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Reel Risks
Elizabeth Harris
11/01/2007
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"It’s an experimental film, so the risk is there at the outset,
but it’s a story that Francis wanted to tell about aging and about missed
opportunity and romance," Tim Roth, the star of the film, says. Before filming,
Coppola met Roth where he was working in Siena, Italy, and talked about the
story—how when you look back over your life, you have regrets, and this is a
story of a man who blew it and gets another chance. This personal story
resonated for Roth as well. He had wanted to appear in a Coppola movie since he
was a teenager; 20 years earlier he had written Coppola a letter asking if he
would cast him in a movie. While auditioning for another Coppola film in the
’90s, the director pulled out the letter. "I asked him if I could have it and he
wouldn’t let me," Roth says. "He put it back in his bag."
On the set, Roth says that Coppola rehearsed every speaking
role before beginning the filming, which spanned an 85-day period. One
particularly memorable shoot: filming a scene in the Black Sea. "It was
freezing. It was absolutely freezing, to the point where it just took your
breath away. We spent the morning doing that," Roth says. "He wanted us down
with the waves coming over us, on the rocks, in our pajamas—very nice." The
result? "I’ve seen that scene; it’s beautiful," Roth says. "He was right."
For Coppola, there’s no trick about why. He has full
control.
"It’s the golden rule," he says. "The person who has the gold,
makes the rule. You can turn down something that’s offered, but you can’t just
say, ‘I want to make a movie like this or that.’ You have to then go around
with your hat in hand and find someone who will finance you. I find that’s a
very difficult, long process and filled with hopes that then are dashed, or the
financing changes, or they say, listen you can do it if you change this, and put
this actor in," he continues, taking a deep breath. "That was part of the 10
years I didn’t make films. So I’m extremely excited and positive about this new
era I’m entering in, because, thanks to these companies and their performance,
I’ll be able to finance my movies myself. And if I finance them myself, just
like the last one I made, then it’s likely I can make the initial choice
correctly."
How confident is he of his success? He is forgoing the standard
completion guarantee insurance that most studios now require. For Coppola, that
seems like a gamble worth taking. "In a sense, if I make a mistake, I’ll wipe
myself out," he says. "But I don’t think I will make a mistake."
Elizabeth Harris is a staff writer for Worth.
Additional Information
 Director's Cut
Company Man
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