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Coppola Turns to Youth

Winemaker-auteur makes his first film in a decade, with no 'commercial calculation'

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 8, 2007 11:14 AM CST

(Newser) – Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in a decade is about an elderly character returned to youth by a lightning strike; indeed Youth Without Youth finds the director making the kind of "personal" film he wanted to at age 25. Having wallowed for 30 years in less than stellar projects, the Godfather filmmaker has made a small picture on his own dime—and it “betrays not a molecule of commercial calculation.”

Orson Welles should’ve been so lucky as to make wine, says Vanity Fair’s Bruce Handy: Because of the winery, his 21st-century counterpart—“no stranger to grandiosity, bunkum, overreach, self-immolation, and red ink”—is now fully self-financed. And he’s newly determined to do whatever work he pleases. Youth’s the “strangest mainstream movie” of the year, says Handy, its very imperfection a cause to celebrate a master’s return.

Francis Ford COPPOLA, producteur & cinte amcain. Hollywood. Zoetrope Studios. A son bureau. (PAR81005)
Francis Ford COPPOLA, producteur & cinte amcain. Hollywood. Zoetrope Studios. A son bureau. (PAR81005)   (Magnum Photos)
  (Copyright Sony)
  (Copyright Sony)
US film director Francis Ford Coppola speaks to media in Bucharest Tuesday night Oct. 23 2007 prior to the first screening in Romania of his new movie Youth without Youth. The movie is based on a novel by Romanian writer and philosopher Mircea Eliade.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
US film director Francis Ford Coppola speaks to media in Bucharest Tuesday night Oct. 23 2007 prior to the first screening in Romania of his new movie Youth without Youth. The movie is based on a novel...   (Associated Press)
US director Francis Ford Coppola poses during Youth Without...
US director Francis Ford Coppola poses during "Youth Without...   (Getty Images (by Event))
A368/92: Francis Ford Coppola: headshot, wearing hat
A368/92: Francis Ford Coppola: headshot, wearing hat   (Archive Photos)
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