Francis Ford Coppola Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Know what this trio of names has in common -- Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle, and Francis Ford Coppola? They collaborated on the music for Coppola's 1982 film One from the Heart. Waits was the creative mind behind the film's music, he performed a number of duets with the country singer, and he also earned an Academy Award nomination for his efforts.

However, that was about all the notoriety the film got. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review some 27 years ago: "This must be the first movie in history to arrive with more publicity about its production techniques than about its stars," describing the film as "a major disappointment." Heart focused on two people in love (Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest) who get swept away by the throes of passion with Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski. But rather than simply tell the story, it was an art piece for Coppola, using creative filming techniques and a carefully plotted score that interacted with the characters.

After the jump you can see a behind-the-scenes look at the music from the film, mainly focused on Waits, but also revealing footage from initial discussions about the project, and how the music came together. It might sound old-hat in a world where we are saturated by DVDs with special features, but I love seeing the old process -- minds coming together in the back yard for a "musical summit," how each piece of a film can be so carefully plotted, and the utter strangeness of seeing someone like Gayle collaborating with Waits.

Um ... probably not. But the folks over at Market Saw seem to believe that they've uncovered secret galactic plans to create a brand new big-screen Star Wars trilogy in 3D. However, they claim these films wouldn't be directed by George Lucas -- instead, he'd pass them off to other directors like Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola (who Market Saw claims their source mentioned directly as a potential candidate). Yeah, definitely let me know when Coppola decides to direct a Star Wars film so I can look out my window and watch all the pigs flying.

Almost immediately after this rumor hit, folks began to read between the lines. Market Saw, who've been the unofficial Avatar fansite for awhile now, continually mention in their piece that Avatar has to do well in theaters in order for this new Star Wars trilogy to happen since Lucas wants the films in 3D and needs more theaters to come equipped with 3D technology. As AICN points out, it seems like someone at Fox is spinning a marketing web by putting the thought in folks' heads that if they go see Avatar, they'll be helping to bring new Star Wars movies to life.

From MS: "How seriously should you consider these rumors? Well it is coming from a source that SHOULD KNOW. This source is absolutely connected. So odds are it is seriously being talked about at Lucasfilm. Right now. Will it happen? AVATAR will have to hit and hit big and then all the stars have to align properly - all I can do is pass on the info."

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

It's really hard not to love seeing Tom Waits onscreen, but his role as Renfield in the Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 version of Dracula is a highlight. The movie itself is a sentimental favorite as well, with its super-saturated colors and heaving Victorian bosoms and, of course, Gary Oldman, who transforms from Eastern European sexpot to razor-blade licking undead creep with a bouffant and back again. Also, he has this bed that half-naked lady vampires pop out of.

Renfield is in an appropriately dingy Victorian asylum, where people who handle the inmates wear cages on their heads. Just in case. In Coppola's version, Renfield previously held Jonathan Harker's position before he went mad, or was driven mad by his boss' demands. Now he snacks on bugs and worms and wears a pair of most excellent and inexplicable articulated sort of hand braces that's oh so steampunk.

Dr. Jack Seward, the unfortunate asylum shrink, toys with Renfield a bit after noting, "I shall have to invent a new classification of lunatic for you." He points out that spiders eat flies, birds eat spiders, and cats eat birds, which causes Renfield to kneel on the ground and pitifully beg for a kitten.

"Oh, yes. A kitten. I beg you. A little, sleek... a playful kitten. Something I can teach. Something I can feed. No one would refuse me a kitten!" He would also settle for a cat. Obviously, he is not given a kitten or a cat, because he would probably eat it.

Enjoy the clip after the jump. You can watch the full movie for free at Crackle.com.

Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro (16 screens) has been lurking on a few arthouse screens all summer, pulling in less than half a million dollars to date, and earning mostly lukewarm reviews from the handful of critics that bothered to see it. Rotten Tomatoes has 55 reviews on file for it, as compared to the 267 reviews for Star Trek (307 screens). In any Hollywood book, that's pretty much a dud, not even worthy of a moment's cocktail conversation. But in my book, it's a triumph of creativity over career. Coppola is 70 as I write this, and no longer the young stallion that won an Oscar in 1970 (for his Patton screenplay) and went on to create the biggest blockbuster of its time -- and one of the greatest films ever made at a major studio -- The Godfather (1972).

Memories can be hazy things. Did Francis Ford Coppola really question the necessity of The Godfather Part II? Did he really want Martin Scorsese to direct the sequel, rather than himself? Referring to The Godfather, Coppola told Esquire: "The ending was clear and Michael has corrupted himself - it was over. So I didn't understand why they wanted to make another Godfather." He then made the executives at Paramount Pictures an offer they could refuse: "I said, 'What I will do is help you develop a story. And I'll find a director and produce it.' They said, 'Well, who's the director?' And I said, 'Young guy, Martin Scorsese.' They said, 'Absolutely not!' He was just starting out."

What an amusing, colorful anecdote, offering fresh insight into the making of a classic film! Except, er, it's not so fresh, since Coppola told Peter Biskind the same thing for his 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. In the book, Coppola said that after he recommended his friend to Robert Evans, then a studio executive, Evans replied: "Absolutely not! Marty Scorsese is a horrible choice. Over my dead body." Coppola eventually agreed to do the picture when he was offered one million dollars.

As it happens, I've been working my way through the magnificent Coppola Restoration versions of the Godfather films on DVD, which includes Robert DeNiro's audition for The Godfather. Six months after The Godfather opened, Scorsese and DeNiro were filming Mean Streets. What if Scorsese had followed that up with The Godfather Part II instead of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore?

Francis Ford Coppola may never again craft a classic like The Godfather, but after years spent toiling on bland studio fare – as well as 2007's ambitious, muddled Youth Without Youth – the director regains his mojo with Tetro, a saga of familial strife and Oedipal conflict equally indebted to '60s euro cinema and the theatrical traditions of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. An independently financed gem, Coppola's first self-penned film since 1974's The Conversation is shot in lustrous black and white and marked by an old-school formal proficiency that's highlighted by an endlessly intriguing and expressive frame. It's also rife with echoes of the past, in terms of its cinematic forbearers – including The Godfather, and its focus on the shadow cast by titanic father figures on sons – as well as its narrative proper, which concerns the reunion in Buenos Aires of 18-year-old Bennie (newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) and his older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo), the latter of whom up and left home years prior on a writing sabbatical and was never heard from again. As is slowly revealed, his departure was spurred by both men's father Carlo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), a world-renowned symphony conductor whom Tetro disdainfully refers to as "The Great Man" and whose stature, and accompanying egomaniacal behavior, caused an unspecified rift that hasn't yet healed.

It was inevitable -- as soon as Francis Ford Coppola rethought a trip to Cannes for Tetro, you knew that a trailer would undoubtedly appear. But how would a brief look into Coppola's first original story since The Conversation, and next indie step after Youth Without Youth, turn out?

Stunning, dark, and just a little bit confusing, if the trailer is any indication. I'd say it's a welcome strangeness and indicative of an interesting cinematic ride, but Movieline isn't so sure: "You can see the danger here amid the flashes of beauty and passion, reminding viewers all too well of the never-ending hangover of perfection." Indeed, it's not your usual trailer, mixing distinct artistic images and a few splashes of color in the story of familial struggle.

Vincent Gallo's Tetro is much like any other Gallo, but it also seems like he was made for Coppola's black and white eye --ripped out of Buffalo and finally finding a home in a timeless, color-free Buenos Aires. But check out the trailer and weigh in below: Has the Tetro trailer piqued your interest?

You may have heard that Francis Ford Coppola had said no to screening Tetro out of competition and had decided to keep his latest film out of Cannes. Well, all that's changed now. Variety reports that Olivier Pere countered Coppola's refusal with a new offer, one that proved too irresistible. Now the Vincent Gallo film will open the 41st edition of Directors' Fortnight, which also boasts I Love You Phillip Morris amongst a number of international selections. For the unlucky Cannes-free people: Coppola will be distributing the film through his American Zoetrope, but no release date has been announced.

Meanwhile, the cast of The Company Men, the drama that has Ben Affleck getting sacked, keeps growing. First Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones signed on, and now Variety reports that Craig T. Nelson and Maria Bello are joining the film, which is currently kicking off in Boston. Company focuses on a man who suffers from a lay-off due to corporate downsizing, and has to work at his brother-in-law's (Costner) construction site to make ends meet. Bello will play the Vice President of human resources who cans Affleck, while Coach plays the global conglomerate's CEO. Get ready to see a lot more of Mr. T. Nelson. You might have noticed that he's also in The Proposal, and, he's rumored to be part of that Parenthood TV project.

Some B films are loved because they're just so bad, but some are loved because they're just so good -- a palpable talent resting beneath the haze of badness.

I'm not talking about the guys who spend years honing their technique and then head back to the world of B to make a flashy feature (Grindhouse), but those who are born out of that wonderfully bad wasteland -- the men and women who kickstart their career with blood, chills, and pulp, and then grow into high-buzz filmmakers and talent. Not everyone can start with a critical masterpiece, so what can be better than a little silly fun? It certainly beats a crappy first movie that no one wants to see.

Read on to learn of seven big Hollywood names who kicked off their careers with the wonder of B-movie filmmaking. These directors have talent, awards, and a healthy serving of critical success, but it all came out of began with our beloved B's. Maybe they knew how to start their careers, or maybe Roger Corman simply has the best eye for killer talent. Whatever the case, their first films didn't define their careers, and in fact, set them on their way to success.

The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival, announced its massive 150-film lineup this week. The world's oldest film festival (Federico Fellini showed his film La Strada here when he was just a pup will open with Peter Bratt's La Mission -- starring brother Benjamin Bratt -- and closes with Alexis dos Santos' Unmade Beds, with Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer -- with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel -- as a Centerpiece. Francis Ford Coppola will receive the festival's directing award (previously awarded to Mike Leigh, Spike Lee and Werner Herzog) and will hopefully screen a trailer and some bits and pieces from his upcoming Tetro. Robert Redford will be honored with the Peter J. Owens award (for actors whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity). James Toback will receive the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting, and the festival will screen his new documentary Tyson. Other guests include Evan Rachel Wood and Elijah Wood (no relation).