"Lifespan" is a partially successful film, beset by too naive dramatic turns and dialogues in view of the serious issues addressed in its plot (a young doctor who aspires to immortality and achieve the status of God, while his words reveal a high level of gerontophobia) and gratuitous eroticism that mostly adds to expose the anatomy of the leading lady, a character that contributes little to the plot. However, the film covers several topics concerning the survival of humanity which are strongly current today, making this drama of scientific anticipation (rather than science-fiction) a visionary film, albeit on a small scale. "Lifespan" addresses the global status of drug factories, which are supposed to alleviate humanity's ills. Today financial gain has been imposed upon people's welfare, supported by a "natural selection" of the fittest based on the individuals' riches, which, as anybody knows, are the results of many persons' greed and hoarding of material goods of our planet, which by nature (and elementary philosophical reasoning) belong to everybody. Moreover, "Lifespan" speaks of vanity rather than mankind's need of immortality. The obsession of the three main males in the plot with the pretty and beautiful Anna is a reflection of man's desire to "entrap" this (so overrated) skin-deep stage of life, while the elderly are called "the almost dead". In this age of mutilating surgeries, pseudo- transformations of gender, anatomy and curves, "Lifespan" is very much in force and delights in the beautiful faces and bodies of its dream cast, which reunites three icons of the counterculture beauty of the 1970s: American Hiram Keller, French Tina Aumont and West German Klaus Kinski. If one is a bit tolerant of the limitations I have noted, you will find a high level of inspiration that often reaches moments of fascination, that, although not maintained throughout the duration of the film, constitute a time capsule of an era, of a way of thinking and seeing the world that anticipated how our own would be. Recommendable.
