DIARIO
VOL 01, ISSUE 09
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival celebrates the 40-year anniversary of the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. This exploration into a young soldier’s unconscious transcends time and place and is relevant today.
Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Roman Coppola, and Eleanor Coppola, Vogue December 1990
Founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2002 after the tragic events of 9/11, the Tribeca Film Festival was meant to initiate the economic and cultural growth of downtown Manhattan. Over the last 18 years, the festival has become a vehicle for creative expression, immersive entertainment, and the celebration of independent filmmaking.
Now a powerful event that draws an estimated three million people to Manhattan each year, it is no wonder that the festival will honor a movie that wasn’t strictly independent, but that was crafted with a guerrilla spirit more appropriate to a small-scale film than to the iconic blockbuster that it has become.
The production of Apocalypse Now was haunted by several setbacks, such as Typhoon Olga. The Philippine sets were ravaged, leaving cast and crew stranded for days, as seen in the footage by documentarian and Coppola’s wife Eleanor Coppola, who filmed the shooting. Director Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter John Milius’ take on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a stirring work of art that will be shown at The Beacon Theatre in a never-before-seen restored version to honor its 40th anniversary.
Image courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival.
It is important that movies have quality and integrity because they have such a tremendous influence on the world and on people.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
The director, Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of our time. Winner of five Academy Awards, his body of work has helped to shape contemporary American cinema. His movies are a diverse glimpse into the human spirit filmed with a visceral approach that is strongly influenced by his Italian heritage. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why he chose Italian-born Vittorio Storaro as his director of photography on Apocalypse Now. Storaro’s trademark elegance and stunning way of “narrating stories with light” earned him three Oscars, one of which for his work on this film. A second-generation Italian, Francis Ford Coppola paid homage to his heritage in the celebrated Godfather trilogy, where his richly physical style is visible in every shot. Ippolita shares the same Italian background and the same innate, instinctive sensibility.
The making of Apocalypse Now. Still photographers: Chas Gerretsen, Josh Weiner, David Jones, and Dick White.
Marlon Brando and Al Pacino on the set of "The Godfather"
Coppola honors his Italian heritage with his well-established winery that he defines as “a place to celebrate the love of life.” Not unlike the Italian-American director, Ippolita also comes from a family that loves the arts. Daughter of an American artist and an Italian intellectual, she spent her childhood immersed in Renaissance art and architecture in the hills of Tuscany. Her elementary school was a one-room medieval schoolhouse, and she earned her Baccalaureate in sculpture at the renowned Istituto D’Arte in Florence.
Coppola’s family, on the other hand, loves movies: Francis’ father was composer Carmine Coppola, his sister is the actress Talia Shire, his daughter Sofia is an award-winning filmmaker, and his son Roman is a talented screenwriter who often collaborates with director Wes Anderson. Coppola’s nephews are Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage, also heavily involved in the film industry.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse [US 1991] Eleanor Coppola. Image courtesy of Cinephilia & Beyond
Francis Ford Coppola poses with his family, Cannes, 1979. Image courtesy of https://cinearchive.org
Image courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival
ROBERT BROWNING
(ON A PLAQUE OUTSIDE CA’ REZZONICO)
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Francis Ford Coppola, photographed at his Inglenook winery, in the Napa Valley, California. Photograph by Sam Jones.
Ippolita