Francis Ford Coppola Stays in the Picture

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ever heard a podcast that made you say,
0:02.0	wow, they really said that?
0:04.3	Risk is the show where people tell true stories
0:06.8	they never thought they dare to share.
0:09.2	Listeners say the show makes them burst out laughing
0:12.2	and crying, good crying some say it saved their lives
0:17.4	Surprising honesty the most jaw-dropping moments that are stranger than fiction.
0:22.8	Thank you for it at all.
0:24.0	Wait till you hear risk.
0:26.2	Available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Pushkin. You're going to the show. Today I'm joined by Legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
1:17.0	He's been making movies since the early 60s, beginning as an apprentice to the late Roger
1:21.7	Corman, who actually bankrolled Coppola's debut film,
1:25.5	Dementia 13, for a grand total of $20,000.
1:29.7	That was back in 1963, and from there the rest was, well, history, most of which you've probably seen.
1:38.0	The Godfather, the conversation, Apocalypse Now, one from the heart, the Outsiders, the Cotton Club, the Rainmaker.
1:44.7	That's just to name a select few.
1:47.0	At the peak of his powers, no other writer-director had ever had two best picture nominations
1:51.4	and two best screenplay nominations in the same year, which Coppola received in
1:56.2	early 1975 for both the conversation and Godfather Part 2. But even as Coppala was becoming a mainstay of Hollywood, he always had other
2:06.8	loftier ambitions. There was company Zowatro Productions, which he co-founded in San Francisco alongside
2:13.8	director George Lucas, he hoped to upend the traditional studio system and create a
2:19.0	pipeline for young exciting filmmakers interested in bold and original work.
	...

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