Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola, 2007)

[Antoine Doinel]

Dave Poland over at The Hot Blog is reporting that Coppola and Walter Murch are now editing his next film, Youth Without Youth.

Official Site

IMDB

Looks like a mostly European cast -- I'm excited to see Bruno Ganz in there. Anyone know much else about the film?

[Matt]

The score is set to be written by Osvaldo Golijov.

[justeleblanc]

The score is set to be written by Osvaldo Golijov.

Not to go too off topic but Golijov's music isn't that interesting. He mostly does Jewish Folk type music that's easy to mass market to the pack of easy-going 50 year olds at my synagogue who normally wouldn't have much interest in 20th/21st century classical music. He's kind of like an airport novel.

I didn't see this movie, but I heard his soundtrack to The Man Who Cried and I wasn't too impressed. Though truthfully I'd probably have to watch the film to judge it. I'm not a big fan of John Williams either but I did like what he wrote for Munich. I'll give him credit, his name alone kicks ass.

[Dylan]

I beg to differ, Juste. I think Osvaldo Golijov is quite good.

I'd love to hear these pieces at an airport. Hell, I'd love to hear them anywhere. This guy is perfect for scoring film. I can't wait to hear what he comes up with for "Youth."

[Cinesimilitude]

Coppola must have loved "Downfall". he cast 3 of its stars in this film.

[Antoine Doinel]

Francis Ford Coppola came to L.A. tonight to promote the DVD release of Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier.

Then Coppola and the DVD producer took the stage to answer questions. The highlights:

Coppola's most recent cut of Youth Without Youth goes 2:46. Walter Murch is working on cutting it down right now. And Coppola was very clear that he has no intention of making the release version of this movie anywhere near that length.

Coppola is also 40 pages into his next screenplay, another personal film that he can self-finance.

[cafeman]

Copolla just came back to Romania to reshoot (I know some of the Romanian crew members). First word on the not-quite-finished film is not promising, although the story still sounds interesting to me.

[Antoine Doinel]

From Time (and he seems to take a little stab at Scorsese):

Monday, Aug. 14, 2006
10 Questions for Francis Ford Coppola
By REBECCA WINTERS KEEGAN

With his Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now due out in a DVD set this month and production of his next movie, Youth Without Youth, completed, Academy Award--winning director, vintner and hotelier Francis Ford Coppola talks with TIME's Rebecca Winters Keegan about why all war movies are antiwar movies, what grapes have done for his filmmaking career and what he has learned from his daughter, Oscar-winning screenwriter Sofia Coppola.

You say you never thought of Apocalypse Now as an antiwar movie. If this isn't an antiwar movie, what is?

All war movies are antiwar movies in that they describe horrible incidents and the most profound thing of all, to lose a young person. But I was more interested in examining the idea, from Heart of Darkness, that society could send people in to kill on behalf of some moral ideal.

The DVD contains the 1979 version of Apocalypse Now and the longer Redux version, released in 2001. Which do you prefer?

I like it longer. When it first came out, it was supposed to be a Hollywood war movie, but the first people saw it and said, "This is surreal." I got sort of shy, and so we cut it. Years later, I was in a hotel room in London and it came on, and I watched and I thought, "Hey, this isn't strange at all." I realized that over the years we, the audience, had changed.

Making Apocalypse Now almost killed you. As a young director, did you think art was worth dying for?

I was forlorn and frightened, but reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. The Godfather was equally tough because I had little kids and I was always on the verge of being fired. Is art worth it? Probably yes.

What percentage of your films is the product of happy accidents?

Art is partly being available to accidents that fall into your lap. The ideal way to work on a project is to ask a question you don't know the answer to.

You say you would like to make "little" films now. Is this a promising time for directors with that ambition?

The movie industry is interested in films that can have sequels--"tent poles," they call them. But theoretically, every work of art is unique. My generation wanted to make personal films. A Fellini film was a Fellini film, and no one else could have made it. In wine, we call it terroir--wine speaks of the earth it comes from.

With your wealth and Hollywood stature, surely you of all people can make a personal film.

I'm fortunate to have made it in other industries, like the resort industry and the wine industry, so I could finance a small film myself every couple of years and have my dream come true. And that's what I aspire to do.

Is Youth Without Youth a "little" film?

It's a story by Mircea Eliade, a Romanian writer, that I found provocative. It wasn't about undercover cops. It was about consciousness. It starts in 1938 and runs through the Second World War and goes from Bucharest to Switzerland to India to Malta. It's a big movie in terms of tackling the production. But I financed it through my wine business, and I took a page from Sofia's--my daughter's--book where she had made Lost in Translation for just a modest amount.

I was going to ask you what you have taught Sofia about filmmaking, but perhaps I should ask what she's taught you?

I had been hitting my head against the wall for six years on a big, ambitious project, and I realized, well, even if I get this thing where I like it, who's gonna wanna make a movie that's so unusual? It's like being in love with a woman who doesn't want you. So I thought, well, I'll do what Sofia did and make a more modest film that I can just go out and do.

Why do you call yourself a young old man?

I still have the feelings of a 16-year-old. All my life I wanted to be a writer. I'm thinking now of an original story I would love to be able to pull off for my own self-respect. Choice is a theme I want to look at. When I was younger, it was regulated--you're gonna get through school, get married, have kids. Now there's a million variations on that. I think I'm more interested in personal questions.

Do you have a personal story you're saving until ...

Until all my relatives die? All of us have stories related to our families. I'm sure I could go to town if I had the courage to do it.

[John Cope]

Here's the most recent news.

Coppola raps on latest projects

By Mark Caro
Tribune entertainment reporter
Published February 18, 2007

While Martin Scorsese is finally poised to win the directing Oscar for an entertainingly efficient piece of genre work ("The Departed"), an even more towering '70s director has returned to the type of personal filmmaking that cemented his career in the first place.

Francis Ford Coppola hasn't directed a movie since 1997's "The Rainmaker," a mostly well-received John Grisham adaptation that ended the filmmaker's work-for-hire period. Since then he has built up his wine business, overseen re-released versions of "Apocalypse Now" (expanded to "Apocalypse Now Redux") and "One From the Heart," spearheaded the successful short-fiction quarterly Zoetrope: All Story and enjoyed daughter Sofia's filmmaking success (with "Lost in Translation" winning her a screenwriting Oscar).

He also wrote and planned to direct an epic tale of New York City called "Megalopolis" before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the city's landscape and the filmmaker found he couldn't overcome the project's script, budgetary and logistical issues. Instead, he relocated to Romania and other points abroad for about 14 months, and now the 67-year-old enthusiast of many things is putting the finishing touches on "Youth Without Youth," his adaptation of the late Romanian philosopher (and University of Chicago professor) Mircea Eliade's World War II-era novella.

Tim Roth and Bruno Ganz star in this story about a bedridden elderly Romanian academic becoming mysteriously rejuvenated and fleeing the Nazis across several borders.

Used his own money

Coppola shot the movie with his own money on his own schedule with, for once, zero interference from studio executives and other finance types. As he spoke on the phone Wednesday from his Napa Valley, Calif., home, he was about to view the movie with its sound mix in place for the first time. This week it will become "the totally finished movie."

He hasn't shown it to anybody, and subsequently it has no distributor. "Part of the philosophy of this is that a movie is a different thing when it's finished and has all of its elements," he said, "so after the 22nd, we'll start deciding the best people to deal with. But not another human being has seen the film."

Meanwhile, not to waste any time, Coppola announced another project last week: Later this year he intends to begin filming "Tetro," a family saga about Italian immigrants living in Buenos Aires.

"I'm 67 years old," he said. "I feel in a productive area for a while, so I would like to make hay when the sun is out."

"Tetro" will be Coppola's first movie since 1974's great "The Conversation" (made between the two "Godfather" movies) that he has directed from his own original script. He said Matt Dillon, the star of his 1983 films "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish," is the only actor attached so far.

Coppola soon will head to Argentina to begin scouting locations and immersing himself in the country's literary, artistic and social traditions. "I just want to soak up the culture, of which there's a lot down there," he said.

Freedom for passion projects

After his legendary financial struggles, particularly on "One From the Heart," it's obviously nice for Coppola to do whatever the heck he wants. His wine business is so successful that it recently split in two: The Niebaum-Coppola winery has been renamed Rubicon (after its top-shelf wine) and focuses on premium winemaking, while his other self-named company is the brand on the Coppola wines you find in stores, plus food products and tropical resorts.

Hence Coppola finally has the freedom to make his passion projects -- albeit with budgets topping out around $20 million. Even so, Coppola said, "Youth Without Youth" is a two-hour epic with 51 speaking roles, locations in several countries and period cars and costumes.

"When you really control the production, it's much more efficient," he said.

"Megalopolis" would have cost at least $80 million, thus forcing him to partner with studios or financiers. He doesn't want to do that anymore.

"They pretty much want you to make movies that are like other movies," Coppola said. "If I came with a gangster movie, they might be interested. It doesn't matter who you are. Even the most illustrious colleagues have to face that stuff."

Like, for instance, Scorsese?

"I'm sure he wants to continue doing personal stuff, but it's easier for him to do a project that they're comfortable with because it's familiar to them," he said. "I know Marty, and I know he has many great personal films that are not like anything anyone's seen yet."

Now the key is whether Coppola can return to his old artistic form after so long. It certainly would be fun watching one of our greatest filmmakers enjoy his own youth without youth.

Too bad about Megalopolis, though I never really assumed that had much of a chance of going beyond the ol' "development" stage.

[exte]

Much appreciated. I wonder if Murch will be on board. And, I'm surprised Coppola never considered getting financing from Lucas for Megalopolis, unless the same constraints would be placed on him regardless...

[Antoine Doinel]

Murch is on board (see previous posts) and the film has had it's first screening. Given that the screening was from friends and well wishers, the positive reactions probably aren't surprising.

From the SF Chronicle:

Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" was shown to invited guests at Lucasfilm's headquarters in the Presidio. The filmmaker's invitation stressed that the movie, Coppola's first in 10 years, is intended to be particularly personal, in keeping with "the great cinema of Europe and Japan that had first inspired me to become a filmmaker myself." In other words, this isn't a standard Hollywood film-by-committee.

There was a late-night party afterward at Coppola's Cafe Zoetrope. Many of Coppola's movie friends had come from afar, the trip made easier for some because they would be in California for Sunday's Oscars. Among them: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Andy Garcia, Matt Dillon, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Spike Jonze, John Singleton, the Hughes brothers, Ed Zwick, Catherine Hardwicke, Alfonso Cuarón, Gus Van Sant and Fred Roos, who joined a local community of pals/staff/supporters that included Phil Kaufman, George Lucas, Tom and Monique Luddy, Terry Zwigoff, Tony Dingman, John Korty, Lynne Hale, Diane Roby and Dave Eggers.

I didn't see the movie, but all the talk at the party -- in awestruck tones indicating that Coppola's aim had been fulfilled -- was about imagination and metaphor and vision. The director himself sat deep inside his restaurant, surrounded by friends and greeting new arrivals with the words of a generous host in his own kitchen: "Do you want something to eat?'' When we left at 1 a.m., the party was still in full swing.

[miless]

Many of Coppola's movie friends had come from afar, the trip made easier for some because they would be in California for Sunday's Oscars. Among them: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Andy Garcia, Matt Dillon, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Spike Jonze, John Singleton, the Hughes brothers, Ed Zwick, Catherine Hardwicke, Alfonso Cuarón, Gus Van Sant and Fred Roos, who joined a local community of pals/staff/supporters that included Phil Kaufman, George Lucas, Tom and Monique Luddy, Terry Zwigoff, Tony Dingman, John Korty, Lynne Hale, Diane Roby and Dave Eggers.

I had no idea that Cuarón and Van Sant were "good friends" of Coppola, and Spike Jonze is a surprise (seeming that he divorced his daughter)

[Antoine Doinel]

I was just hunting around IMDB and it appears Matt Damon is in this now as well.

[Antoine Doinel]

A few more details from Variety. The closing sentence is interesting to say the least:

Inside Move: Coppola tackles 'Youth'
Film is director's first since 1997
By ANNE THOMPSON

The new United Artists led by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner is in talks to acquire "Youth Without Youth," Francis Ford Coppola's first film since 1997's "Rainmaker." Move would reunite Coppola with Cruise, whom he cast as an unknown in his 1983 pic "The Outsiders." UA had no comment.
Coppola adapted, produced and directed "Youth Without Youth" from the 1976 novel by Romanian-born religious historian Mircea Eliade. Coppola screened the film on Feb. 22 for friends in the Bay Area, including Carroll Ballard and George Lucas.

He showed the pic to individual distributors in Los Angeles on Friday and over the weekend. Reaction has been mixed, but several distribs were pursuing the project, being shopped the old-fashioned way by Coppola attorney Barry Hirsch.

Inspired by his daughter Sofia to make a low-budget personal film, Coppola may have skipped the festival route of selling the movie after witnessing the stir that her pic "Marie Antoinette" faced at Cannes last May.

Financed independently with foreign pre-sales from Pathe Intl. and funds from Coppola's own winery, the $5 million film, which Coppola shot last winter in Romania, stars Tim Roth as a 70-year-old who is struck by lightning and suddenly gets younger and more brilliant. His quest: to understand the origin of language and consciousness. By movie's end, he and the love of his life (Alexandra Maria Lara) are literally speaking in tongues. Bruno Ganz also stars, and Matt Damon makes a cameo appearance.

"Youth Without Youth" is both "intellectually challenging and emotionally remote," said one acquisitions exec at a studio subsid. Another distrib likened the film to an arty "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

I, for one, would rather the film were more like the penultimate sentence, rather than the last one!

[Antoine Doinel]

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the North American distribution rights and will be releasing the film this fall.

[kinjitsu]

Francis Ford Coppola, a Kid to Watch, plus a brief multimedia feature on Coppola, A Late Great Chapter, both by A.O. Scott

[Jeff]

teaser trailer

[Antoine Doinel]

Poster

[domino harvey]

that's a pretty great cover

[Oedipax]

Coppola says robbery cost years of data.

I hate hearing about stuff like this, but at least no one was seriously injured.

[Dylan]

I read about this a few days ago, and it's a nightmarish situation for an artist/writer - I can't even imagine how he must feel having all of his writings and data stolen. I hope he gets his laptop back and retrieves the lost materials (which I'm guessing includes biographical writings, drafts of screenplays for future productions, etc.).

[tryavna]

Maybe the theif is a film buff who'll trade it all back in exchange for Coppola stopping being an s.o.b. about Napoleon.

Which reminds me: what's Denti been up to lately?

[John Cope]

Uh oh.

Then there's also this. Take it as you will.

[tavernier]

Gotta like that line from Variety:

[quote] “Youth Without Youthâ€