Cinephilia and Beyond

The Conversation (1974), the best film that Francis Ford Coppola has ever made, begins with a bird’s-eye view of a crowd of people in San Francisco’s Union Square. The camera slowly and decisively zeroes in on specific people moving about, such as a mime (Robert Shields of the “Shields and Yarnell” television show from 1977-1978 and one of the world’s greatest mimes) and eventually rests on our protagonist, Harry Caul, a wire tapper and surveillance expert played by Gene Hackman in one of his best screen performances. From the film’s very first frame, this is a movie about seeing and listening without being detected. It’s also about deeper issues such as guilt, paranoia, responsibility, absolution and redemption, themes that were common to American cinema in the 1970’s during the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam era. What is even more amazing is the fact that The Conversation is a film that most contemporary audiences have never even heard of. —Todd Garbarini

Coppola, who directed The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, revealed that his earliest films — like The Rain People and The Conversation — were more like what he’d hoped to do over the course of his career. But then money and life got in the way. “I had to get a job, and of course, the job was The Godfather,” he says. “That made me be something I didn’t know I was going to be. I became a big-shot director. If you take a young Long Island Italian guy and give him endless possibilities, then you’ll see what kind of crazy things I did in the course of my career.”

You know, what was top of my mind when I was making that film was I wanted to make the film as beautiful as “Blow-Up.” You know, I had seen “Blow-Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni and I said boy, that’s the kind of film I - those were the kind of films I want to make. I - something that’s unique and it occupies its own kind of thing, and I made “The Conversation.” I sat down to write that after being so enthusiastic about seeing “Blow-Up.” And throughout my career, I have seen great films that have just filled me with pleasure and said, I want to make a film like that. And I think that’s OK for young people to do, you know, because it’s impossible. You set out to imitate something you thought was beautiful but in the end you can’t. You’re going to end up with what you have to say, you know?

I once came upon a beautiful little sentence in a book. I think it was from the French author Balzac and he talked about how young people were stealing, you know, taking appropriating some of his ideas and stuff and he says, they’re welcome to it. I want them to, he says, because there’s no way they can. They’ll take it or they’re going to make it into their own, and then it makes me live for ever through them. And I sort of feel that anytime anyone has taken something that maybe I might have provided. I did the same to Tennessee Williams or to any number of great authors and that’s part of the, you know, to quote the greats, “the circle of life.” —Francis Ford Coppola Reflects On His Film Career

THREE RULES

1) Write and direct original screenplays

2) Make them with the most modern technology available

3) Self-finance them

Filmmaking can never be mastered

“I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if I can come home from working on a little film after doing it for 45 years and say that – that shows something about the cinema”

Risks are essential

“Even in the early days of the movies, they didn’t know how to make movies. They had an image and it moved and the audience loved it. You saw a train coming into the station, and just to see motion was beautiful. The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do. But unfortunately, after 15-20 years, it became a commercial industry. People made money in the cinema, and then they began to say to the pioneers, Don’t experiment. We want to make money. We don’t want to take chances. An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before? I always like to say that cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. You have to take a risk. I was never afraid of risks. I always had a good philosophy about risks. The only risk is to waste your life, so that when you die, you say, Oh, I wish I had done this.”

Don’t rely on memory, put your ideas on paper

“One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes. [Date them, put the location on]“

If you don’t begin by imitating, you won’t begin at all

“Don’t worry about whether it’s appropriate to borrow or to take or do something like someone you admire – because that’s only the first step and you have to take the first step.”

Don’t rely on selling your art directly

“Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money. Because there are ways around it. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?”

Listen but filter intently

“A screenplay has to be like a haiku [Japanese poetic form]. It has to be very concise and very clear, minimal. [But when you come to shoot it] you’re going to listen to the actors because they have great ideas. You’re going to listen to the cinematographer because he will have a great idea. You must never be the kind of director, I think maybe I was when I was 18, “No, no, no, I know best.” That’s not good. You can make the decision that you feel is best, but listen to everyone, because cinema is collaboration. I always like to say that collaboration is the sex of art because you take from everyone you’re working with.”

When making a movie focus on a theme

“When you make a movie, always try to discover what the theme of the movie is in one or two words. Every time I made a film, I always knew what I thought the theme was, the core, in one word. In The Godfather, it was succession. In Apocalypse, it was morality. The reason it’s important to have this is because most of the time what a director really does is make decisions. All day long: Do you want it to be long hair or short hair? Do you want a dress or pants? Do you want a beard or no beard? There are many times when you don’t know the answer. Knowing what the theme is always helps you.

“I remember in The Conversation, they brought all these coats to me, and they said: Do you want him to look like a detective? Do you want him to look like a blah blah blah. I didn’t know! And [because the theme was privacy] I chose the plastic coat you could see through. So knowing the theme helps you make a decision when you’re not sure which way to go.”

Cast with improvisation sessions

“With improvisations, they really stick if there’s something sensual connected with them, like food or eating or making something with their hands.”

Have conviction in your vision and ‘bake the scene in the oven’

“When I was young on a movie set, I would try to stage the scene and the actors would read it, and I said – Well, you stand here and you sit there…[But] They would say – Well, I don’t think I should sit there, I should stand there. And I don’t think this line is right….And they would begin to challenge the text. What I learned, which is a simple idea, is that if you hold out with your vision a little bit, it’s like a cake being put in the oven. The scene doesn’t work immediately, you have to bake it a little bit. It’s unfair, when you begin to create a shot, say, or a scene, that it’s going to immediately be like those beautiful scenes in the movies. It needs a little bit of time to mature.”

Don’t lie to yourself

“You never have to lie. If you lie, you will only trip yourself up. You will always get caught in a lie. It is very important for an artist not to lie, and most important is not to lie to yourself. There is something we know that’s connected with beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty, and therefore it has to be about truth.”

Have confidence

“The artist always battles [their own] feeling of inadequacy. Self confidence is the biggest barrier to becoming a filmmaker. We are very insecure. People are insecure, not just young people. Everyone is insecure. They say that Barbara Streisand, when she goes on, she has a panic attack. She feels she can’t sing. Of course, she can sing. I believe that when you write something, when I write something, I turn it over and I don’t look at it. Because I believe the writer, the young writer, has a hormone that makes them hate what they’ve written. And yet, the next morning, when you look at it, you say, “Oh that’s not bad.” But the first second you hate it.”

Filmmaking tips from a legend – Interview with Francis Ford Coppola

The full, frankly amazing interview, is at The 99% here

Tweet

Follow @LaFamiliaFilm