March 2008
Time Out
THIS MONTH’S SELECTION OF MOVIES
Youth without Youth
US-Rated: R
German release date: March 6
On Easter Sunday in 1938, linguistic professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is struck by lightning on his way to Bucharest. Miraculously, he not only survives the incident, but also is transformed from a 70-year-old man to a youngster. Dominic’s younger alter ego appears to be a purely scientific personality, and views his regeneration as a means of accomplishing the Faustian goal of omniscience. Soon Dominic has only to pass his hand over a closed book and the contents are transferred to his advanced brain. Matei’s doctor, kindly Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz), is keen to study this remarkable phenomenon, but as word of it spreads the Nazis pursue Matei for further experiments. Forced into Swiss exile, Matei meets Veronika (German actress Alexandra Maria Lara), who displays peculiar abilities of her own: In a state of trance she time travels through her past identities back to the origins of humanity. Her mental journeys could help Matei complete his magnum opus on the beginnings of language. Her tours of the centuries, however, trigger rapid aging. Soon Matei has to decide whether to press Veronika on in service of his groundbreaking work or to save her life.
After ten years, Francis Ford Coppola returns with an ambitious, multi-layered narrative, dealing with concepts of time and the reality of dreams. Based on a novel by Romanian author Mircea Eliade,
Youth without Youth displays a complexity and non-linearity that will challenge and divide Coppola’s audience.
Be Kind Rewind
US-Rated: PG-13
German release date: March 20
Another expert on mind-bending plots brings his latest work to German movie theaters this month. Michel Gondry first gained prominence through video clips for Björk, the Foo Fighters and the Rolling Stones before extending his vision to feature-length films. For
The Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind (2004) Gondry and co-writer Charlie Kaufman won an Academy Award for best original screenplay. Like
The Eternal Sunshine, Gondry’s latest movie features the unlikely: Junkyard worker Jerry (Jack Black) is pained by horrific headaches, for which he blames a local power plant. He sets out to sabotage the plant, but his plan backfires. After a severe electric shock, he stumbles over to his friend’s video rental store and erases every movie he touches. To save the store, Jerry and his buddy Mike (Mos Def) decide to remake the lost films. A hilarious firework of dilettantism ensues. To re-create the evil Stay Puft in
Ghostbusters Jerry and Mike cover a doll with actual marshmallows, for example. Instead of rejecting the remakes, customers, surprisingly, love them and clamor for more.
Be Kind Rewind will appeal to diverse audiences—to those eager to see the latest quirky ideas of the French moviemaker and to others who just want to sit back with Jack Black’s lighthearted entertainment. <<<
