- 7 weeks ago
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991) is a documentary that takes viewers behind the scenes of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic production of Apocalypse Now. Using on-set footage, personal interviews, and candid moments, the film provides a rare look at the challenges, creativity, and determination that went into completing one of cinema’s most ambitious projects. It remains a landmark documentary about filmmaking, artistic vision, and perseverance.
Hearts of Darkness A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse 1991, Hearts of Darkness documentary, making of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola documentary, behind the scenes documentaries, classic film production stories, 1990s documentary films, movie making challenges, iconic filmmaking documentaries, legendary film production stories, 1991 documentary releases, behind the camera documentaries, cinema history films, filmmaking perseverance stories, must watch film documentaries, creative filmmaking process, film industry documentaries, movie production documentaries, classic cinema documentaries, stories behind classic movies, artistic vision in filmmaking, influential documentaries 1990s, filmmaking creativity, behind the scenes Hollywood, documentary about legendary films, rare filmmaking footage, inspiring filmmaking stories, landmark film documentaries, timeless behind the scenes films, Francis Ford Coppola behind the scenes
Hearts of Darkness A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse 1991, Hearts of Darkness documentary, making of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola documentary, behind the scenes documentaries, classic film production stories, 1990s documentary films, movie making challenges, iconic filmmaking documentaries, legendary film production stories, 1991 documentary releases, behind the camera documentaries, cinema history films, filmmaking perseverance stories, must watch film documentaries, creative filmmaking process, film industry documentaries, movie production documentaries, classic cinema documentaries, stories behind classic movies, artistic vision in filmmaking, influential documentaries 1990s, filmmaking creativity, behind the scenes Hollywood, documentary about legendary films, rare filmmaking footage, inspiring filmmaking stories, landmark film documentaries, timeless behind the scenes films, Francis Ford Coppola behind the scenes
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00:01Ever since I was a student in college, we used to do a thing before every production.
00:00:07And since I've been making films, we did it, and it made those films have good luck.
00:00:13This is for good luck, for wonderful production, and for safety.
00:00:17Can we all take our hands?
00:00:20I'm going to go three times, and...
00:00:23Puwaba! Puwaba! Puwaba!
00:00:27I am very excited about it because I feel like it's a film that really deals with some very intriguing intellectual ideas.
00:00:40It isn't just a lot of car chases and violence, and it's really a grown-up film about things that we're thinking about as human beings.
00:00:53So, I think it's great that Francis has gotten back on the track of the things that really are personally interesting and inspiring him, as opposed to taking the assignment of...
00:01:07You know, how do you get into someone's consciousness?
00:01:09You know, how do you get into someone's consciousness?
00:01:11How do you understand what consciousness is? How do you...
00:01:13How do you get into someone's consciousness, really? How do you understand what consciousness is? How do you...
00:01:17It's as if there was a Martian who came down to Earth and said, you know, you humans have this kind of thing you call consciousness.
00:01:21We don't think we have it. We don't think we have it. Can you explain to us what it is, what it is?
00:01:27What it feels like? And what would you say? You would say, well, it's a kind of...
00:01:31knowing that involves self-knowing, so that the process of understanding and understanding...
00:01:35You know, how do you get into someone's consciousness, really? How do you understand what consciousness is?
00:01:39How do you...
00:01:41It's as if there was a Martian who came down to Earth and said, you know, you humans have this kind of thing you call consciousness.
00:01:47We don't think we have it. Can you explain to us what it is, what it feels like? And what would you say?
00:01:53You would say, well, it's a kind of knowing that involves self-knowing, so that the process of my knowing has with it a personality that I can feel is, in fact, myself.
00:02:09So that I'm aware of my thinking. So, which is to say, the Martian would say, well, does that mean that while you're thinking, you're also thinking that you're thinking?
00:02:19And I say, yeah, it's sort of like that, is that I'm thinking, but I'm thinking with a sort of identity, an emotional identity, because I feel a certain way.
00:02:32And I'm aware that I'm thinking, so I'm self-aware.
00:02:38I really appreciate you telling me what consciousness is, because we beings from other planets have intelligence, which is to say, we can think, we can figure out problems.
00:02:51But we feel that human beings have a much more mysterious sense of inner self that we don't think we have. Could you describe it to us?
00:03:04Well, I could try to describe it. It's as I said, it's as though if you were a person with only one eye, and you would only see, you know, length and width, and you have no sense of depth.
00:03:18When you take away the one eye, it's the same as what suddenly becomes consciousness, except it's not just the third dimension, it's a multiple dimension, and it exists in thought, in reasoning, in emotion, in imagery, because it brings memory into the picture.
00:03:36That's very interesting. I do understand what you mean about three dimensions, but a person who had never seen three dimensions, who had said had one eye, or one eye damaged, would not know what you're talking about three dimensions.
00:03:52So perhaps that's why I can't understand consciousness.
00:03:56That's exactly right. That's exactly what I'm trying to say. It's a wholeness that's multifaceted, but not multifaceted in separate little categories,
00:04:10in the way that three dimensions brings out a larger picture, a larger sense of itself. That's what I think consciousness is.
00:04:23Oh, very interesting. I don't understand at all.
00:04:26Hey, Tim? Yeah?
00:04:29Do you want to do something really difficult?
00:04:31Of course.
00:04:32Playing both doubles at the same time?
00:04:34I can do it, no problem.
00:04:35Because what we could do is we could make a low camera and a high camera, and it would be hard, but you might get a certain energy from it.
00:04:43Knowing where to learn.
00:04:44You'd screw up once in a while, but in other words, you'd do this, you'd say, well, I don't know what I've...
00:04:49Roll. Action.
00:04:51So let's come back to my old passion. The philosophy of religion.
00:05:06Yes. For you, it will always come back to that.
00:05:21Francis traveled to Bucharest in June 2005 to begin pre-production. I didn't join him until September. It was the longest we had been apart in our 43-year marriage.
00:05:48What were the rooms like, Kelly?
00:05:57The production found an old mansion in downtown Bucharest that had been divided into apartments during the Communist era.
00:06:04You are doing very well in...
00:06:05It had a ballroom where Francis rehearsed with his actors for two weeks before shooting.
00:06:10You want to create an atmosphere of total freedom and protection. A little theater workshop. Experimental theater workshop.
00:06:17He created an atmosphere for me that gave me no limits. In a way.
00:06:27He's an expert on music.
00:06:29I mean, there was nothing I should be afraid of doing. There's nothing that I should be worried about.
00:06:36Then the things that I was worried about...
00:06:38His hair is no problem. And that would piss me off, you know. There's no problem. There's no problem for you.
00:06:44Because you're sitting there. I'm sitting over here and I've got to do it. Yeah, you'll be fine.
00:06:48It's so strange about acting because you never know. You have the dream and you have the passion and you want to do it as good as possible. But I'm never 100% sure that I'm able to do what I have to do.
00:07:06It's like poetry and stuff. You can't. But it's an attempt on my part to have more this kind of a creative experience even when you're shooting the film.
00:07:14Which is to say that the way we operate the rehearsals will become the manner that, you know, then we'd call in the photographer and the sets and what have you and we'll take it to the next step.
00:07:24So many cars, so many extras, I'm trying to put them in there. But on this one, I want to have not enough. And so we can be more imaginative.
00:07:32If we have only one car, maybe we'll have it that the car is broken and two guys are pushing it across the street. So it's something interesting.
00:07:40And of course, this is also for all of you because if we have fewer extras, that means fewer hair people to help, fewer costume people to help, and better lunch.
00:07:52I want to make my apologies to all the people of Bucharest because we were shooting on Sunday on this beautiful street. And unfortunately, we eliminated one road for the cars.
00:08:13But it's so beautiful to see this and to see it back in 1938 as Bucharest was without this eternal traffic jam.
00:08:23Francis chose his project and had complete artistic control. But making a film is always complex and even more so when working in a foreign country.
00:08:33The process is fraught with unexpected problems and creative decisions that have to be made in difficult circumstances.
00:08:40I don't even know if I want to, I don't want to go there. I don't want to go there. I don't want to be in that place.
00:08:47And how come I'm told yesterday we have a deal and then I'm told we don't have a deal? What am I going to hear on Monday?
00:08:53I'll make it very clear that this is the definitive price, that we feel that it has been renegotiated and we want it clear that this is not going to happen every day.
00:09:03I was told, I got an email from you that we signed the deal, it was all done. Now I'm told it's not all done. So this time when we, right, but this time when we sign it, it is the definitive deal.
00:09:16And we are doing it under duress because we have only three days to go and so clearly we can argue.
00:09:23I'm the same guy now as I was 40 years ago. Maybe I've learned a couple of things to try to avoid.
00:09:35Walk here and he was hit by lightning.
00:09:37I tell you what I did like to do especially was to stay really close by when he was doing scenes with extras or cars or setting up some kind of, you know, establishing exterior or street scene.
00:09:52and see how he staged it and how he used the, uh, took, took the minimum and made the maximum of it, which is always what you need to be able to do.
00:10:02And he's very, very good at that. It's wonderful to watch.
00:10:09Cut. Good.
00:10:10Go.
00:10:11Okay.
00:10:15But what do I think? Is this the right way to go?
00:10:18Well, I wanted to make the movie as though I were a 16 year old, so I can do any stupid thing that pops into my mind.
00:10:25But is that responsible?
00:10:27I don't know if it's responsible, but it'll be fun.
00:10:30And, you know, it will mean that the film won't be regular.
00:10:35What's regular?
00:10:36What's regular?
00:10:43I haven't, uh, made a film, uh, for almost nine years.
00:10:47I didn't want to just make another story.
00:10:50I was waiting for something that I could make a more personal kind of filmmaking.
00:10:55I believe that when you make a film, it's like asking a question.
00:10:59And when you finish the film, you maybe know a little bit the answer.
00:11:02So, so this film is my asking a question about consciousness, human consciousness, how it really works, what it is.
00:11:10But these are pretty complicated themes, Francis.
00:11:13I think one thing the movie making public does want are movies that do talk about interesting things.
00:11:20What is the nature of time? What is the nature of consciousness itself? You know, that's interesting.
00:11:26When I read the script, I, I thought, oh my God, what an incredible story.
00:11:32Because when you go to the cinema and see new movies, you always, you, not always, but you often have the feeling that you know the stories, you know the love stories, you know the, you know the conflict.
00:11:45And, um, when I read this script, I really had the feeling that it's such an extraordinary story combining so many different things, philosophical thoughts or theories.
00:12:00Um, a beautiful love story.
00:12:03You yourself taught me about Chantakirti, the concept of tetralemma logic, the four possibilities.
00:12:08What you say is so, or it is not so, it's also so and not so combined, or it's neither so nor not so combined.
00:12:17You know, when you're talking in the film, you say, well, what about, is it right or wrong?
00:12:20He says, well, it's right and it's wrong and it's both right and wrong.
00:12:23So, I mean, I think that's a concept people are ready to grasp.
00:12:26And that basically is the concept of duality, that the world is not as we must, by nature, being human beings, experience it, which has duality.
00:12:36It has good and bad, it has this and that and this and that.
00:12:39It's true that the real reality is an illusion that we've constructed out of the very sophisticated nature of our consciousness.
00:12:52And our consciousness came from our language.
00:12:54So, I mean, all those things I'm very interested in, and so is Mircea Iliade interested in, because he's very interested in the illusory nature of time.
00:13:03And all Indian myth basically deals with that.
00:13:05It's been understood that she would be put into a deep sleep before leaving the clinic.
00:13:09And we'll continue to sleep until we reach the vicinity of the caves.
00:13:14Woah.
00:13:30forward
00:13:32forward
00:13:34forward
00:13:36forward
00:13:38forward
00:13:40charlie delta
00:13:42approaching for landing
00:13:44the alarm at 4 30 a.m. was a nerve-splitting
00:14:13sound
00:14:15there was a familiar torturous excitement
00:14:17about driving to shooting locations in a
00:14:19foreign country during the gray light of
00:14:21early dawn
00:14:27is it cold near the border of
00:14:29Nepal? yes
00:14:31beautiful
00:14:41so try one
00:14:43where you imagine the sleep you're
00:14:45coming out of is like a deeper
00:14:47longer like it's a long tunnel
00:14:49and you're just slowly
00:14:51coming out because you're going
00:14:53a thousand years almost
00:14:55coming out of the past
00:14:57and you
00:15:07play it
00:15:09as though as if
00:15:11as if she were your daughter
00:15:25and she has come home
00:15:27I was witnessing my husband
00:15:29going through a profound creative process
00:15:31he was directing again
00:15:33after a lapse of nearly 10 years
00:15:35a film for which he wrote the script
00:15:37and is the producer
00:15:41in the interim he had many disappointments
00:15:43in his attempt to make a big personal
00:15:45project entitled
00:15:47Megalopolis
00:15:49I was about 17
00:15:51and I knew a young girl
00:15:53who was 16
00:15:55and we were going to Great Neck North
00:15:57High School
00:15:59she was an exceptionally bright young girl
00:16:01and very pretty as well
00:16:03and in fact I confess she was the first girl
00:16:05I ever kissed in my life
00:16:07and her name was Wendy Doniger
00:16:09and today is one of the
00:16:11preeminent Sanskritists in the world
00:16:13so Wendy read my screenplay of Megalopolis
00:16:15and advised me
00:16:17to read some of Iliade's work
00:16:19and she sent me various
00:16:21excerpts of
00:16:23things that might be relevant
00:16:25and partly it was a speech
00:16:27from Youth Without Youth
00:16:29the part where Professor Tucci
00:16:31comments on time
00:16:33I did feel it was helpful
00:16:35and I read that
00:16:37and I read other of Iliade's work
00:16:39his autobiography
00:16:41at that time I was very frustrated
00:16:43I felt in stalemate
00:16:45with Megalopolis
00:16:47I've often described Megalopolis
00:16:49as being in love with a wonderful woman
00:16:51whom you cannot have
00:16:53and so you can have her
00:16:55and therefore you don't have her
00:16:57but she sort of takes the place
00:16:59of meeting someone else
00:17:01so that you end up as I was
00:17:03with Megalopolis just sort of stumped
00:17:05and I began to think
00:17:07well what if I made a film
00:17:09a less expensive film sort of the way
00:17:11my daughter Sofia made Lost in Translation
00:17:13and when I read
00:17:15the story of Iliade
00:17:17Youth Without Youth
00:17:19I thought well maybe this is the story
00:17:21that wasn't my life
00:17:31this is my life
00:17:33that didn't happen to me
00:17:35all these things didn't happen to me
00:17:37it's a new life
00:17:39very sensual new life
00:17:41your senses are operating really
00:17:45at max
00:17:47what are you thinking
00:17:49what are you thinking
00:17:51what kind
00:17:53of memory
00:17:55what kind
00:18:01of associations
00:18:03what are you thinking
00:18:05what are you thinking
00:18:07what are you thinking
00:18:09what are you thinking
00:18:11what are you thinking
00:18:13he has to play so many things
00:18:15he dominates every scene
00:18:17he has to be young
00:18:19old middle age
00:18:21he has to be sentimental
00:18:23he has to be intelligent and brilliant
00:18:25he has to be able to play
00:18:27many many different emotions
00:18:29relative to being a fugitive
00:18:31or being frightened
00:18:35just drive, drive, anywhere
00:18:37バイバイ
00:18:53you
00:18:55you
00:18:57you
00:18:59you
00:19:01you
00:19:03you
00:19:05I think we should get away.
00:19:19I think we should go somewhere.
00:19:20We should be alone.
00:19:22We should go to somewhere beautiful on a Mediterranean island.
00:19:27That would make me very, very happy.
00:19:33I didn't understand how you could possibly make a film like that.
00:19:35I didn't know, I had not a clue.
00:19:38And so when I spoke to him on the phone, I was very excited about it.
00:19:43But it was, I mean, the first question really for me was,
00:19:47how the hell are you going to do this?
00:19:48How do you do this?
00:19:49And he said, I don't know.
00:19:51We're working on that.
00:19:52We'll figure that out.
00:19:53Good and evil lose their meaning, and in the absolute being coincides with non-being.
00:20:08Yes, but what no one dares to say is that in the horizon of these philosophies,
00:20:13atomic wars must be, if not justified, at least accepted.
00:20:16No, I reject that.
00:20:18True meaning of nuclear catastrophe can only be this,
00:20:21the mutation of the human species and the arrival of the new man.
00:20:24The double is a very pragmatic, cold, you know, message of all that matters is the perfection of the species.
00:20:32It doesn't matter who is hurt, who is crushed, who dies, who's lost.
00:20:37Everything gentle and sentimental really falls away in light of the nature's desire to just keep preserving the species.
00:20:48You're saying the end justifies, are you saying, are you saying the end, it's like it's a cliche, you're giving me that cliche, the end just, you can say that if you want.
00:20:56Yeah, I'll let it.
00:20:56No, there is no other way, just as there's no other way for Veronica, but age and death.
00:21:02Suffering, I like maybe the word suffering, because she suffered.
00:21:05That's what it's really about, is that are we not to have compassion for people who suffer, and he would say no.
00:21:11Somehow we got to argue the humanist in him against the cold, icy cold, practical side, which the double represents.
00:21:21But when you start talking about the stories and tragedies of other people, even that's a concept.
00:21:25I mean, I don't think a dog ever sits around with another dog, oh, did you hear about Ignatz, the puppy who was the fourth puppy?
00:21:34I understand he had a terrible time, he just got hit by a car, and that's all these concepts that our very sophisticated consciousness is able to conjure up.
00:21:45Then he says no, and he takes this chair, and he goes, maybe he smashes the chair.
00:21:51I like the flipping physical, you know, like he just, you know, because it's all in his head.
00:21:55I mean, it's not, he's denying the part of him.
00:21:59I think Francis' thing about the love story, I think, is, I mean, there's many things, but that aspect of it, how many times do you wish in your life you could take back those words, or you could try a different sentence, and see how, I mean, it's a wonderful life, you know, see what the outcome is, would be, change the direction of your life, whatever.
00:22:27And, and this man does have a chance to do that.
00:22:32In a sense, he doesn't have a chance to do that, he just gets bonus material.
00:22:36I feel that you aren't mine, that you are never here with me, that you, that you live in another time.
00:22:50I'm not thinking of your research, which in spite of what you believe does interest me.
00:22:55I wanted to help you with that, but you keep yourself shut away in an alien world, when I can't enter.
00:23:04So for my sake, and for yours, we should break our engagement and separate.
00:23:10No, I don't know.
00:23:12We are still young.
00:23:15We both love life.
00:23:21You'll have more time for your research.
00:23:26You'll see later.
00:23:27When I was about 16 years old, I was 17, I was of course a theater arts student, I was studying theater arts, but I was very interested in film.
00:23:47And, and, and I had written a short film involving a lonely middle-aged man, kind of that introspective character who lives alone, a sort of lonely life, and perhaps does not have a lot of self-esteem at work.
00:24:06And I remember I was able to get a few hundred dollars, and I bought a 16 millimeter Bolex camera, and I asked my uncle Clarence, who was my father's brother, was, you know, one of the wonderful uncles who would always take us to the movies and sort of indulge us kids in our various things we need an adult for.
00:24:28And I asked my uncle Clarence, and I dressed him up in a, a little bit of a costume, and I built a tiny set in our basement, in our home, and really made what, what is the first film I ever made.
00:24:42I photographed it myself and lit it down in the basement, and it had to do with the routine of this man's life, living alone, coming home, and to his lonely place, and, you know, taking a few cans out of a, out of a cupboard,
00:24:57and warming up a modest meal, and, and lying on his bed all alone, and I think this was the beginning of a character that, that has haunted me, and, uh, it's an element of the character of Dominique, uh, in Youth Without Youth, and, and certainly the character as in Harry Call in The Conversation.
00:25:17But these themes of, of, of the loneliness of this man, uh, really represent something that I think continues to haunt me, and, uh, may show up again in, in my work, and, uh, I think it, there's more to do with the personal filmmaking I would like to make in the future, uh, than, uh, than a lot of the work I'm better known for.
00:25:41Sometimes, I admit to myself that it's possible. I will never be able to finish my life's work.
00:26:00My one and only book, and that in the end, without her, there will be nothing, and I will die alone.
00:26:22How is the fit on him? Does he, does it make him look a little bit more like old friends?
00:26:34He shrinks.
00:26:35So the clothes start to be too big for him.
00:26:38Too big the clothes.
00:26:39Yes, this is the logo.
00:26:40Yes.
00:26:41Because, you know, he's an old man, but he also has no woman in his life.
00:26:46What can you tell me about your experience working with Francis?
00:26:53I think every day is a Friday.
00:26:56By that I mean that you feel like you've worked a full week every single day.
00:27:00And he is fearless.
00:27:05Um, ostensibly fearless.
00:27:10He is not afraid to just jump in with both feet, make a fool of himself, and paddle around, you know.
00:27:18And comes up with the most remarkable ideas at the drop of a hat.
00:27:23And I don't know, and sometimes on the spur of the moment, I'm sure he's done an extraordinary amount of preparation for this,
00:27:29but sometimes it looks like he's working on the run, and it does, it does invigorate you.
00:27:37Now he has his chance to do it.
00:27:39I think it's a little bit of a struggle.
00:27:42Everything in this scene is a struggle.
00:27:43It's a struggle to walk.
00:27:44It's a struggle to tell the truth.
00:27:46It's a struggle to admit.
00:27:47And the whole time he's coming out of that cocoon.
00:27:52Agents from the Secret Service, they'll never believe I'm past 70,
00:27:56and therefore they'll never believe I am who I say I am.
00:28:01Of course.
00:28:02We'll be very careful.
00:28:04Everything can happen if you're interrogated by them.
00:28:07I won't let that happen.
00:28:09It's true, though.
00:28:11These are difficult times in Romania.
00:28:14I don't know, watching Tim, something happened.
00:28:16Interesting.
00:28:17And I felt that I could trust this feeling.
00:28:20And from the beginning I had a very, very good relationship with Tim,
00:28:26without forcing and trying to be nice or kind or we have to be or nothing.
00:28:33I don't know.
00:28:34It was when we first time met and started to read, this reading together.
00:28:39And it's certainly also the influence of Francis.
00:28:42His soul.
00:28:44He is very good for actors and he is treating us so nicely.
00:28:48And you feel you can lean back and trust him.
00:28:51And what he's saying is good for actors and he's helping you.
00:28:56Are you sure he was conscious?
00:28:59Are you sure he squeezed your finger?
00:29:01Couldn't it have been a reflex gesture?
00:29:03No.
00:29:04No.
00:29:05Please throw it yourself, Professor, just to make sure.
00:29:07If you understand what I say, squeeze.
00:29:10So at this point maybe it's like you're going to put this to rest and think about it a little.
00:29:21You know, like you can now be comfortable and begin to give him your instructions.
00:29:27I never did that before.
00:29:28Go back to the rehearsal room where you're back to a familiar, sort of safe place where everyone more or less.
00:29:35And then rehearse up there a few times and then bring it to you.
00:29:38You know, it was interesting.
00:29:43I just got wrapped in bandages.
00:29:46Oh, it's good.
00:29:47Oh.
00:29:48Yeah.
00:29:49It's good, right?
00:29:50All right, here we go.
00:29:51Let's do a little run through more or less as we just did it.
00:29:54And what it makes me think back is I go back all the way back to my career and understanding in my own personality
00:30:00that one of the things that I obviously have a phobia about is public embarrassment.
00:30:06I think this had to do with the way I was raised and the fact that I went to a different school every year.
00:30:13Like when I was a kid, you know, age 13, brought up into the front of the class in California having come from Queens, New York,
00:30:21and said, oh, this is Francis Coppola.
00:30:25He's going to be a new student.
00:30:27Everyone laughed, you know, because my name was Francis or taking me there in front of all these California kids,
00:30:37you know, beautiful girls and boys of this, what was very different culture in those days.
00:30:43And so, well, coming into the class and have the teacher say, oh, you're tardy.
00:30:47And I looked and I said, no, I'm not tardy, I'm Coppola.
00:30:51And everyone laughed at me, you know, because I had never heard the word tardy,
00:30:55which was the common expression in California schools, whereas in New York schools they would say you're late.
00:31:00On a movie set, I misunderstood what shooting was, that somehow shooting to me was sort of like your performance.
00:31:12In other words, if you're a good director, you come on the set and you immediately know where to put the camera
00:31:18and what lens to use and how to mount the day and, you know, be very snappy about telling everyone to do this, do that.
00:31:26And when someone confronts you in front of everyone and says, well, you know, if you do that, you're going to be, have a problem with this
00:31:35or the screen direction is wrong, that public embarrassment was something that kind of froze me up.
00:31:47I felt that if I'm taking this group of people across the country for four months and they don't like making movies,
00:31:54they're going to be very unhappy. And if they're unhappy, it's no good for them, it's no good for me.
00:32:04Essentially what I'm saying is that I thought directing was being sort of like the, quote,
00:32:09jock mentality of the crew, which is, oh yeah, well, he's a great director.
00:32:13He knows exactly what to do according to their standards.
00:32:16And I realized that if you had four or five directors and one was like super jock, you know, come in here,
00:32:22put the camera here, two feet over here, the screen direction right to left is going to go over here,
00:32:26bring in the actors, do this, do that.
00:32:28And there was another director down the line or say different degrees of that.
00:32:33And he didn't know where to put the camera and didn't know what to say.
00:32:37And he wasn't a very, it wasn't a very good performance.
00:32:40That, that, that there's no saying that that more inept director in terms of performance on the set
00:32:47might be doing the really beautiful film because it all depends on, on, on his or her instinct.
00:32:56I can't work this way. I used to work this way in America.
00:32:58I quit working for 10 years.
00:33:00Now I started with a little unit. Now I have that.
00:33:03And the power to the lights. Please tell me.
00:33:06Okay. Okay. Good. I will, I resign as producer. I just sit down.
00:33:14The unit is twice as big as it was.
00:33:16I don't feel comfortable to be here all day getting here early in the morning.
00:33:20And then I go over there and I see there's a whole other company over there.
00:33:23And I feel when we come out on location that suddenly has so many people standing around that no one does their job
00:33:29because they're all, there's four prop men and nobody is looking to do the thing.
00:33:33Where is, where is the focus that we have?
00:33:36I'm fighting all day to try to get you the sunlight and trying to, oh, that's it.
00:33:40And then I go over there and this is a whole enormous unit.
00:33:43Kim's here with us. Alexandra's here with us. Everybody's here.
00:33:47Who's there?
00:33:50Vehicles.
00:33:52I saw so many vehicles in my life.
00:33:55What it really comes down to is in motion picture, there's what happens in the camera and around the camera,
00:34:01which are the scenes you're doing.
00:34:03And then there's the vast support unit that goes to make that possible.
00:34:08And the difference is, in opinion, as to how big that support has to be.
00:34:13I've long felt that motion pictures are very long on support and crew and trucks and drivers and stuff that has nothing to do with the movie.
00:34:26And that that's like a tax on the filmmaker because the filmmaker is in a tough spot of time to do the scenes because those, that support unit is so big and costs so much every day.
00:34:42And my theory always been if you had a very small support unit like this truck right behind us, which theoretically is supposed to have everything you need to make a motion picture in it.
00:34:53And a few trucks that, that that enables the director to spend more time on the actual movie, working with the actors and stuff.
00:35:04We are in Spain, passport control.
00:35:22Please upstairs.
00:35:24Please 시�rain me, take in your pocket.
00:35:27Every officer wants this on camera.
00:35:32Look at the wrong angle to noget!
00:35:37You can get muchas gracias!
00:35:40Don't forget the wheels.
00:35:42Thank you!
00:35:48!
00:35:50?
00:35:52Sorry, Tim, would you please go back into the line and do that again?
00:36:03He shouldn't have a guy with the Gestapo guy when you come.
00:36:09Okay, ready?
00:36:10Now, these German guys just sit over there a second.
00:36:13There's only one here, and I'll help you.
00:36:16Okay, ready?
00:36:17And begin.
00:36:21The director doesn't just direct by putting the camera in the place and saying to the actor, I want you to do this.
00:36:30The director also is helping to create the overall feeling of the film by how he chooses to make it.
00:36:38On Apocalypse Now, I went in and said this movie should be made like an over Hollywood production,
00:36:43and the battle scenes should be like the biggest, most spectacular thing, and I did it that way.
00:36:48I could have made Apocalypse in 16mm as a little documentary the way George Lucas thought it should have been made,
00:36:55and I would have made a very good film that way, but that wasn't the style I chose to make.
00:36:59So the style you choose to make a film relates to the auspices or the crew or the amount of trucks and what you're doing.
00:37:07What I've done is I've tried to look at a movie, and instead of just assume, oh, we need all this,
00:37:16I went with the assumption we don't need anything.
00:37:19Oh, we have to have a camera.
00:37:20Okay, we'll have a camera.
00:37:22We have to have light.
00:37:23Okay.
00:37:23In other words, I added the elements of the production based on what was absolutely essential.
00:37:28You know, in the words of Napoleon, use the weapons at hand, but to walk around and just see what's there,
00:37:39and see what you can use, because the more things you collaborate with, the other people, the weather,
00:37:45the more you kind of go with the other factors, the more it comes to life, because you're not just pre-making it,
00:37:54you're allowing it to happen the same way life happens, which is a series of, you know, accidents in a way,
00:38:01is what I'm after, what everyone's after.
00:38:05And so your instincts are really good, so now you're sort of starting to know the character,
00:38:11so in a way you're getting to the point where your instincts are better than mine,
00:38:16because you are the guy.
00:38:18It's such a simple thing to say, but so true.
00:38:23I mean, if you're going to choose a script or you're going to choose an actor,
00:38:27you choose something that's independently alive,
00:38:31because the object of art, I think, in some way, among other things, is to catch life,
00:38:36you know, to have it, so when someone looks at that film or looks at that picture or hears that music,
00:38:44they're hearing more than just what it is.
00:38:48They're hearing something or seeing something that's alive.
00:38:50And he comes and he looks and he, my God, it's Hitler, it's, uh, that's not Hitler.
00:38:56He doesn't look like that.
00:38:57The other one.
00:38:59Hitler.
00:39:00No.
00:39:01Oh.
00:39:02So, Florin, get on that side so I see you.
00:39:07Excuse me, I'm going to run and look through the camera now to see how this looks.
00:39:10It's nice to get these exteriors with all that hospital interior.
00:39:15How is from that?
00:39:17Well, we'll see how the timing is.
00:39:18Okay.
00:39:21More, more, more, more.
00:39:22Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.
00:39:24Okay.
00:39:28Okay, action.
00:39:32Normally, the car comes in, you pan the car in and you do that.
00:39:37But I prefer the tableau and, you know, I don't, I have this big discipline on this movie never to pan the camera unless it's for a purpose.
00:39:45And the theory is that if you do it for a purpose, then when you do it, it's like, it could be, you know, exciting.
00:39:53So, let's see.
00:40:23Of course, I will never forget a day when in Balcik we, he, we were all at breakfast and he said, Alexandra, can you come one moment?
00:40:36And, yeah, of course.
00:40:37And he said, look, it's so beautiful outside.
00:40:40The sea is beautiful.
00:40:42And I would love to make the scene outside.
00:40:44And it was perfect because it was so cold and so tough to be there on the rocks.
00:40:51But it was such a big help, of course, for all the emotions because then you, you feel the pain and then you just have to feel free and to play your part.
00:41:00And that's fantastic.
00:41:05During shooting on the Black Sea, my camera was assigned production shots as every effort was made to complete the scene quickly.
00:41:13It was November and the actors went into the icy water again and again.
00:41:17What is it?
00:41:24I was so worried.
00:41:29What is it?
00:41:31It's a dream.
00:41:33A bad dream.
00:41:34Remember yesterday, I was saying, oh, I hope we get a storm.
00:41:38I hope we get a storm.
00:41:39It wasn't a storm, but it's sure.
00:41:41The two of you in that water, it looked pretty ferocious.
00:41:44It must have felt ferocious, too.
00:41:46It just knocks your breath away.
00:41:47Because of the cold or because of the force?
00:41:50When it hits you, all the breath goes out.
00:41:52And he senses you want to tell him something.
00:42:05He says, you know, there's something you want to say, but you don't dare say it.
00:42:11You're confused by this.
00:42:13All of a sudden, you're living in this beautiful place with this man you didn't know.
00:42:16You've had this big experience of being a Rupini, and you know it's true because you hear yourself
00:42:25saying this strange language.
00:42:27All you have is him.
00:42:29He's your only protection that you have.
00:42:33My love.
00:42:35Is it true?
00:42:39Francis one day asked me to surprise Tim.
00:42:42So it was Tim's close-up, and Francis came to me and he said,
00:42:48I will tell you a story.
00:42:49You tell him the story.
00:42:51And Tim had to give the answer.
00:42:54A man and a woman were murdered.
00:42:56For Francis, it was just important to see the surprise in Tim's face.
00:43:01So I told him the story.
00:43:02Tim was surprised, but did not know the answer.
00:43:05It was Adam and Eve.
00:43:07And when I heard Adam and Eva, everybody started laughing.
00:43:10Adam and Eva, Adam and Eva.
00:43:12I was surprised by the answer, and I did not understand what Adam and Eva is.
00:43:17For me, it sounds like paranoia, or I thought Adam and Eva, because he said it so fast that
00:43:24for me in German, it's Adam and Eva.
00:43:29He's just trying to stump me now.
00:43:30I just like to see you think and catch you thinking of a film.
00:43:33And Francis also, he was incredible.
00:43:35He was joking sometimes with me, and I wanted so much to joke with him too.
00:43:40But it's so difficult to make a joke in a language you don't really know.
00:43:44But yeah, they all helped me, and it was wonderful.
00:43:49Also, I'm trying to think more as a kid, saying, oh, gee, you know, what can I do?
00:43:54Well, I'll do a love scene, and you'll never see them, you know, dumb things like that.
00:43:58I'm trying to have that attitude.
00:44:00I'm trying to think as more as I would have when I was 16.
00:44:05You know, oh, isn't it neat?
00:44:06I have a record player, and a song is coming, but it's not coming from there.
00:44:12And oh, it's coming from the modern one, so you know, oh, it's modern.
00:44:15I learned very early in my movie career to sweat it and to be uncomfortable
00:44:23and not to be just like, oh, isn't this fun doing this?
00:44:26You know, which is what I thought it would be when I was young.
00:44:29So this experience, so many years later, and with the structure different,
00:44:34not having a studio finance it, I'm much more comfortable.
00:44:39And I noticed this morning coming to work, I wasn't dreading.
00:44:43I always used to sit in the car being taken to the set,
00:44:47just hoping the car would never get there, you know.
00:45:04So the suitcases are going to come left to right.
00:45:13So can we be sort of like this, or do you want that, we need that space?
00:45:34So what do you think about your age?
00:45:36This is all a very interesting point in my life.
00:45:41But maybe the age 66 is an interesting point in a man's life,
00:45:46because it's at that age that he's really going to take the final steps
00:45:50to being an elderly person, a grandpa, or, you know,
00:45:56one of those guys who comes in the white shoes and the nice sports jacket
00:45:59to the various charity dinners around town.
00:46:02Or maybe he's going to become a more mature artist, come into his own,
00:46:07look at Matisse or some of these artists who...
00:46:10But I have a feeling that Matisse, the little I know,
00:46:13was just sort of having a nice time and doing what he enjoyed to do.
00:46:18Painting, just what you see and enjoy, is nothing like making a film.
00:46:24Making a film is like production meetings and worrying about the weather,
00:46:27and is it going to snow because it snowed, but if it snows, then what are you going to do?
00:46:31And do you have the money to do this?
00:46:34I mean, that's not, like, a nice thing for an old man to be doing.
00:46:38I don't know what consciousness really looks like to you.
00:46:42It's pretty abstract. I mean, it's not like something you really see.
00:46:45I will close your eyes. What do you see?
00:46:47His style has always been, I mean, it's the best way,
00:46:51is kind of classical, kind of operatic, and this movie is managing to look like that.
00:46:59And you're trying to look older right now.
00:47:01Maybe you still try, and you're trying to.
00:47:03Right. And you're trying to look older.
00:47:05Yeah.
00:47:06Those glasses, those ridiculous glasses.
00:47:09What do you mean ridiculous glasses?
00:47:10Outrageous.
00:47:12Those aren't even a prescription.
00:47:16That's good. Those aren't even a prescription.
00:47:18I still don't know who I am.
00:47:20I mean, you find yourself chatting with this guy,
00:47:22and you don't even know who the hell he is.
00:47:23Well, as better as at a racetrack would say,
00:47:25I put everything I had on one horse, and I won.
00:47:28I'm Ted Jones, Jr. I'm a correspondent with Life Magazine.
00:47:32What's that?
00:47:33It's American enthusiasm.
00:47:34That is very American.
00:47:36American, you know, you want me to give a little more?
00:47:38As better as at a racetrack would say,
00:47:40yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm Ted Jones, Jr.
00:47:43I'm like, a little more, a little more, okay.
00:47:45You just avoided it.
00:47:48It's actually a fugitive, but just a quiet intellectual.
00:47:53And he's just camera shy, also.
00:47:55You know, he doesn't want anyone to focus that kind of attention on that.
00:47:58And to think, 10 months ago, on January 8th,
00:48:02you turned 74 years old.
00:48:0611 again.
00:48:07You're trying to look older, too.
00:48:08Those glasses aren't even a prescription.
00:48:10I still don't.
00:48:16I still don't know the humor.
00:48:18I have the pleasure to be speaking.
00:48:20I'm Ted Jones, Jr.
00:48:21I'm a correspondent for Life Magazine.
00:48:23I've been looking for somebody for years and years,
00:48:26and I found him,
00:48:27and he's somebody who's 87 years old,
00:48:29but he looks like Tim Roth.
00:48:31Oh, it's going to get huge going on 11th.
00:48:34No, but I mean, we'll moderate.
00:48:36Yeah, we'll moderate.
00:48:37It's really kind of epic and large and grand
00:48:39and goes all over the place.
00:48:41And I think that that's exactly the kind of movie
00:48:43you want Francis Ford Coppola to be making.
00:48:46Our apartment was in this building in Bucharest.
00:48:52It was spacious and comfortable with a good kitchen
00:48:55and with the same furniture our daughter Sophia
00:48:58had used in her apartment in Paris
00:49:00when she was on location for Marie Antoinette.
00:49:04The movie is like you throw a ping-pong ball up into the sky,
00:49:07and it's at the mercy of so many winds.
00:49:11It's the wind of what the public sentiment is like at that time
00:49:18and what kind of a project really will strike the audience right
00:49:26and appear fresh and relevant.
00:49:29But, you know, I mean,
00:49:30if you throw a ping-pong ball up into the wind,
00:49:33how do you know where it's going to land?
00:49:41Action.
00:49:56Welcome, son.
00:50:04You were going in the desert,
00:50:06and you found this well,
00:50:08and if the well had water in it,
00:50:09there was a spirit that was taking care of you.
00:50:11We were just so at the mercy of the elements
00:50:13that it's obvious that human beings
00:50:17with this sophisticated consciousness
00:50:20began to think of these elements as spirits and gods,
00:50:25and to be honored and to be prayed to,
00:50:30to try to nudge things.
00:50:34We, all of us, do that.
00:50:35I mean, I'm worrying about whether or not there'll be snow.
00:50:37I'm starting to say, well, I hope there's snow.
00:50:38I hope there's snow.
00:50:39That's the beginning of praying to the snow god, you know.
00:50:47Uh-oh, snow.
00:50:49Where?
00:50:50Looks like snow to me.
00:50:51Okay, cut.
00:51:05Good.
00:51:06I've always believed that you can always tell if a man, a person,
00:51:36is kind of on the way up or on the way down in life. You can just feel it.
00:51:51Certainly the way we live life with all these dreams and objectives, you're either hot
00:51:56upon them and you're making strides. And I just felt in the era when I was, you know,
00:52:04making zoetrope and stuff, it was clear I was on the way up and then you hit some, you
00:52:11know, you hit some real left hooks in your life and then it's clear that you're on the
00:52:17way down. Sometimes you can go on the way up again. Of course, then it comes down to what's
00:52:21up and down anyway. If you believe that opposites are ultimately the same. It's cool and refreshing
00:52:32and you can put your hand in and it has no shape. It just sort of all just goes around
00:52:37it or it can be hot and boiling or in some cases it can be hard as a rock or it can just
00:52:43be like a gas, like steamy vapor. Or if you take the Martian's hand and put it in the water,
00:52:50they would kind of get it. If they had a hand at Washington. Do Martians have hands?
00:52:54You know, I know these people in my own family, my father wanted to be, you know, and was a great composer or other people in my life and this need to be talented to be great people in my life.
00:53:23To be famous, to be accepted. And I always used to say to my father that, you know, I said, are you the greatest composer who ever lived? And he said, no, of course not. He said, after all, there was such a man as Beethoven. So it's settled that no matter how great and accepted you are, you're never going to be the greatest composer because there's always going to be Mozart and there's always going to be Beethoven and Verdi or whomever, so many.
00:53:52So, so you're not going to be that. And I said, are you the worst composer who ever lived? And the most terrible one? And the, you know, no, of course he's not. There's terrible hack composers.
00:54:04And so I said, look, so that means you're between the greatest composer and the worst composer. So that's where you are. And that's good. And I kept thinking that when I was reading this Papini book, I said, who, what are you worrying about?
00:54:16You know, you know, what is this obsession? Why not live your life and love life and enjoy it and all the things that are so fulfilling and enjoy creating and also enjoy the creations of others. It's just curious to me.
00:54:32Hey, oh, how are you doing? Hi, hello. Nice to talk. Really talk. Oh, how are you? Oh, what's your name? Good. Okay. That's the idea. So we want to look like it's a real party and having fun discussing the books.
00:54:53As you know, making a film is hard work. So we, we are very grateful that you're helping us. I thank you. We try to have a nice time. We try to have a nice time when we do these things and we'll try to do them as efficiently as we can.
00:55:22Thank you very much for your help. Thank you.
00:55:43Despite my precautions, I was afraid I would inadvertently give myself away, conversing with professors and colleagues at the university.
00:55:51I knew more than any of them and understood things they never even suspected existed.
00:55:56I know you're a good friend of the Romanian professor's centralist. I'm very sorry. I heard he died in a plane crash.
00:56:06Now we're in the mood in which they really insult the Nazi leaders to distance themselves. I mean, did you hear about his things? It was a million and a half volts. It was insane. You're really talking about yourself.
00:56:21So, the experiment begins now.
00:56:37Go!
00:56:39Go!
00:56:40Go!
00:56:41Go!
00:56:42Go!
00:56:43Go!
00:56:44Go!
00:56:45Go!
00:56:46Go!
00:56:47Go!
00:56:48Good!
00:56:49Music
00:56:50Good!
00:56:51Our son, Roman, was the second unit director.
00:57:00We rode to work together, worked near each other all day or all night, shared gear to
00:57:05withstand the freezing temperatures, ate lunch together, complained about the food together.
00:57:12Away from home for many months, a common topic of conversation became what favorite foods
00:57:17we missed.
00:57:18Bread and meat.
00:57:19I like cream of wheat with butter and milk, salted butter.
00:57:25Why are you all talking about food?
00:57:28It's breakfast time.
00:57:29Is it cold?
00:57:30Oh no.
00:57:31It's balmy.
00:57:32It is.
00:57:33Oh, it's just for a second.
00:57:3520 to 6.
00:57:36It's noon.
00:57:37Oh no.
00:57:38It's balmy.
00:57:39It is.
00:57:40Oh, it's just for a second.
00:57:4220 to 6.
00:57:43It's noon.
00:57:44Like so many locations before, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Memphis, the Philippines, Sicily, Versailles,
00:57:57Tokyo, and Luxembourg, I realized that Bucharest and Romania would soon fade into an exotic memory
00:58:05story of my unique filmmaking family.
00:58:16Mr. Mattei, what do we do with time?
00:58:26What do we do with time expresses the supreme ambiguity of the human condition?
00:58:33I have no idea what you're talking about.
00:58:36An opportunity has been given to us.
00:58:41We.
00:58:42The human race.
00:58:43What is indispensable to a truly human existence?
00:58:48For instance, the accidental autistic treasury in music and poetry.
00:58:54But also a part of classic philosophy.
00:58:58And above all, science.
00:59:03No.
00:59:04It's not a dream, I told her.
00:59:09But it takes part in the illusory nature of dreaming.
00:59:14Because it is the future.
00:59:21Therefore, of time.
00:59:25Now, time is by excellence unreal.
00:59:32So this is why this little story interests me when you say oh well you know people might
00:59:38not be interested in that stuff or what have you if you do it so they don't have to pay
00:59:42attention to it too much and then later upon seeing it again they want to look at it from
00:59:46that point of view they can and they'll discover more.
00:59:50So I think that's the kind of movies I want you know I would like to make.
00:59:55What I like about this is that you go from being an old man to a younger man right in
00:59:59front of our eyes the same way you're going to do the reverse in the scene in the Café Select.
01:00:09Good morning. Good morning.
01:00:11It's the middle of the day. Good morning. Good morning.
01:00:15It's true. You've come back. Welcome.
01:00:24We have to show that he's coming more and more to life you know.
01:00:27There's an old man who's feeling younger physically which must be you know both painful and pleasurable at the same time.
01:00:35No! Not mute! Not mute!
01:00:41See we're missing all the interesting stuff which is inside his head.
01:00:45I think it's rare that you can that we could you find someone you can just bounce off like that.
01:00:51I would call my wife and I'd say you know I just had this most amazing day.
01:00:56She said you keep telling me that.
01:00:58I said I don't know.
01:00:59She said be repested.
01:01:01Thank God.
01:01:03And she said I've never heard you so happy.
01:01:05Not for years.
01:01:06Yeah I know.
01:01:08I have been living in Romania almost continuously for five months observing Francis' creative process as he's been making his new film Youth Without Youth.
01:01:23It's a familiar experience but now with new possibilities of a freedom he has always wanted.
01:01:30It was impossible not to see the similarities between the way Francis and his children direct and the differences.
01:01:38That's why I wanted to make the movie so I take my own personal questions that I'm interested in.
01:01:46And I know for sure for sure for sure that the world we live in and we perceive and we look up and we see the stars in the sky and we you know wake up in the morning and we fall off our bicycle or our chair and you know all those things are not what they look like.
01:02:03As a kid I knew that the stars were not little balls of fire up there and stuff.
01:02:09I knew that the stars were something else.
01:02:12You know whether it was like a big black paper with pinholes or I knew it wasn't that nothing of our life our real life is real.
01:02:20I am sure of that.
01:02:22Well what do you think it is?
01:02:26It's a kind of changing tapestry of illusion.
01:02:39And that's the movie.
01:02:41A changing tapestry of illusion. What's that?
01:02:43. . .
01:02:44. . .
01:02:49. . .
01:02:51. .
01:02:56. . .
01:03:09. .
01:03:13. .
01:03:15. .
Recommended
3:36
|
Up next
1:27:01
1:33:40
1:49:06
1:37:15
1:45:35
29:07
2:03:59
3:35
5:30
4:05
1:33:59
45:06
1:30:14
1:50:15
1:02:06
1:03:10
1:42:52
29:38
1:30:28
Be the first to comment