The visionary force behind such popular and critically acclaimed films as Apocalypse Now and the Godfather trilogy, Francis Ford Coppola has imprinted a distinct style on each of his movies and has significantly influenced modern Americancinema. In an era of inflated production budgets and complex studio systems, it is rare for a director to gain creative control over all aspects of the filmmaking process—from screenwriting to editing to the coveted "final cut"—that the auteur commands. Francis Ford Coppola is unarguably one of the few modern American exceptions.
Recipient of the Director’s Guild of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Coppola began his career at UCLA’s film school but was soon drawn to an apprenticeship under director Roger Corman, known as "king of the B movie." With Corman he gained practical experience in all aspects of the filmmaking process, particularly in how to manage a budget, a skill Coppola credits with being chosen to direct TheGodfather even though Hollywood still considered him to be a young director.
Working as a screenwriter (crafting scripts for The Great Gatsby and Patton, for which he won an Academy Award), Coppola rejected the standard studio practice of hiring multiple writers to work on a single project. Accordingly, he formed his own production company, American Zoetrope, where he exercised complete control over the entire creative process. After founding the company, he began his directorial work in earnest, describing each film as a continuation of the previous one, despite the differences in subject matter.
Author Gene D. Phillips blends biography, studio history, and film criticism to provide the most comprehensive work available on Francis Ford Coppola. Phillips gained access to the reticent director and his colleagues and examined Coppola’s private production journals and screenplays. He reviewed rare copies of Coppola’s student films, his early excursions into soft-core pornography, and his less celebrated productions such as One from the Heart and Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Phillips also illuminates the details of the production history of the harrowing 238-day shoot of Apocalypse Now and explains how The Godfather was almost cast without the now iconic Marlon Brando.
The definitive assessment of one of Hollywood’s most enduring and misunderstood mavericks, Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola argues that Coppola has centered his career around engaging films that reflecthis own radically independent artistic vision. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola (Gene D. Phillips)