ITALY: Francis Ford Coppola asks for "patience" with his first film in ten years

Film director Francis Ford Coppola returned to the big screen on Saturday (October 20) with his first film in ten years "Youth Withouth Youth." The film revolves around the life of Dominic Matei - an elderly Romanian linguistics professor who feels he has wasted his life, lost the woman he loved and failed to produce a great academic work. Then, just before the outbreak of World War Two, Matei -- played by British actor Tim Roth -- is struck by lightning and becomes young again, getting a new lease of life and a second chance to fulfill his dreams. The film is based on a short novel by Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade. "Youth Without Youth" is an elaborate story mixing the ingredients of a spy thriller, including mad Nazi scientists studying genetic mutations, with philosophical meditations on time, language and reincarnation. "I've said before that making a film for me is like asking a question, and when it's all over and you finish the film, that's the answer. And for me the answer was the key to consciousness was language and that even when I thought in my own regard, when did , when I was little they called me Francie. And I thought when did Francie first exist? And it was when I was about 4 years old and that was when I had a little bit of language. So, that was what I learned from this film," said the 68-year-old director who financed the film with his own Californian winery business and went to shoot in Romania as if "I was making a student film", with an almost entirely local cast and crew and a specially fitted van to carry all the equipment. Critics' reaction at Saturday's press screening during the Rome Film Festival was muted, with some feeling the film was erratic, over ambitious and complex. "It's not an easy film. It's very complex and he's playing with symbols and you should it twice to understand. At the first moment, it may be a little too complex, too confusing," said German journalist Thomas Radigk. "I think that whoever is expecting to see a classic Coppola movie will not see this. And Coppola himself said he wanted to make something different. It is a movie about growing old, taking stock of your life. It's a movie about a person who's searching for answers. It's a movie by a person who's searching for answers and through the film, he's telling us that he has found those answers in language. That language is the answer to all these" said Italian journalist Sandro Calice. But Coppola, who after his early triumphs has had his fair share of flops -- in the 1980s his production company was taken over by creditors -- said artists should never worry about the public's knee-jerk reaction to their works. He asked for "patience" as he ventures into what he calls new territory. "I only ask you to think that my film was interesting. Beyond that you can decide later in the privacy of your time whether you think it was beautiful or of interest. But one cannot be a prisoner of either your earlier work or anyone's earlier work. Or they would never be Pelleas and Melisandra, there wouldn't have been a Carmen, there wouldn't have been a Rites of Spring. Not that my work is at that level of those greats but I think we should be tolerant of artists who want to break new ground and not require them to make gangster films all their lives," said Coppola, adding that embracing an author like Eliade is different from Spiderman and Shrek. Coppola also slammed Hollywood's flurry of remakes, ruling out a remake of his 1970s classics or making "The Godafther IV." "I feel any remake is a waste of energy and resources. Movies that were beautiful should remain and the money and effort should be used to make new films that help illuminate life and help the audiences learn about life," Coppola said. Coppola also says he has "nothing but respect for Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson after a magazine quoted him criticising the three. "As for Pacino and De Niro, I didn't make them. They made me. And as for Jack Nicholson, he's his own self, he's in his own category. He's supremely intelligent and yes he is "puckish" which is a word you may not understand but he is a prankster and a little devilish. But beyond this, I think it has to do more with the fact that this story was cobbled together I think by the Daily News in which it appeared and took other things which I said which I would say in front of them and put into a context with headlines like "these actors are lazy, or waste of talent" or other ludicrous things so I'm afraid I must quote Mario Puzzo in my response which is to say it's not personal, it's just business," he said. Coppola and the cast were joined by his family including film-maker Sophia on the red carpet ahead of the public screening on Saturday.

ITN Source | October 25, 2007

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