Francis Ford Coppola's name has become synonymous with operatic filmmaking: helicopters flying in formation, Italian weddings and sets so big that a gaffer could get lost on the way back from the craft services truck.

His mode of transportation for his latest film, "Youth Without Youth," says a lot about Coppola's current state of mind as a writer and director: a Dodge Sprinter van. Twenty-two mpg in the city and 25 on the highway. Perfect for a family of six, your home catering business or a five-time Oscar-winner who has decided to get back to making more personal films.

"It is very much based on what we had with 'The Rain People,' which was also a Dodge van," Coppola explains in a recent phone interview, referencing the small 1969 movie he made before "The Godfather" films launched him to worldwide fame. "George Lucas and I devised this way to put all the equipment in. It was a mobile studio - wherever you went, if you had that, you could do anything."

"Youth Without Youth," Coppola's first film in 10 years, represents a new path for the 68-year-old filmmaker. And it looks a lot like the road he was traveling in his 20s, when his dream of making smaller films in the tradition of Fellini and Bergman was derailed by a series of events: "The Godfather"; the failure of his Bay Area film studio and much later his inability to complete what he thought might be his greatest achievement - the epic movie "Megalopolis," which he worked on for years but was never filmed.

"People thought I was a big deal and I was offered other opportunities," Coppola says, talking about his life after the success of "The Godfather" in 1972. "Always in my mind was, 'Well now's the time to make a lot of money so we can finance our own personal films.' (But) my life was what it was. I made fortunes and lost fortunes and never got around to really fulfilling what had been my dream."

"Youth Without Youth" is based on a novella by Mircea Eliade, a Romanian author who was the mentor of Coppola's longtime friend, Wendy Doniger. When Coppola asked Doniger to read his latest screenplay for "Megalopolis," she recommended the book. Coppola felt connected to its themes of aging, self-discovery and artistic passion, and quietly purchased the movie rights.

Coppola says he wrote the screenplay covertly over the past few years - even most of his family and close friends didn't know he was working on it.

"I find that when you're writing something, if you show it too much or talk about it too much, it sort of takes some of the air pressure out of it," Coppola says. " I enjoyed keeping it my own little secret."

Two and a half years ago, he took his granddaughter Gia, then 18, to Romania to find locations that were described in the book. He had even wanted to film in secret, a plan which was destroyed by a Daily Variety article about the movie that ran in September 2005, just a month before the director started filming. Still, Coppola says the experience of making the film was thrilling.

"It was very invigorating to know that I could just make the movie, and I didn't need anyone to tell me I could," Coppola says, referring to his gun-for-hire directing roles in the 1980s and '90s, including "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "The Rainmaker." "I felt like a painter or something, who just was going to go in there and paint a picture. Or a poet. All I needed was myself and my enthusiasm."

It's not a surprise that Coppola would be attracted to the story, which takes place between 1938 and 1969. Despite some supernatural plot points, there are strong parallels between Eliade's novella and Coppola's current state of mind.

"Youth Without Youth" stars Tim Roth as Dominic Matei, a linguistics professor in his winter years, who plans to kill himself but gets struck by lightning and emerges from the hospital a young man. He uses his newfound youth to pursue his life's work of unlocking the secrets of the human language, but his love for a woman with her own special gifts challenges everything.

"The story of 'Youth Without Youth' - the idea of a man who gets hit by lightning and gets to have his youth again - I said, 'It can apply to me,' " Coppola says. "The lightning I was hit by was this story, and it's going to make me a young experimental filmmaker. ... I had the career of the big filmmaker when I was in my 20s. Now as I'm in my 60s, I'll have the career of an 18-year-old filmmaker. Really, I just reversed it."

So he bought the van and started running the production like he did before "The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now" and "The Conversation" made him a household name.

"It was not a little production. It has locations and period and Nazis and costumes," Coppola says of "Youth Without Youth." "But we had this one van. If I wanted to do a crane shot or a dolly shot or anything - two or three cameras - it was all in there. That van now is already in Argentina where the new film is being made. It went in the boat."

And he plans to keep the same transportation for a while, for another personal film called "Tetro," that is maybe two years away from release. Coppola said his success with his studio films, his winery, his hotels and other interests will allow him to stay on the self-funded filmmaking path. He said "Youth Without Youth" cost about $17 million, and he can keep making films at that price indefinitely.

"I'm extremely exhilarated with the possibility of being able to make personal films. I feel totally privileged," Coppola says. "I feel that people more or less understand that I don't want to make gangster pictures, and they've forgiven me for that. And I just feel so lucky that I'm able to have the career that I've always wanted."

"Youth Without Youth" plays at the re- furbished Sundance Cinema Kabuki's opening night on Friday. 1881 Post St., S.F. Three days of festivities precede the opening, including a celebration of Ja- pantown on Tuesday, a benefit for the San Francisco Film Society on Wednes- day and a benefit for the LGBT Center on Thursday. For more information, call (415) 346-3423 or go to