Rome. Youth Without Youth (and related bits).

"The most awaited film of the RomeFilmFest may also be its most divisive," writes Natasha Senjanovic at Cineuropa. "Although it screened today to a lukewarm reception from the press, Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth has everyone talking."

"Long stuck on completing his unrealized Megalopolis project, Coppola found Romanian philosopher/author Mircea Eliade's novella about the limitations of time a compensating balm for his own frustrations," writes Jay Weissberg in Variety. "Perhaps Eliade's investigations into Jungian theory and a nascent form of New Age spirituality also appealed, not to mention the excitement of getting back to the kind of artistic control only possible with low-budget filmmaking. Decamping to Romania (with a small section shot in Bulgaria), Coppola used mostly young local talent and had the Balkan nations stand in for Switzerland, Malta and even India. Unfortunately, the results are as phony as the back projection and lack the kind of Eastern European magical realism that would have made it resonate."

Updated through 10/23.

The AP's Marta Falconi has quotes from Coppola's press conference: "[P]art of being an artist who wants to look at new areas (is knowing that) it will take a while for people to be familiar with the film. I only ask you to think that my film was interesting."

Meanwhile, as Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay notes, there's quite a discussion going on at Hollywood Elsewhere regarding the out-of-nowhere news that Hearts of Darkness will finally see a release on DVD. One of the thread's participants is George Hickenlooper, officially listed as one of three of the doc's directors. For him, too, this news is a big surprise. He thought he was getting close to a deal with Criterion, "who are dying to put it out," but evidently, the matter's been out of his hands for some time. Still, he has stories to tell and hopes to be able to at least record a commentary some day.

And as for those comments regarding Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson, the AP reports that Coppola's claiming they were taken out of context and that he has "nothing but respect and admiration" for all three.

Update, 10/21: "Ten years after the polished, anonymous professionalism of The Rainmaker, Francis Ford Coppola returns with an epic, magic realist tale of miraculous rejuvenation," writes Allan Hunter for Screen Daily. "Anyone who hoped that life might imitate art will be sorely disappointed by Youth Without Youth.... It may have moments of great beauty and tenderness but it overall it is a jumble of half-baked metaphysical musings and disjointed story threads that mainstream audiences will find as unfathomable as Kurtz's mumblings in the jungles of Apocalypse Now."

Update, 10/23: The Hollywood Reporter's Ray Bennett finds Youth to be "a muddled fantasy about the transmigration of souls. Handsomely made on a low budget, the film has the polished look of a Coppola film with expert contributions from some master craftsmen. But the story is full of arcane references that many will find nonsensical, and the performances are a letdown. Lacking coherence and suspense, the picture is likely to attract a cult following while disappointing Coppola's fan base."

Posted by dwhudson at October 20, 2007 12:54 PM