YouthWithoutYouth Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's a splendid week for indie lovers with a taste for classic cinema -- which is everybody, right? -- with a flock of great Westerns and two Louis Malle films from Criterion among the highlights. More recent fare is more scarce.

Even though reviews were mixed to negative (our own Jeffrey M. Anderson was definitely mixed), Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (Sony Classics) is almost required viewing. (Erik Davis posted a clip from the DVD just last week; check the official site for more.) The DVD includes an audio commentary by Coppola, a "making of" feature and two others on the music and make-up.

Tricia Regan's doc Autism: The Musical (Docurama) follows five autistic children as they write and produce a musical. Brendan Butler at Cinema Blend called it "heart-wrenching and heart-warming ... The dialogue the film opens with is as vivid and fierce as any hot-button topic in our country today." (Read more about the film at the official site.) The DVD includes deleted scenes and a "companion guide."

Leelee Sobieski stars as a would-be dominatrix in Walk All Over Me (The Weinstein Co.), which debuted at Toronto last fall; Eye Weekly said it was a "somewhat messy but energetic comic thriller." (Check the movie's site for more information.) The DVD includes a commentary by Sobieski, co-star Tricia Helfer and director Robert Cuffley, behind the scenes footage, a deleted scene, outtakes, a music video and still gallery.

Two holdovers outperformed new releases in the indie weekend box office totals, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Jason Reitman's teen pregnancy comedy Juno grossed $35,500 per screen at 40 engagements in major markets, more than twice as much as Joe Wright's period wartime romance Atonement ($15,720 per screen but at nearly three times the locations: 117).

Both Juno and Atonement will expand to more than 200 theaters this coming Friday, where they'll have to compete with five major releases over the long holiday weekend. Juno will ramp up to more than 850 theaters on Christmas Day and more than 1500 screens on Friday, January 4. Will its reputation as a critical darling keep it rolling along, or will it need more endorsements from teen audiences?

Among new releases, Marc Forster's character drama The Kite Runner did the best, pulling in $14,490 per screen at 35 locations. Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote in his review: "It makes us truly see the people ... in many ways for the first time; that's the film's greatest achievement, and ultimately the best reason to see it." Nanking, a doc about the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, opened in one theater in New York City and earned $6,200. Our own Kim Voynar called it a "deeply affecting film [that] doesn't offer any easy answers."

Adam Rifkin's surveillance camera peek-a-boo project Look got raked over the coals by certain critics -- check out selected quotes gathered by David Hudson at GreenCine Daily -- yet still averaged $5,150 at the two screens where it opened. That means it did better than Francis Ford Coppola's return to the big screen, Youth Without Youth, which managed $4,630 per screen at six locations -- not quite disastrous, but not very encouraging, either. Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote an excellent, measured review, which examines the film in the light of Coppola's entire career.

Just how strange are the Golden Globes? Is Atonement a sure-fire, dead-lock Best Picture winner, or has it stumbled with the Academy before the race was even begun? Did Francis Ford Coppola "cut his own throat" with the release strategy for Youth Without Youth? And, speaking of cutting throats, will Sweeney Todd seduce the Academy, or have its hopes been washed away with the arterial spray? Joining James this week is David Poland, the critic, blogger and raconteur behind Movie City News as well as the wildly contentious, always insightful The Hot Blog. Listen in this week as James and David talk about the BFCA nominations from the inside, discuss the tarnished-yet-telegenic schizophrenia of the Golden Globes, and much more! And finally -- new this week on for The Rocchi Review -- you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

The ever-entertaining Francis Ford Coppola has sat down with the Guardian on the eve of the release of his latest film, Youth Without Youth. Here's the highlight reel: Coppola is forced to backpeddle over those recent comments he made about Nicholson, Pacino and De Niro being old and fat and rich, or something like that. "I said, well they're not the same guys they were when they were young and hungry. Now they are rich. Deservedly so. Thank God, you know. Then it gets all twisted. I mean, I'm a friendly guy, right?" Love that last part. He goes on to add "Jack is a huge talent, one of the greats. These are my friends. And that kind of stuff can hurt friendships."

On his next film, Tetro, Coppola seems to have confirmed to the paper that Javier Bardem will star, although it's written ambiguously enough that the Guardian may have just been printing what they erroneously believe to be fact. Coppola says "It's about fathers, sons and brothers, a bit Tennessee Williams, a bit Rocco and His Brothers." He then launches into a defensive posture, pointing out that no matter what he does people will be expecting a new Godfather landmark film and will be disappointed if he doesn't deliver that. "They hope it's going to be another Godfather. There is always that hope even in the face of the impossibility of that actually happening."

The Godfather and its import on Coppola's career is a theme of the interview, and at times the director even seems to shrug off the impact of the film or suggest that his career would have been more pure, like Godard's, if he had not been left to contend with helming one of the most successful pictures of all time. "I got sidetracked," he says. "I would have made more personal films. Films of ideas. Like the guys who were making movies when I came of age -- Godard and the New Wave. Which is what I wanted to do in the first place." Sounds to me like Coppola needs to get out of the vineyards and get back to work and stop feeling so sorry for himself.

I have been dying to see Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, which finally hits at least some theaters in New York and Los Angeles on December 14. The pre-World War II story follows a 70-year-old played by Tim Roth who gets struck by lightning. Instead of dying, he becomes a young, brilliant man who vows to discover the origin of language and consciousness. It sounds strange, unique, and possibly very, very good, although I'm sure it's definitely for selected audiences -- this isn't the sort of flick to have a huge mass appeal. It also doesn't help that the trailer, which Matt Bradshaw shared in September, is pretty vague and crappy.

However, maybe the Eleanor Coppola's documentary on the production will help fill in the holes and amp up curiosity in the project. Yes, Francis' wife has made a doc called Coda: Thirty Years After, which details Coppola's journey with Youth Without Youth. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is going to air on Starz December 9, and will also be included in the new DVD release of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse (which Peter Martin discusses in this week's Indies on DVD column). Coda includes production footage of Youth, as well as some other bits that will be tasty to Coppola fans -- there's also footage of No Cigar, his first short film, home movies, and behind-the-scenes footage from The Rain People and The Conversation.

It's not much of a secret that Francis Ford Coppola did The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II in order to work on more personal films, particularly The Conversation. So, it isn't that surprising to find out neither those two nor The Godfather: Part III are among his personal favorites. According to Page Six, Coppola considers his five best films to be Apocalypse Now, Rumble Fish, The Rain People, his upcoming Youth Without Youth and, obviously, The Conversation, which also happens to be my favorite of his work. This shortlist comes from the next issue of Time magazine, which also includes a continuation of a lengthy two-part profile on the filmmaker. Within the article, Coppola suggests that it's his films that took awhile for critics to appreciate, like Apocalypse, or awhile for audiences to discover, like Rain People, that he prefers.

None of this should upset his fans; they still love The Godfather trilogy, and at least his other monument, Apocalypse, is included. It isn't like he selected Jack or Captain EO. Also in Time is Coppola's clarification of his alleged chiding of Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson, which apparently was taken out of context. He told reporters at the Rome Film Festival, where Youth premiered last month, that his comments in GQ weren't true, that he has "nothing but respect and admiration" for the three actors, who he considers the best in the world, as well as his friends. However, he wouldn't address the original comments specifically for Time's article. Other things that were discussed in the profile include Coppola's next film, Tetro, which will begin shooting in Argentina in February, despite the recent robbery. Youth Without Youth, which sounds a lot better to me since Coppola lumped it with my own favorites of his films, is set to hit U.S. theaters (NYC and L.A.) December 14.

Romania is still an inexpensive place to film a horror movie (just ask Charles Band, Elvira or Bruce Campbell), as well as place to stage more prestigious work; it has doubled for the Appalachians in Cold Mountain, and for India in the upcoming Youth Without Youth by Francis Ford Coppola. Their native film industry is far less known in the US. According to the Pacific Film Archives' Jason Sanders, Romania only makes six films a year. They're doing something right, or at least the Cannes Film Festival thinks so: Romanian films have won two Un Certain Regard awards, one Camera d'Or, and one Palme d'Or in the last three years.

At the Archives at UC Berkeley -- relatively central to the seven million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area -- the PFA is assembling a six-night program of Romanian films. If they have anything in common, it's telling about the trauma of the almost science-fiction evil of the Ceausescu dictatorship, and the tale of his hideo-comic downfall on Dec 22, 1989. The Paper Will Be Blue by Radu Muntean (Dec 2) stages the fear and excitement of the revolution in Romania as an urbane thriller; the Scorsese/Wim Wenders executive-produced The Way I Spent the End of the World (above) by Catalin Mitulescu (Nov 3) takes a more impressionistic, nostalgic approach.

Also making its California debut on Nov. 3 is California Dreamin' (Endless). It isn't called Endless because of a 155 minute running time, but rather because the director Cristian Nemescu died before the final edit. Armand Assante, recently the best part of American Gangster, if you ask me, plays a NATO Army Captain immobilized in a one-horse town by bureaucrats and hustlers. The Great Communist Bank Robbery (2004, Nov 25) concerns a really memorable Communist atrocity. After a 1959 bank robbery, the six who were arrested (guilty or not) were made to act in a reenactment film designed to show the Romanians that crime didn't pay; they were executed afterwards. Director Alexandru Solomon investigates this lost bit of history. Occident (Nov 17) is the first film by director Cristian Mungiu, whose still unreleased in our area 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days copped the Palme D'Or at Cannes 2007. And a series of short films on Nov 25 includes early work by Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, a Cannes winner in '05), and Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest, Camera d'Or winner 2006). Pretty soon you'll be able to have a quick answer to the question, "What's your favorite Romanian film?"

In the new issue of GQ, erstwhile filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola -- we'll see what Youth Without Youth does for his ailing career -- goes off on an impressively long and specific rant against three of today's geriatric acting legends for not showing passion for their craft anymore. "I met both Pacino and De Niro when they were really on the come," Coppola says. "They were young and insecure. Now Pacino is rich, maybe because he never spends any money, he just puts it under the mattress. De Niro ... created an empire and is wealthy and powerful. Nicholson was -- when I met him and worked with him -- he was always kind of a joker. He's got a little bit of a mean streak. He's intelligent, always wired in with the big guys and the big bosses of the studios."

Coppola goes on to say that he doesn't know what they "want" anymore (in their work, presumably) and then he singles Nicholson out as the most unmotivated of the three. "I think if there was a role that De Niro was hungry for, he would come after it. I don't think Jack would. Jack has money and influence and girls, and I think he's a little bit like Brando, except Brando went through some tough times. I guess they don't want to do it anymore." (Come on -- no tough times? Nicholson found out his sister was his mother when he was, like, 40!)

You think Coppola's done? Oh, no ... he's just getting warmed up. "Even in those days, after The Godfather, I didn't feel those actors were ready to say 'Let's do something else really ambitious,'" he continues. "A guy like Javier Bardem is excited to do something good: 'Let me do this' or 'I'll put stuff in my mouth, change my appearance.' I don't feel that kind of passion to do a role and be great coming from those guys..." So there you have it folks. Francis Ford Coppola is back, and he's looking for young, hungry actors who are willing to put stuff in their mouths.

[via NYDailyNews]

News hit this morning that a laptop owned by Francis Ford Coppola had been stolen from an office in Buenos Aires, where Coppola's Zoetrope Argentina was set up to do pre-production work on the filmmaker's next project, Tetro. The robbery happened Wednesday night, involved the tying up of Zoetrope employees, one of whom was cut by a knife, and apparently also included the theft of other computer, cameras and valuables. On the specific laptop, though, was a real treasure for cinephiles: the screenplay for Tetro, which we previously learned is about Italian immigrants in Argentina. It wasn't the only copy, of course, but it was a shame. Still, the original story seemed not to be devastating for Coppola, who wasn't in the area, as he isn't expected to begin shooting until next year. As of this morning, it didn't even seem like he was going to issue a statement about the incident.

However, now Coppola has spoken to the press regarding the robbery. It turns out the computers did have some very significant items on them, including personal and family photographs, reportedly all those of his life, as well as all of his writings from the past 15 years. It would seem like an odd place to keep such personal belongings, but considering Tetro is partially autobiographical, it makes sense that the office would have access to items from Coppola's life. Of course, he probably should have only left copies of his life down in Argentina, but it's not fair to criticize his mistake at such a stressful moment. Coppola spoke on a local television station in Buenos Aires, mentioning that he would really, really like it if he could get his backup disk back. He claims it would save him years of work if he could have the lost files returned. He also stated that he would be moving the Zoetrope office out of its Palermo location and into another safer neighborhood. We'll have to wait and see if the incident has disrupted plans for Tetro's filming.

There are a lot of things that will make me want to see a movie. Maybe the effects look cool, it's based on a book I liked or the trailer made me laugh. The films we're talking about today are ones that caught my attention because of a name involved, someone whose presence in front of or behind the camera makes me think this flick might have something going for it. It's Star Power week on Trailer Park.

The Bucket List
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play terminal cancer patients who create a list of things they want to do in life before they kick the bucket (hence the title). Neither actor seems to be straying far from what we've come to expect of them. Nicholson is blustery but still kind of suave while Freeman is more thoughtful and fatherly, but these are roles they play well. Oddly enough, the dynamic between the two actors reminds me a bit of the one between Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis in Bubba Ho-tep. Will and Grace's Sean Hayes is here too and Rob Reiner is directing, so I suspect this will be one worth catching. Martha Fischer first blogged about this on Cinematical here.

Finishing the Game
The star in question here is actually the star of the film being made within the film. At the time of Bruce Lee's sudden death in 1973 at the age of thirty-two, his film The Game of Death remained unfinished. Finishing the Game is a comedy about the completion of the film in the wake of Lee's death and finding an actor who can finish the late martial arts star's scenes. Several actors vie for the role, one of them hilariously Caucasian. The costumes and hair styles capture the 70s feel nicely, as do the clips of faux period martial arts flicks, which kind of remind me of the fake trailers in Grindhouse. This looks awesome.