Youth Without Youth (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Album Review

Classical composer Osvaldo Golijov does not have much experience writing film scores. His music for Francis Ford Coppola's first directorial effort in ten years, Youth Without Youth, is only his second foray into moviemaking, following The Man Who Cried. Perhaps as a result, his work has a more individual flair than that of others. It may also be the nature of the assignment, a cerebral picture based on the novella by Mircea Eliade about a mature linguistics professor in Europe in the 1930s who mysteriously becomes youthful again. Golijov's music has an Eastern European flavor, with cimbalom, accordion, and Gypsy violin taking central places, along with an orchestra. Some of the writing recalls Anton Karas' music for The Third Man; another major influence is Bernard Herrmann, particularly in the lavishly romantic passages, such as "Love Lost: Laura" and "Laura Reborn." There are also what sound like a couple of scratchy old records, "O Alba Tigareta Parfumata," sung by Nello Manzatti, and "Noapte Buna Mimi," sung by Ion Vasilescu, to add a sense of the period. But it is Golijov's work that stands out on one of the more striking and original film scores of 2007.