Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Paperback)

~ Gene D. Phillips (Editor), Rodney Hill (Editor) "Francis Ford Coppola was probably the first graduate of a university film school in America to direct a Hollywood movie..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Francis Ford Coppola, The Outsiders (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Coppola's lofty reputation rests entirely on the remarkable films he made in the 1970s: The Godfather and its sequel, the less-heralded masterpiece The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now. The 10 interviews collected here, drawn from mainstream newspapers and magazines, film journals, and other sources, date from 1968, when Coppola's first studio picture, Finian's Rainbow, was near release, to 1997, when he was working on a pedestrian adaptation of a John Grisham novel. Even the most recent interviews concentrate on his early masterworks and give short shrift to his subsequent output, largely uninspired gun-for-hire efforts. A candid, unguarded conversationalist, Coppola always expresses his ambivalence about the Hollywood studio system that both enabled and devastated his career. The centerpiece here is Lillian Ross' lengthy New Yorker article centered on the daring 1982 musical One from the Heart, a notorious flop that derailed Coppola's career, eventually costing him his independent studio. The early comparisons documented here to fellow wunderkind Orson Welles are prescient; Coppola is a similarly sad case of thwarted talent and largely unrealized potential. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Of all the American filmmakers who emerged from the 1970s, Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939) may be the one most passionately revered by both critics and mainstream audiences.

The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II are landmark epics whose shots and dialogue sequences have become wholly absorbed by popular culture. Apocalypse Now, his visionary reworking of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, remains an enduring and controversial template for all future films about the Vietnam War.

Coppola's films featured pivotal roles for such actors as Robert Duvall, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, and Harrison Ford and cemented the reputations of Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro. His production company, American Zoetrope, helped to launch the careers of directors George Lucas, John Milius, and Carroll Ballard.

Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews shows Coppola to be both an intensely personal auteur and a studio-savvy Hollywood player. From the beginning of his career to the present, these conversations reveal him to be brash, candid, sensitive, and willing to engage in heated debate. He reiterates his desire to change the Hollywood system from within and talks openly about the creation of his independent film production company. Featuring interviews conducted by film critics Michael Sragow and Gene D. Phillips and the New Yorker's Lillian Ross, among others, the volume shows how Coppola has evolved from hotshot film maverick to elder statesman of American cinema.

Gene D. Phillips, S.J., is a professor of English and film history at Loyola University, Chicago. He is the author of several books on film, including Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola, and is the editor of Stanley Kubrick: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi).

Rodney Hill is a doctoral candidate in theater and film at the University of Kansas, and his work has been published in such periodicals as Literature/Film Quarterly and Post Script. He cowrote with Gene D. Phillips The Encyclopedia of Stanley Kubrick.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (September 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578066662
• ISBN-13: 978-1578066667
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #660,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Coppola interviews, December 27, 2009

By	Ross R. Whitney "Ross Whitney" (Gig Harbor, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Absolutely first-class work; fascinating to those who wonder what makes a great director tick--and what ticks him off. Nicely bound with generous margins. Prompt shipment.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great staggered picture of a genious, July 10, 2009

By	TN (Brooklyn NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This book offers an interesting insight of FFC over the span of an entire career.