|
Missing Francis Ford Coppola
By Fred Topel | Image property of Sony Pictures Classics.
Youth Without Youth
Coppola Back With Youth Without Youth
"Often directors aren’t heard from for two years," Coppola explained. "Obvious reasons are it takes the time to choose something, if you are a writer then write it. You consider, it’s got to be a year and a half just to make the movie and edit it, not to mention all the other things nowadays. The release of the movie is as much time as making the film with what they want you to do."
That's not what took Coppola so long though. "In my case it was different because I was at the age where my career had been so interestingly diverse. After the difficulty financially that I had, after One from the Heart, I was in the pattern of making one movie every year, because I had a bank payment every year. After Dracula I pretty much had paid off the debt. I was more of a free man. I began to think, ‘Gee, at the age that I am, I would love to find my place in movies. I don’t want to just be a director who directs a movie every year.' So much of what you do, as a filmmaker, is what you choose. It’s the type of movie you are going to do. If you are going to choose program pictures then you’ll be a program film director. So, I was very conscious, since I started so young, that now I was of an age where I had to try and find my place in all of the work."
That still doesn't explain why it took 10 years to choose. "At first I thought I would instigate the projects. I worked on Pinocchio as a project because I anticipated what became a wonderful success with Pixar films. I had a cataclysmic experience because I spent so much time, 10 years, and I put a lot of money in to make Pinocchio. We had a deal, and then Warner Brothers contacted Columbia and said, ‘Oh, we own it.’ So, there was a big lawsuit. That took more time and more money. We won it, we were give almost $100 million dollars in damages from Warner. I said, ‘Ha, ha, ha. But I’m not going to spend it.’ Sure enough, a year later, it was reversed by a higher [court]. That is pretty much what big corporations do. They are afraid of jury trials, but they are more comfortable within the give and take of the appeal. Then I thought, 'God, I just lost 5 million dollars, of which I had worked so hard to build up, but more important is my time.' Now, I’m 62 years old, and I tried to think of what I should do. Again, I had to find my place, where do I belong? I thought it was time for me to do my dream project."
Youth Without Youth still isn't that dream project, but it's getting close. "I began work on the screen project Megalopolis which I had been working on for years. Thinking of a movie that would have a sweet little theme, it would be unusual, and it could maybe contribute some new ideas into the language of movies. I thought, 'Movies are only 100 years old. Why is it that the language isn’t evolving as it did on Eisenstein, or Pabst, or Griffith. Surely all that was discovered about movies wasn’t finished then.' I worked on Megalopolis, I worked on the script, and began the preparation. I went to New York, I was shooting second unit, and it was a story about utopia. It was set in Manhattan. Right in the middle of when we were shooting was the tragedy of the Twin Towers. Everything was changed about New York. If you were going to use New York as a quasi-fictional city to set a story like this, then it was changed forever. I tried to write that in, deal with Islamic radicalism, and understand these issues. How could I try to understand? Megalopolis began to be almost a trap for me. I was so very bull headed about a movie, I don’t give up easily, but it wasn’t falling into my lap. I certainly had artistic issues in the script, especially now that I had to expand it in this new world event which had happened. But also, it was an expensive movie."
Youth Without Youth became a more affordable project to start Coppola's new journey in film. "When I read Youth Without Youth, I was like, ‘Wow, what a story.’ Every time you turn the page, something crazy happens. This guy, he’s an old man like me, he’s frustrated because he can’t do his big work, like me. Then all of a sudden things start happening but that doesn’t stop like, ‘Oh, he gets to be young like Faust.’ He gets to be more brilliant. He never could learn Chinese and now he can speak Chinese. He can read books just by looking at the cover. Then he turns into a double that debates him, almost like on moral issues. Then he gets to meet he girl he loved, and he thought she was… I said, ‘What a crazy story. How fun to get to make a movie like this.' At the same time I could make an unusual story like this, and also I could examine some of these ideas. How do you express things related to consciousness and time on a film?"
Youth Without Youth opens to theaters December 14th.
For the trailer and more movie info, go to Youth Without Youth Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Sony Pictures Classics.
Contact
© 2004 Minds Eye One, All Rights Reserved
The Can Magazine™ is a trademark of Minds Eye One
All movie titles, movie icons, movie stills/clips/trailers/other media... are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of stated holders
CanMag.Com banners contain movie/gaming icons that were created by individual holders
|
|
|
Add to Heffee!
