“As I think back, when I was working on The Godfather, I had no power at all, but I had used the sort of Machiavellian ability that I developed to do what I wanted to do. I was becoming Michael Corleone, and he was me. When I made Apocalypse Now, there was a whole Air Force flying in and out because there was a war going on. So, I had to become a megalomaniac crazy person like Kurtz. Then, I made a film called Gardens of Stone about a man, played by Jimmy Caan, who finds a young boy that he admires and the boy is killed. My son was killed when I made that movie. I said, ‘What’s going on? Is this my life— that I have to live everything I’m doing?’ That’s what I really wonder to this day, that perhaps my whole life is really being written by Charlie Kaufman. If, in fact, my life is a movie I’m making. Every time I make a movie, I become the person that’s in the movie.”
-Francis Ford Coppola, episode 387 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Director Francis Ford Coppola doesn’t just want to make movies. He wants to change them. This was true in 1969 when he co-founded Zoetrope Studios with George Lucas, and it remains true today at age 85.
We begin with the historical context of his modern-day Roman epic fable Megalopolis (9:40), his decades-long process developing the film (12:18), and the inspiration he’s taken from Georges Méliès (22:25) and Jacques Tati (24:59). Then, Coppola reflects on the origin of how he became ‘Francis Ford Coppola’ (29:27), the irrepressible spirit he forged in childhood (32:34), and where he sees himself in films like The Godfather (38:29), Apocalypse Now (41:48), and Gardens of Stone (42:17).
On the back-half, we unpack the parallels between the titular city of Megalopolis and Zoetrope Studios (50:19), his capacity to keep dreaming, even in the face of financial ruin (53:46), where he believes America is headed in 2025 (54:29), and the lasting memory of his late wife, Eleanor (1:03:25).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.
Watch this conversation on YouTube:
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Show-notes:
- See Megalopolis in theaters.
- Read The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story by Sam Wasson.
- Watch the films discussed today: Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, The Conversation, Rumble Fish, One From the Heart, The Outsiders, Gardens of Stone, Dementia 13, and Tetro.
- Follow Francis on Instagram.
- For more episodes, hear our talks with Steven Soderbergh, Ava DuVernay, and Werner Herzog.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Reference photograph by María Alvarez.
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