tavis: good evening. from los angeles come i am tavis smiley. tonight, part 1 of iconic film maker francis ford coppola, the director of films like "the godfather: ab" and "apocalypse w ." he has a new film out called "tetro."

>> nationwide insurance problem supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic and power and that comes with it. >> ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ >> and by contributions from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: we are honored to welcome francis ford coppola to this program, the iconic director and screenwriter responsible for so many fonda films over the course of history, including "the godfather" and "the godfather:

part 2" and bram stoker's dracula. he are some scenes from his new movie, "tetro." >> why did you come here? >> everything that i love or i am interested in, i picked it up from you. >> how did you find these? >> it was an accident. >> an accident? >> how could you do this to me? >> they are great stories. they do not have an ending. >> they do not have to have an ending. >> what has happened to our family? tavis: you do not see so much

black and white these days. >> it is a pity, because it is beautiful, and it is not just the absence of color. it is a whole different way to light. to me, it is almost more realistic, but there is a prohibition to do it in black- and-white because there is this idea of trying to get their money back, and they cannot get it back with television. there is a reduction of 50% if it is in black and white. tavis: you get a great comment was what you just said about what the industry wants and getting your money back. i do not want to put words in your mouth, not that you would let me, anyway, but how much of your consternation, frustration, challenge over the course of your year -- career has been in trying to balance what francis ford coppola once and what the industry once -- what francis ford coppola wants and what the

industry wants? >> it cannot lose money. it has to make money, and that totally makes sense, but my problem is that the cinema is like a very broad and varied, you know, and i love to go to movies on friday night with my wife and see a really entertaining movie, although more and more when i go, it already seems like i have seen the movie before, and all of the effects, everything, is the same. it's my idea is that there can be different kinds of films, that not every film has to be a sequel, you know? there could be a balance, and there could be a few black-and- white films, a few color films, as there used to be. hollywood made the greatest dramas ever made, beautiful movies, and now, because the theaters -- studios are owned by larger companies, and they are so concerned about their stock prices and making acquisitions,

they beat the subsidiary up to make money. in the old days, the heads of the studios where tough. they were like harvey weinstein, who is tough and serious, but he loves movies, and he is a showman. i think the old studio heads, who, incidentally, i worked for, like jack warner and sam goldwyn, they love to movies, and they love to to produce different kinds of films -- they love movies -- loved movies, and they loved to produce different kinds of films. it has been going on for two generations now. i t tnk that even television started out as a promising. in the 1950's, there were great writers writing, wonderful directors, like john frankenheimer doing "playhouse

90," and then they got the idea it of doing half-hour shows, and we had 40 or 50 years of that, so the audiences have been taught to expect sort of sameness serials, and situation comedies, and some of them were absolutely great, but they made the audience is more anxious to see the same thing over and over again. tavis: so how difficult is it to move to "tetro," breaking the mold, doing something different when you know that audiences have been trained to expect something? >> it is certainly very hard to get financed to do a movie like that, and is very hard to get a release, because even if it does well, the amounts of money it makes is so small compared to a blockbuster film, but, you know, the good side, the blessing is

that our country has a crop of just the most wonderful, young, independent filmmakers. i mean, we could name 20 names probably, and at the head of it, you could put woody allen, and that does not necessarily mean in age. filmmakers to do not want to make films to have a career and make a lot of money but to do something that they love and give us a variety, and these american, independent filmmakers i think are the envy of the world, and they are so promising, so the cinema is safe, i think. tavis: tell me again about "tetro." tell me about this black and white project. >> this is sort of the second film of my second career. when i was younger, you know, i wanted to write and direct films

that were in the spirit and inspiration of the great filmmakers who inspired really all of my generation. they were from europe. they were from japan. they were from all over the world, and we wanted to be sort of like they were and do that, and so, when i started out, when i was in my twenties, i wrote to several original screenplays, got to make one, but one i could not get money at all, and it was called "the conversation." i was married young, and i had kids, and i had this terrific family, and i had to make money, and his assistant i had at the time, george lucas -- he was not an assistant, an associate, ""francis, just do what they want and make money. you are the only one who can make money." and the only one i was offered was "the godfather," and it

changed my life, and i did it to make "the conversation" after "the godfather." but i thought i've is going to make these -- i thought i was going to make these "art films." you are not supposed to call them that alegria i thought i would make a little horror film once and awhile -- you are not supposed to call them that now. i thought i would make a little horror film once in a while. then i became a success, and when i got older, i thought, gee, i never got to ride those original stores, and i like writing original stories -- i never got to write those original stories. in this case, i was thinking, gee, i would really like to make an emotional film, something

that moves me. unlike movies like "on the waterfront," "the best years of our lives," and for me to be emotional, i have to write about my family, because that is where we learn to be emotional, and my family was interesting because it was a very, very talented family, in every generation. as you know, my nephews and my daughter are all important actors and film makers, so i was interested in the subject of, you know, rivalry with in the generation, because there is always bound to be someone, even not creative, but in every family, there is always one successful, so there are richer, and then the other honorable is not so rich, and, you know, -- and then the other on goal is not so -- sometimes, they help them -- and then the other uncle

is not. all of these passionate feuds among family members, who love each other, which is why it is passed and that -- which is why it is passionate. i took my own family. this is not real. none of that happens, but when you write, you tend to go around what you have experience -- not of that happened. -- none of that happened. tavis: you said that none of it was true. >> the story is fiction. you see the movies, some terrible t tngs happen, some really heartbreaking things happen, and that is not the case, and my father was not the mean sort of egomaniac, although he was a little bit of an egomaniac, but in a nice way, no, so i may be father more

real. he is very famous and very important, and the story, my dad struggled most of his career until the end, so i based on things that i knew, but the story never really happened. tavis: let me get personal, if i can, about your story, and let me start with a sequestered, but when you were a kid, where you called francis ford coppola prove your entire name was always used -- were you called francis ford coppola? your entire name was always used? >> no, i was called francy. one of my relatives was better looking and smaller and could be me up, but he never did -- protected me -- and could beat me up. he used three names, because we all had three names, and he was a writer, and i just wanted to be like him. tavis: what was his name?

>> my brother? i do not want to embarrass him. noneteteless, i wanted to be a writer just so i could copy him, so use his middle name, so i used my middle name, as i did with everything, just to copy him, and that is where i got the francis ford, the three names, although i heard it said never to trust a manbut, no, it soundo me, because that is like my formal name. if i was hispanic, i would be josé maria gonzales, so and so, but then, i would just be joe. use a francisis ford coppola, ad you say that the first time, -- you say francis ford coppola, and you say that the first time, and then you just say franceis coppola.

i wish somebody would call a francie. i asked my wife about why she will not call me that, and she told me she wanted to be married to a strong man. tavis: some of these members of your family tree, no particular order, your sister from "rocky," your daughter, sophia. >> this is her third day shooting her new film. there is steven dorf, and a girl with the last name of fanning. tavis: is that dakota? >> no, i think it is her

youngest sister -- younger sister. tavis: and then there is your cousin. >> yes, and robert is a rock star. my son is a director and producer in anototr movie, and then there were orchestra conductors, a famous opera conductors, and there are morbid there are relatives the people do not even know of -- how orchestra conductors, famous opera conductors. -- there were orchestra conductors. i think it came from the previous generation. we had some very talented people. both of my grandfathers were really extraordinary. one was a musician, a composer, and that was the one side of the family, and as i said, there

were some very famous, world- famous musicians on that side of the family that people do not even know that are related to us. but then, on the other side, in more of the area of the mechanical in geniuses, my grandfather built the first machine that made a sound for movies, so there was this tradition of that, and i think when there was talent popping up, more or less, it got supported. i know in our generation, we are thrilled to have kids that go into the arts, and i think today, and you know, in the past, they would be discouraged. "oh, no, be an accountant or be a doctor." but today, among your viewership, if you have a child who wants to be an artist or a dancer or an actor, encourage it, because it is a beautiful thing to be able to do that. tavis: it is beautiful, but it

is tough, and you know how tough it is, because your career was like that. >> it was like that because i like to say yes more than i like to say no. i was never afraid of risk. i think in life, there is only one risk you ve