Francis Ford Coppola made a pitstop over at Konbini Video, which is basically France’s version of the Criterion Closet. The video, uploaded yesterday, is an absolute gem.
Coppola, who has had a 60-year filmmaking career, has plenty of stories to tell here; it’s an absolute delight for any movie fan to hear them. The filmmaker reminisces about his time meeting the likes of Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Abel Gance, and John Ford.
Whatever you might think about Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” there’s no denying the man is an absolute legend just for consecutively directing “The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part II,” “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now” in the ‘70s. That might be the single greatest four-film streak in cinematic history. Four stone-cold masterpieces.
Of course, it’s those films that built up the legend, and there are those, plenty of them, who believe he came back down to earth from the ‘80s on; the frustrating post-‘Apocalypse Now’ phase of his career. Don’t get me wrong, he’s had a few keepers here and there, but none that came close to his classics from the ‘70s. Some believe the arduous shoot of “Apocalypse Now” broke and changed the man, and with that, his filmmaking abilities as well.
Coppola’s four classics from the ‘70s set practically unattainable expectations for the rest of his career. And yet, there are quite a few gems in the post-Apocalypse phase of his career.
It’s no coincidence then that, decades later, some of these hidden Coppola treasures, most from the ‘80s and ‘90s, are starting to re-emerge and get reappraised by a new generation of moviegoers. I’m thinking in particular of “Rumble Fish, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Tucker” and “One From the Heart.”
As mentioned, Coppola has “Megalopolis” coming to theaters this Friday. It’s a very divisive film, but one made with fearless ambition. I’ll be watching it again, for the first time since Cannes, on Monday.