H/T to Kent Takano for finding this gem of a feature on screenwriter-director Francis Ford Coppola. Hard to imagine that it’s been over 10 years since Coppola’s last directed a studio movie The Rainmaker (1997). Since then, he’s moved into making more intimate movies:

Coppola is fond of calling his latest film, the brooding family drama “Tetro,” filmed in black and white in Argentina, “the second film of my second career.”

After going a decade without making a movie, Coppola reinvented himself as a self-financed indie filmmaker with “Youth Without Youth” and vows he will make a small film about every two years until the end of his life.

The article is a great read and ends with this choice bit of wisdom:

“When a man turns 60, there’s suddenly a whole list of health issues you become a candidate for. When you’re 50, you still have your youth, in a way, but you’ve been around a bit. … So I want to die when I’m in my 50s.”

So this is Coppola at 70, or 50-20 if you will. He and Eleanor have moved from the house adjoining the winery to a more modern house up the hill; his estate is made up of offices and a screening room.

He keeps in touch with his old friends, including Corman and George Lucas, rises early, does calisthenics and reads the papers before sitting down to lose himself writing for four hours a day.

“I get on my knees and thank the world I’m in an extraordinary situation,” Coppola said. “I think the secret of life is to not be afraid of risk. People go through life risking their money, risking losing this, risking losing that. But the truth of the matter is, there is only one risk. Because for sure you’re gonna die, you are there and you’re thinking about your life and you say, ‘Oh, I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done that.’

“That’s the risk. So basically, I try to say yes more than no.”

If there’s a central theme to Coppola’s personal history, it’s about risk-taking — from the choices of movies he made (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, One From The Heart, Tucker) to various business ventures, some that succeeded (his winery), some that failed (City Magazine).

Here’s an interview with Coppola on a recent visit to Seattle to promote the release of Tetro:

And here’s the movie’s trailer: