've Seen It" column. Which sucks. But, sadly, it's not surprising. Like, whatsoever.

If you don't have an extremely open mind for it, you'll most likely not like it in any way, if not hate it. It's a major mindfuck, but not really in a way you'd imagine one to be. It throws a variety of different traditional film elements, from psychological espionage thriller to sweeping epic love story and more, into a specialized blender that's searching for the answers to humanity itself, from the cure for aging to the history of language and more, and puts it on maximum to create a puréed drink of unknown definition that you'll either swish around in your mouth in a disbelieving manner or just spit out onto the floor and smack the film across the face for making it that way.

That being said, I loved the hell out of it. I mean, duh, it's my kind of movie. It's extraordinary in every sense, unbelievable for the most part. I will not say, though, that it doesn't make sense -- it just presents itself in a way that's supposed to shock you into really thinking about what it's saying, or at least trying to say. It's very dreamlike and beautifully elegiac, and truly not a hard film to get through, per se... just different, which should be obvious. I mean, remember the teaser trailer? That's enough warning for you.

At it's heart, it's at it's heart. It's a never-ending love story between our two leads, played by Tim Roth and Alexandra Maria Lara - who is actually playing two technically different people who are, in the context of the film, the same person. Yeah, it deals in reincarnation and true love. She also speaks in Sanskrit for a portion of it. (You know, the more I go into the film, the more I'm realizing how insane it actually is, LOL) The two of them have an odd sort of chemistry, very suspect but perfectly cinematic. And it never hurts them that they're both phenomenal actors giving incredible, fearless performances, right? I thought not.

Youth Without Youth is easily one of the best films of 2007. One of the very best, if you know what I mean. Shhhh. Now, back to my question -- has anyone (meaning you) actually seen it? *crickets* Okay, maybe that was a bad question. How about... Do you actually WANT to see it?