Born in 1939 in Detroit (USA), Francis Ford Coppola is descended from Southern Italians who immigrated to New York in the early 20th century. At the age of nine, he started making 8mm movies. After graduating in 1959 with a B.A. in Theatre Arts, he enrolled at UCLA for graduate work in film. Coppola’s unerring instinct for career-building led to an apprenticeship at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. After varied stints on low-budget genre pictures, Corman allowed him to direct a film from his own screenplay, DEMENTIA 13. His adaptations of REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, and IS PARIS BURNING? were produced, making him a much-in-demand screenwriter. His second film, YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW (1966), served as his MFA thesis and marked his first appearance at the Festival de Cannes, where he would later enjoy acclaim, twice winning the Palme d’Or (THE CONVERSATION, 1974; APOCALYPSE NOW, 1979). He directed Fred Astaire and Petula Clark in FINIAN’S RAINBOW (1968), adapted from the Broadway musical, followed by an original work, THE RAIN PEOPLE (1969).
As the 1960s wound down, Coppola made two momentous decisions. He relocated to San Francisco, where he founded with George Lucas an independent production company, American Zoetrope. Lucas’s first two features, THX 1138 (1971) and AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) were produced under its aegis. But the company was high maintenance, and in 1970 Coppola was persuaded to direct a gangster picture based upon a best-selling novel by Mario Puzo, THE GODFATHER. The film created a sensation upon its release in 1972, altering the course of his career. Its equally successful follow-up, THE GODFATHER, PART II (1974), is credited with starting an industry-wide trend by making sequels respectable and immensely profitable. THE GODFATHER, PART III (1990), made almost twenty years later, continued the tradition. In 1976, Coppola began APOCALYPSE NOW, financing the Vietnam War epic himself. Shooting stopped, then re-started, and the budget skyrocketed, delaying the film’s release until 1979. APOCALYPSE NOW has come to occupy a very special place in the annals of American moviemaking, influencing two generations of directors across the globe.
The 1980s brought about a radical change in Coppola’s career parabola. Desiring more independence as well as an electronically modern filmmaking facility, he bought Hollywood General Studios and renamed it Zoetrope Studios. Production immediately began in 1982 on HAMMETT, directed by Wim Wenders, and soon thereafter on ONE FROM THE HEART (1982), an innovative musical. Coppola then made two youth pictures in 1983, THE OUTSIDERS and RUMBLE FISH. The second half of the 1980s constituted a period of evaluation and regeneration with such films as THE COTTON CLUB (1984), PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986), GARDENS OF STONE (1987), TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM (1988) and the segment LIFE WITHOUT ZOE from the feature film NEW YORK STORIES (1989).
In 1990, THE GODFATHER, PART III garnered seven Oscar nominations, including one for Coppola as Best Director. One year later, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA starring Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman snared four Oscar nominations and won three Oscars. In 1996, he worked with Robin Williams and directed JACK and the following year shot THE RAINMAKER with Matt Damon, an adaptation of John Grisham’s bestselling novel.
In 2007, Coppola directed YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH starring Tim Roth. TETRO, starring Vincent Gallo, opened the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2009 Festival de Cannes. His latest film, TWIXT, is currently in post-production.
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