Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (born
April 7,
1939) is a five time
Academy Award winning
American film director,
producer, and
screenwriter. Coppola is also a
vintner,
magazine publisher, and hotelier. However, he is most renowned for directing the highly regarded
Godfather trilogy and the
Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now.
Coppola was born into a creative and supportive
Italian American family in
Detroit, Michigan, but he grew up in a New York suburb. His father
Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother is alleged to have been an actress. He studied theatre at
Hofstra University prior to studying film at
UCLA and while there, he made numerous short films, including some soft-core
porn films. In the early 1960s, he started his professional career making low-budget films with
Roger Corman and writing screenplays. His first notable motion picture was made for Corman, the low-budget
Dementia 13.
|
On the set of Finian's Rainbow with Petula Clark |
After graduating to mainstream motion pictures with
You're a Big Boy Now, Coppola was offered the reins of the movie version of the
Broadway musical
Finian's Rainbow, starring
Petula Clark, in her first American film, and veteran
Fred Astaire. Producer
Jack Warner was nonplussed by Coppola's shaggy-haired, bearded, "hippie" appearance and generally left him to his own devices. He took his cast to the
Napa Valley for much of the outdoor shooting, but these scenes were in sharp contrast to those obviously filmed on a Hollywood soundstage, resulting in a disjointed look to the film. Dealing with outdated material at a time when the popularity of film musicals was already on the downslide, Coppola's end result was only semi-successful, but his work with Clark no doubt contributed to her
Golden Globe Best Actress nomination.In 1971, Coppola won an
Academy Award for his screenplay for
Patton. However, his name as a filmmaker was made as the co-writer and director of
The Godfather (
1972) and
The Godfather Part II (
1974), which both won the
Academy Award for Best Picture — the latter being the first sequel to do so.
In between
The Godfather and
The Godfather Part II, Coppola directed
The Conversation, a story of a paranoid wiretapping and surveillance expert (played by
Gene Hackman) who finds himself caught up in a possible murder plot.
The Conversation was released to theaters in 1974 and was also nominated for Best Picture, resulting in Coppola being the first filmmaker to have directed two films competing for the same Best Picture Oscar since the annual number of nominees was cut down to five in 1945. (This had previously been accomplished seven times, by six different directors, between 1937 and 1943, when the Academy announced ten nominees yearly. Coppola's feat would later be matched by
Herbert Ross in 1978, with
The Goodbye Girl and
The Turning Point, and
Steven Soderbergh in 2001, with
Erin Brockovich and
Traffic.) While
The Godfather Part II won the Oscar,
The Conversation won the 1974
Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival.
During this period he also wrote the screenplay for the critically and commercially unsuccessful
1974 adaptation of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's
novel The Great Gatsby (starring
Mia Farrow and
Robert Redford) and produced
George Lucas's breakthrough film,
American Graffiti.
Coppola often worked with family members on his films. He put his two sons into
The Godfather as extras during the street fight scene and Don Corleone's funeral. His sister,
Talia Shire, played Connie Corleone in all three Godfather films, the last of which his daughter
Sofia also appeared in. His father Carmine co-wrote much of the music in
The Godfather,
The Godfather Part II, and
Apocalypse Now.
Following the success of
The Godfather,
The Conversation and
The Godfather 2, Coppola set about filming
Apocalypse Now, a version of
Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness, with the setting changed from colonial Africa to the
Vietnam War. Before setting off to make the film, Coppola went to his mentor Roger Corman for advice about shooting in the Philippines, since Corman himself was familiar with shooting a film in that area. It was said that all Corman advised Coppola was "Don't go". The creation of the film was a disaster from the start, being beset by numerous problems, including
typhoons,
nervous breakdowns,
Martin Sheen's heart attack, and an unprepared
Marlon Brando with a bloated appearance (which Coppola attempted to hide by shooting him in the shadows). It was delayed so often it was nicknamed
Apocalypse Whenever. The film was equally lauded and hated by critics when it finally appeared in
1979, and the cost nearly bankrupted Coppola's nascent studio
American Zoetrope. However, like
Citizen Kane, reputation has grown in time and
Apocalypse Now is regarded by many as a masterpiece of the
New Hollywood era.
Roger Ebert considers it to be the finest film on the Vietnam war and included it on his list for the
2002 Sight and Sound poll for the greatest movie of all time.
However, to many, Apocalypse Now represents Coppola's highpoint, a feat he has been unable to equal or exceed ever since. The
1991 documentary film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, directed by
Eleanor Coppola (Francis's wife),
Fax Bahr, and
George Hickenlooper, chronicles the difficulties the crew went through making
Apocalypse Now, and features behind the scenes footage filmed by Eleanor.
After filming
Apocalypse Now Coppola famously stated:
"We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane."Despite the setbacks and ill health Coppola suffered during the making of
Apocalypse Now, he kept up with film projects, presenting in
1981 a restoration of the
1927 film
Napoléon that was edited and released in the
United States by American Zoetrope. However it wasn't until the experimental musical
One from the Heart (
1982) that he returned to directing. Unfortunately, the film was a huge failure, although it developed a cult following in later years.
In
1986 Coppola, with
George Lucas, directed the
Michael Jackson film for
Disney theme parks,
Captain Eo, which at the time was the most expensive film per minute ever made.
In
1990 he completed the
Godfather series with
The Godfather Part III which, while not as critically acclaimed as the first two movies, was still a box office success. Some reviewers criticized the casting of Coppola's daughter
Sofia, who stepped into a role abandoned by
Winona Ryder just as filming began. Sofia Coppola had previously appeared in her father's films, but her performance in
The Godfather Part III was subjected to critical ridicule, much of it mean-spirited. Sofia Coppola has since gone on to become a well-respected director in her own right.
His son
Roman Coppola is a filmmaker and music video director, directing his first feature film,
CQ and videos for
the Strokes. His eldest son Gian-Carlo was killed in a boating accident in 1986.
Coppola's father
Carmine was a renowned composer and musician, and wrote the scores of many of his son's films; his nephew
Nicolas Cage is an acclaimed actor. His other nephew is
Jason Schwartzman of
Rushmore fame.
In recent years, Coppola with his family has extended his talents to
winemaking in
California's
Napa Valley at the
Rubicon Estate Winery, producing a line of specialty pastas and pasta sauces, and opening resorts in
Guatemala and
Belize, inspired by his accommodation in the
Philippines during the making of
Apocalypse Now, with decor supervised by Eleanor Coppola.
In 1997, Coppola founded
Zoetrope All-Story, a flashy
literary magazine that publishes
short stories. The magazine has published fiction by
T.C. Boyle and
Amy Bloom and essays by
David Mamet,
Steven Spielberg, and
Salman Rushdie. Since its founding, the magazine has grown in reputation to become one of the premier American journals of
literary fiction. Coppola serves as founding editor and publisher of All-Story.
In 2001, Coppola re-released
Apocalypse Now as
Apocalypse Now Redux, restoring several sequences lost from the original 1979 cut of the film thereby expanding its length to 200 minutes.
The director is based in the
San Francisco Bay Area where he co-owns the Rubicon restaurant alongside fellow San Franciscan
Robin Williams and
Robert De Niro. In addition to his restaurant, Coppola serves as the Honorary Ambassador of the Central American nation of
Belize in
San Francisco,
California. On their official roster of worldwide honorary consulates found on their official website, he is referred to as
"His Excellency Ambassador Francis Ford Coppola," although he is not a
Belizean citizen.
In November 2005, Coppola took part as a special guest at the 46th
Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Kinsey (2005, co-producer)
Sleepy Hollow (1999, executive producer)
The Rainmaker (1997, director)
Jack (1996, director)
My Family, Mi Familia (1995, executive producer)
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994, executive producer)
The Secret Garden (1993, executive producer)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992, director)
The Godfather: Part III (1990, director)
Powaqqatsi (1988, co-producer)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988, director)
Gardens of Stone (1987, director)
Lionheart (1987, executive producer)
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, director)
Captain Eo (1986, director)
The Cotton Club (1984, director)
Rumble Fish (1983, director)
The Outsiders (1983, director)
Koyaanisqatsi (1982, co-producer)
One from the Heart (1982, director)
Apocalypse Now (1979, director)
The Godfather, Part II (1974, director)
The Conversation (1974, director)
The Godfather (1972, director)
THX 1138 (1971, executive producer)
The Rain People (1969, director)
Finian's Rainbow (1968, director)
You're a Big Boy Now (1966, director)
Dementia 13 (1963, director)
The Terror (1963, uncredited director)
*He is the father of directors
Roman Coppola and
Sofia Coppola.
*He has been granted the title of "duke of Megalopolis" by the Spanish writer
Javier Marías, claimant to the
micronation of the
kingdom of Redonda.
*
George Lucas reportedly based the
Han Solo character on Coppola.
*The Italian word
coppola stands for the typically Sicilian cloth cap that can been seen in many Mafia films.
*His nephew is
Jason Schwartzman (who is the son of
Talia Shire and
Jack Schwartzman).
*His nephew is
Robert Carmine, also known as Robert Schwartzman, lead singer of the band
Rooney*He is the uncle of actor
Nicolas Cage.
*Interesting enough, while
Apocalypse Now was based on the book
Heart of Darkness, Coppola failed to give credit to
Joseph Conrad for the use of his material, possibly in violation of copyright law.
*Owes George Takei $500
* "They didn't like the cast. They didn't like the way I was shooting it. I was always on the verge of getting fired."
* "The Godfather was a very underappreciated movie when we were making it. I almost got fired."
*
Biography and Pictures* Academy of Achievement Profile http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0pro-1
* Academy of Achievement Biography http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0bio-1
* Academy of Achievement Interview http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0int-1
* Academy of Achievement Photo Gallery http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0gal-1
*
Bibliography at the University of California Berkeley Library*
Rubicon Estate Winery (formerly Niebaum-Coppola), Napa Valley*
Francis Ford Coppola Presents*
Altman and Coppola in the Seventies: Power and the People Essay (24 Lies A Second)
*
Official Belize Government's website on honorary consulates worldwide
