Now, the man that gave us The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, and The Outsiders returns to take a seat behind the camera for his adaptation of Youth Without Youth, based on Romanian author, Mircea Eliade's novella of the same name.

Leading up to the film's release on December 14, we got the goods from Coppola on how he thinks movie-goers will receive the film, the story's underlying elements, its characters, and how Apocalypse Now went from the weirdest film on the planet to one of the greatest war films ever made. Weird!

Francis Ford Coppola on whether people will have a hard time following the film:

"The difficulty is that movies like life are pretty simple. The story is pretty simple. I mean, you wake up in the morning, have your coffee, have a problem, your life is very simple and is pretty - but once in a while you may think, ‘God, what does this all mean? What is going to happen if my father dies, or my grandfather dies?’ What really happens with that - ‘I had this dream last night and if that is reality or is this normal daily life is the reality?’ The problem is that you have been sort of tricked. The movie has to be only this simple narrative experience which you’ve rarely seen before. Most movies - you have to know, when you go to the movies you have seen them all; it’s a thriller, the thing, the hostage wants his kid back. Youth Without Youth is a story that you can understand."

Coppola on the characters and story of Youth Without Youth:

"The old guy is a professor who feels bad because the girl he loves when he was a student, he realizes he should have kept her because now he is old and lonely and he is going to die alone. And he is hit by a bolt of lightning like a Twilight Zone, and suddenly he realizes not only has he survived but he has gotten younger. And then it turns out that he is not only younger but sort of smarter and is able to do all the things he always wished he could do; learn Chinese, which he always had a very hard time with it. Ultimately, he is, like, healthy and of course we are after the Second World War, and word is getting out and he is sort of a guinea pig where they are doing tests on him, the Germans and the Nazis. And if you know anything about history, Germans became involved with Romanians in the Second World War. Suddenly the Nazis were all over Romania and it - which is true, and now the Nazis wanted to do more tests on him and he is terrified because in those days, Second World War, scientists were doing all sorts of weird tests. And so he is - a kindly Romanian doctor tries to save him to escape. And he is hiding out in Switzerland and is trying to work on his work that he is unable to finish, and is avoiding Nazis, and spies and people who are trying to find him to figure it out if he has any talent. Somehow the lightning bolt not only has increased his intelligence but also made him younger and increased his mental ability. And not only that, it’s splitting him into other personalities of his own who lie in bed and talk to him, almost like saying, 'Your role is... to be the man of the future.' And you should gather all of the wonderful music and philosophy. You should put them in a safe-deposit box because, for sure, there is going to be a nuclear war coming up here and the people in the future, who will survive, they are going to want all of the art, Beethoven and Brahms and ideas in philosophy. And your role is to do that.’ And he is, like, ‘My God, what is happening to me?’"

On the character changes and the deeper meaning:

"The timid little professor suddenly has all these extraordinary changes and he is living, because he can with his new powers. He can pick the number of the roulette before it comes up and get some money. And then one day he is out hiking and he sees a girl. And, oh my God, it’s the girl he lost when he was a student. Again, if you know [the classic German legend] Faust, he is having a second chance not only to live his life again and to have the intellectual knowledge that he has always wanted, but he has a second chance at love. I’ll stop. My point is that what I’m telling you is a story, a fairy tale, and I’m sure you understood when I told it, but what you didn’t maybe understand are the little implications underneath. But those little implications are in your own life. What this all means - what is going to happen when you go? Are you really going to be gone? Are you going to have the pleasure of being part of your family, or at least when you die you are going to see that your kids are well? We think about that."

Coppola on the underlying themes, mythology, and elements under the surface:

"It’s sort of the other level of Youth Without Youth that you didn’t understand because you are used to conventional movies where you don’t have to have that other level. But you don’t have to have that level to enjoy. Just enjoy it like a Twilight Zone, if you want. Later on, if you want to see it again, it’s fun to see it and think about some of the Indian myths that are in there because that is quite interesting. The Orientals don’t believe that in life there is good and evil, up and down, and male and female. It’s more complicated than that. They see it like that because it’s more easy to see that way to appreciate life. It will enrich your life to think of all the other possibilities. That is really all it is. I tried very hard to make this film very classical and clear. It’s not a weird cutting-around in weird places. It’s telling the story, starts in 1938, it goes until the 1950’s. Once in a while he thinks of the girl he loves when he was in school, and maybe that goes into the past, but otherwise it’s very straight ahead and it’s my intention, if you read the notes and stuff, that you maybe want to see the film again and you will get more out of it and it will be more enjoyable."

Francis Ford Coppola Returns to Reveal Youth With Youth Page 2