Youth Without Youth

[mutinyco]

From Variety

Francis Ford Coppola will return to directing after an eight-year hiatus with a self-financed, low-budget pic to lense in Bucharest.

The bigscreen adaptation of "Youth Without Youth" is based on the novella by Romanian author and intellectual Mircea Eliade. Coppola penned the screenplay and is producing through his American Zoetrope banner. Fred Roos and Anahid Nazarian exec produce.

Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz and Marcel Iures will star in the pic, skedded to begin production Oct. 3.

Story centers on a professor whose life changes after a cataclysmic incident during the dark years before WWII. Becoming a fugitive, he is pursued through far-flung locations including Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India.

[Gold Trumpet]

From Variety

Francis Ford Coppola will return to directing after an eight-year hiatus with a self-financed, low-budget pic to lense in Bucharest.

The bigscreen adaptation of "Youth Without Youth" is based on the novella by Romanian author and intellectual Mircea Eliade. Coppola penned the screenplay and is producing through his American Zoetrope banner. Fred Roos and Anahid Nazarian exec produce.

Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz and Marcel Iures will star in the pic, skedded to begin production Oct. 3.

Story centers on a professor whose life changes after a cataclysmic incident during the dark years before WWII. Becoming a fugitive, he is pursued through far-flung locations including Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India.

Considering the cast and the low budget aspect, there could be something hopeful for Coppola here.

[MacGuffin]

Some more info, with Coppola's quotes:

Coppola Makes a Comeback

After an eight-year layoff, Francis Ford Coppola is hopping back into the director's chair.

We're not sure if it was an offer he couldn't refuse, but the The Godfather mastermind has decided to adapt and direct Youth Without Youth, his first film since 1997's The Rainmaker.

Coppola has written the screenplay and will produce and self-finance the picture through his American Zoetrope production banner, according to Variety.

Based on the novella by Romanian author and intellectual Mircea Ellade, Youth Without Youth follows a professor whose life takes a dramatic turn in the run up to World War II. He must stay one step ahead of his pursuers, who chase him all across Europe--from Romania to Switzerland to Malta--all the way to India.

The movie will star Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz and Marcel Lures. Shooting starts in Bucharest Oct. 3.

Youth is an attempt to recapture Coppola's own youth in a way. Unlike the auteur's creative peak during the '70s, which included such epics as The Godfather, The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now, or his less successful '80s and '90s output as a director-for-hire on The Cotton Club, Peggy Sue Got Married and Jack, Youth is a surrealistic period piece that hearkens to Coppola's earlier, more personal experimental style of filmmaking, akin to 1968's Finian's Rainbow and 1969's The Rain People and 1974's The Conversation.

"I was excited to discover, in this tale by Eliade, the key themes that I most hope to understand better: time, consciousness, and the dreamlike basis of reality," the five-time Oscar winner said in a statement. "For me, it is indeed a return to the ambitions I had for work in cinema as a student."

Coppola visited Romania in February and, per Variety, spoke at a university there, telling students, "I have come here to rediscover myself as an artist."

That's a far cry from his exploits for the better part of a decade, as he's focused more on his burgeoning wine and hotel business than movies, aside from a few producing credits and general complaints that the powers-that-be in Tinseltown only offering him mob movies.
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Coppola to End 8-Year Absence From Movies

After an eight-year absence, Francis Ford Coppola is returning to the director's chair.

He will begin filming "Youth Without Youth" in Romania on Oct. 3. Starring Tim Roth, the film is adapted from a novella by Romanian philosopher-author Mircea Eliade.

"It's a parable, it's a fable. It's almost like an intellectual `Twilight Zone,'" the "Godfather" director told The Associated Press by phone Friday, speaking from Romania. "In a way it's like a Hitchcock picture and Tim Roth is the Jimmy Stewart the guy who gets caught up in something fascinating and big."

The film takes place right before World War II and chronicles how a professor's life is altered after an "extraordinary change" late in his life, which leads to Nazi interest in studying him.

It will be Coppola's first movie since 1997's "The Rainmaker" In recent years, he's concentrated on new versions of past works, including "Apocalypse Now Redux" and, more recently, "The Outsiders: The Whole Novel." And he's been working on a screenplay about New York in the future titled "Megalopolis" for more than two decades.

Coppola, a five-time Oscar winner, said a friend recommended "Youth Without Youth," saying it had similar themes to "Megalopolis." Soon, Coppola was fascinated and wrote a screenplay.

"I see this all as steps on the path to something," Coppola said. "Maybe I'll be more qualified to do `Megalopolis' if I really digest this film. In a sense, I think a movie is really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you get the answer."

Already immersed in preproduction, Coppola feels a "pleasant, stage-fright kind of nervous" about his directing return. Anticipating a release date of late 2006 or spring 2007, he envisions "Youth Without Youth" as a return to his roots in personal filmmaking before "The Godfather" set him on a path of big studio projects.

"I just feel that at a certain point you have to go back to the beginning again," the 66-year-old director said. "The best thing for me at this point in my life is to become a student again and make movies with the eyes I had when I was enthusiastic about it in the first place."

[greenowl]

for what its worth right now...

http://www.ywyfilm.com/index.html

[matt35mm]

for what its worth right now...

http://www.ywyfilm.com/index.html

The diary section is worth a lot.  It's pretty interesting stuff, and I hope he updates it more.  But thanks for the link.

[MacGuffin]

Update on Coppola's Youth Without Youth

You may or may not be aware of it, but Francis Ford Coppola has been quietly at work for several months on Youth Without Youth, his first film in eight years. Filming began in Romania last fall and, if Variety is to be believed (see below), it was wrapped up just recently (as, logically enough, was principle photography on the planned making-of documentary), and Coppola has already begun editing the footage.

Coppola complete 'Youth'
Helmer's drama completes principal photography
Source: Variety
 
Francis Ford Coppola, in Cannes as "Marie Antoinette" exec-producer, has completed principal photography in Romania on his low-budget artistic rejuvenation project "Youth Without Youth" -- footage for the making-of docu of which has been shot by his wife Eleanor Coppola and "Apocalypse Now" editor Walter Murch.

Coppola has now begun editing a rough cut in Bucharest of the 1930s-set drama starring Bruno Ganz as Professor Stancislescu, an academic forced to become a fugitive. Plan is for the passion pic, which started shooting in October, to be ready next year.

"Youth" marks Coppola's return to the director's chair eight years after "The Rainmaker." Coppola has said pic brings him back to the ambitions he had as a film student.

Gaul's Pathe and Italy's BIM Distribuzione have boarded "Youth" as co-producers with Coppola's American Zoetrope shingle for which Fred Roos and Anahid are exec producing. The budget is roughly $ 5 million.

Crew Coppola is working with is largely Romanian -- including his cinematographer and editor. Everyone involved is working with a big back-end component to the pay scale.

Based on a novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade, "Youth" also stars Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Marcel Iures.

Eleanor Coppola was a co-director of docu "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse."

[modage]

he shot an entire movie and is editing it and not one word leaked out about this till now?  jeezus christ, that is quiet.

[MacGuffin]

Source: SFGate

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.

[Pubrick]

still in the top 5 films of all time (so far)

[MacGuffin]

Inside Move: Coppola tackles 'Youth'
Film is director's first since 1997
Source: Variety
 
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 PREMISE/PLOT SPOILER 70-year-old who is struck by lightning and suddenly gets younger and more brilliant. END PREMISE/PLOT SPOILER His quest: to understand the origin of language and consciousness. By movie's end, HUGE FUCKING ENDING SPOILER he and the love of his life (Alexandra Maria Lara) are literally speaking in tongues. END HUGE FUCKING SPOILER 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."

[Pubrick]

i added some spoiler warnings to the plot synopsis they provided. luckily i have read the book, and it is fucking awesome, and so i left a bit unhidden in the middle of that paragraph which  encapsultes the theme of the story and is exactly what made me seek it out and devour it in a couple of hours.

why the hell would they tell you the ending before the movie has even been released? very bizarre and inappopriate.

[Fernando]

Luckily I have Alzheimer so I don't remember what I read yesterday. 

Seriously, I read it and don't remember a goddamn thing!

[JG]

haha, me too.  i remembered the first (not so bad) spoiler, but i have no idea what the second one is.  i dunno, i have a habit of skipping over whole sentences, maybe i skipped over the right one. 

anyways, i'm super excited for this.

[MacGuffin]

SPC claims Coppola's 'Youth'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American distribution rights to Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth," the director's first film since 1997's "The Rainmaker." A late fall release is planned.

Coppola wrote, directed, and produced the film, adapting the screenplay from a novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. A parable set in World War II, the film stars Tim Roth as Dominic Matei, an elderly professor whose mysterious rejuvenation heightens his intelligence and whose apparent immortality makes him a target for the Nazis. "It is a love story wrapped in a mystery," Coppola said.

The film also stars Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre M. Hennicke, Marcel Iures and introduces Alexandra Pirici.

The independently produced project was shot in Romania over 18 months. Walter Murch joined Coppola there to edit the film.

Said Coppola: "The story revolves around the key themes that I most hope to understand better: time, consciousness and the dreamlike basis of reality."

Added SPC co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard: " 'Youth Without Youth' is what we call a full meal, satisfying in all departments. It is personal, sweeping and entertaining. It is unlike anything we've seen before. It is the kind of innovative movie we've come to appreciate from new, successful independent filmmakers while at the same time possessing a mastery of story, sound and visuals that you can only get from a Francis Coppola movie."

Anahid Nazarian and Fred Roos are executive producers. Mihai Malaimare Jr. served as director of photography, with production design by Calin Papura and costume design by Gloria Papura. Peter King and Jeremy Woodhead designed and executed the special makeup effects and hairstyles. Roman Coppola, the helmer's son, directed the second unit. The music was composed by Osvaldo Golijov.

[MacGuffin]

Coppola in Miami.
Francis Ford Coppola was in Miami last night talking about, among other things, Youth Without Youth, which will see its official premiere at the RomeFilmFest. Peter Nellhaus reports.
Source: GreenCine Daily

Coda: Thirty Years Later has been making the rounds with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance. Unlike some of the other screenings at college campuses, Sunday's night presentation was at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach, once a movie theater, now restored and filled last night primarily, as Coppola requested, with students.

Coppola introduced Coda by explaining that it is an informal sequel to Hearts of Darkness, the documentary about his making Apocalypse Now that was shot primarily by his wife, Eleanor. Coda is partially about Coppola filming Youth Without Youth, and both the doc and the feature were financed by Coppola himself in order to guarantee artistic control. The prime difference between Hearts and Coda is that Apocalypse Now was filmed in desperate circumstances, while Coppola's profitable wine business now allows for him to return to filmmaking on his own terms. Coda begins with footage from Hearts, with Coppola and the crew gathering together for the good luck chant at the beginning of what would become an arduous adventure. The ritual is repeated with the crew of Youth Without Youth.

Most of Coda was shot in the fall of 2005 in Romania. Coppola is seen discussing the meaning of consciousness with himself, or more precisely, two versions of himself. That part is made more clear in a scene from Youth Without Youth with two versions of Tim Roth on screen representing two points of view. Roth himself seems to be of two minds regarding working with Coppola. At one point he declares that every day is Friday, meaning that each day he feels that he's put in a week's worth of work. Later he admits how happy he is working on the film.
 
Youth Without Youth came about when Coppola shelved his dream project, Megalopolis. What I was unaware of is that Coppola had second unit footage shot, some of which is included in Coda. What I saw were gorgeous traveling shots of New York City, footage for what may be one of the most beautiful movies we will never see. During the preparation for Megalopolis, Coppola was directed to the writings of Mircea Eliade. With Youth Without Youth, based on a novella by Eliade, Coppola was able to pursue the themes of time and consciousness on a smaller scale.

Much of the footage shown from Youth Without Youth is bathed in golden browns. Visually, the new film will remind some of the first two Godfather films. There is also an excerpt involving Nazi experiments which harkens back to German Expressionism. It was little surprise that two of Coppola's favorite filmmakers are Pabst and Murnau, while a glimpse in the documentary revealed two Visconti films, La Terra Trema and Rocco and his Brothers mixed in with some books.

Following Coda, Coppola came on stage for a question and answer session moderated by Miami Herald film critic Rene Rodriguez. Coppola discussed how he sees the films he likes to make as answers to questions; for him, "the journey is the work". Much of what Coppola said expressed many of the same thoughts we've heard in Hearts of Darkness and in his Academy Award appearances - the hope that younger filmmakers will create a new film language, and that film will be used to bring people together. Coppola also expressed hope that the studios would use their profits to help support less commercial films, though he is pragmatic enough to know that his choice at this time is either to make self-financed films or to be a director for hire.

While no further details were given, Coppola did mention making a new film, Tetro, from an original script in Buenos Aires. And while it is not absolute, Coda may appear in the future on DVD along with Hearts of Darkness.