Francis Ford Coppola screens Coda: Thirty Years Later at the Inwood

by John P. Meyer

The ongoing local presence of AFI continues to be the most exciting thing to happen to the North Texas film scene since... well... ever, as far as I can tell.

Last night (May 9) at the Inwood, students (primarily from SMU) and invited friends of AFI were on hand to get a look at Coda: Thirty Years Later, the documentary filmed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola's wife, Eleanor. Coda follows the sometimes problematic progress of her husband's direction of his new film, Youth Without Youth (opening later this year). This film contrasts with her earlier documentary of his filmmaking technique, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which chronicled the far more difficult birthing progress of Apocalypse Now.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: Mr. Coppola was in the theater, too.

Speaking of difficult births: about 10 minutes into the screening, after I had already made a note to inquire about the striking cross-processed color effects employed in the film, the screen went dark and a disembodied voice from either God or the projection booth informed us that they were experiencing technical difficulties and would restart the film shortly. "Apologies to the filmmaker," concluded the voice (probably not God's).

After several uncomfortable minutes, during which I and others were beginning to wonder how the guest of honor (and potential future participant in the AFI Dallas festival) might be taking this unfortunate high-profile glitch, Mr. Coppola made his way to the stage and began his comments with the phrase, "This reminds me of when we were in the Soviet Union." Argh.

He proceeded to relate an amusing tale involving a planned screening of Apocalypse somewhere in Russia, concerning officials with limited authority and a troublesome train timetable: the details are a bit fuzzy, as I was still reeling from the comparison of Dallas with that former seat of communism. Actually, Coppola was simply trying to put us all at ease - he'd clearly encountered projection difficulties before (in a career spanning 40 years such things are inevitable), and later in the evening he would relate that Eleanor's film screened on a prior occasion with great picture quality, but crappy sound: in other words, it's always something.

When the film began playing again (after repeated intriguing glimpses of variously-hued color bar menus), it was apparent that the weird colorization problem had not been corrected; thus we all simply adjusted to the reality, sucked up our critical sensibilities and watched the rest of the production, which provided (as expected) a fascinating insider view of the filming of Youth Without Youth in and around Bucharest, Romania. Where, according to Mr. Coppola, it was extremely friggin' cold, making the episode where lead actress Alexandra Maria Lara reclines in the crashing Black Sea surf in a filmy negligee all the more harrowing.

Following the film, a number of SMU film students, local filmmakers and unclassifiable others had some fairly esoteric questions, leading to fascinating (if at times a bit rambling) answers from the naturally-loquacious Mr. Coppola. Here are highlights of his responses:

* The last film he saw at a theater was (brace yourself) Blades of Glory; he didn't comment on the film itself, but was disconcerted by the 20-minutes-worth of commercials preceding the movie.

* In response to a question involving his favorite film, he declined to choose, stating that the past 100 years of film history were too rich with outstanding works to single out only one. However, he did eventually mention La Dolce Vita as a personal inspiration.

* He's of the opinion that, among actors and writers, it's generally the actors who make the smoothest transition to the role of director, perhaps because of their more intimate acquaintance with the film production process.

* From out of left field (or stage right, for you theater buffs), a distinguished looking older gentleman mentioned that he'd been raised in a "dixie mafia" family and had written a screenplay about his experiences. Not surprisingly, his question for Mr. Coppola concerned how he could most easily get his screenplay into the director's hands. Mr. Coppola generously offered to have him place the script on the stage, but indicated he had no interest in pursuing the production of other people's screenplays now that he was in the position (and frame of mind) to produce his own self-authored works. Including the project he'll begin production on, in Argentina, in only a couple of weeks.

To close out the evening, a fellow inquired as to whether Mr. Coppola thought Tony Soprano got whacked in the last episode of The Sopranos. To which Mr. Coppola replied that he's never actually watched The Sopranos, and that he had "about as much interest in the Mafia as I do in dieting." [I should mention that Mr. Coppola currently sports something of a pot-belly (which I recognize from a similar phenomenon encountered lately in my own bathroom mirror), indicating to me an enjoyment of life and all it has to offer - including fine cuisine.

• Staff
• Verified User
• Anonymous