Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola, is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. Genres, like drama and mystery are used mostly throughout Francis Coppola’s work. Today I will be discussing what makes Francis Ford Coppola an auteur, Francis Ford Coppola is considered an auteur director as his stories seem to want to transform cinema and culture so radically on all levels as he brings another’s visions to the screen. The three main points that will be analysed are, Francis Coppola is an auteur because his films aren’t commercial, and he has a certain personal approach to his filmmaker. What are Francis Coppola’s filmmaking representations; representing particular characters/narrative elements, and his signature style. And evaluating the impact that Hollywood system has on the creative choices of Francis Coppola films. Over almost forty-five years of work, Coppola has directed about twenty-five films, produced near forty-five, composed two, and acted in eight. He is known predominantly for Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Godfather I (1972), II (1974), and III (1990).
Francis Coppola re-shaped American cinema, his films aren't commercial like Hollywoods films, Coppola’s films always seem to be a burning desire to make films of less scope, less magnitude, more personal pictures outside the studio system that are there for only the most devoted fans of fringe cinema. He has taken on the marketing and filmmaking aspects in a different way over the years. He was never one to give in to studio demands too easily, and his stubbornness may have been what made him great. Which is why Coppola has moved into these more personal pictures. He is probably the most visionary filmmaker of his generation. However, this is not quite the same thing as being the most creative, the most original or the most personal, and Scorsese, Altman and Malick are all perhaps finally more singular artists than Coppola. Looking at some of his films, his films such as The Godfather saga, have carried out significant aspects using themes such as family, and Italian style. The gangster film is one of the most enduring of Hollywood genres. In America the movies have mythologized three types of heroes: the cowboy, the cop, and the gangster. Guys with guns in a world without women. Most durable is the gangster, for without him, the cop has no adversary. And when he’s also a modern cowboy whose frontier is the city or, as with Michael Corleone in “The Godfather Part III,” the world the gangster gives us hero and villain in the same character. That’s why the taste for gangsters has abated only briefly, during World Wars I and II, when real armed conflicts sated any pangs for reel mob wars. "The Godfather" saga has so much resonance because it taps into both the gangster myth as well as the immigrant myth. At it heart it's a story of a single family, refugees of feudal conflict, and their assimilation and success in the New World where, unconsciously perhaps, they replicate the feudal structure from which they fled. Thus the multigenerational saga also has the contours of a multigenerational classical tragedy, like the Oresteia. The Mario Puzo novel and Francis Coppola’s conception of the Corleones is at once a portrait of a specific family with its sibling rivalries and love as well as a portrait of America, a nation of immigrants struggling for power and legitimacy. Coppola shot the film with the chiaroscuro light and shadow of classical painting. As shown in some of Coppola’s films, his style of gangster is different from Hollywoods which is why he is considered an auteur director.
Coppola’s filmmaking has carried out different type of elements which consider him an auteur director; character representations, narrative elements and signature style are all part of his work. Most of his works’ mise-en-scene, with some exceptions, seems to be very basic. When Coppola is filming, he does not put unnecessary items into the scene. When using a Wide-angle lens, the frames are very open and spacious. This allows the viewer to focus on what is happening, rather than distract their attention. This technique can also prove useful. For example, if he wanted to make a character seem alone, abandoned, and insignificant, this type of shot would work well. In The Conversation (1974), Coppola elevated the sound effect to the equivalent of dialogue. The film’s lead character is a private investigator who specialises in sound recording. Listing is his vocation, understanding is his obsession and misunderstanding is his fear, he is consumed by sound. Coppola is adventurous in using sound, particularly effects and fragments of conversation, to reflect his characters shifting state of mind. Probably the best concentration of Coppola’s innovation in sound is his film Apocalypse Now (1979). Working with Walter Murch as sound designer and Richard Marks as editor, Coppola created a film as innovative in its use of sound as Cavalcanti’s documentary work in the 1930s. By using Apocalypse Now as an example it explores the use of sound and introduce ideas into the narrative. For the audience and for Coppola, it is a voyage into the American heart of darkness. The non-narrative elements of the film, the sound track particularly, help create the interior world that lies beneath the images that Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro created. A second important element of Coppola’s use of sound is the narration. Silence in the film is unusual, it introduces an idea whenever it becomes predominant: the idea of mortal threat. With Walter Murch, Coppola used sound effects and narration to create a sound space that suggests the interior world of Willard and, later, the crew. He used a very different approach to the deployment of sound in the external action of the story. The approach is highly stylised, as illustrated by the helicopter attack on the enemy checkpoint on the river. Unlike some of the other major filmmakers of his generation, Coppola doesn’t have a signature style, or even a set of obvious recurring themes. But his films still feel personal.
The impact that Hollywood system has had on the creative choices of Francis Coppola’s films has made him stand out from other filmmakers even more. Coppola discussed with a reporter saying his opinion on Hollywood, and talking about his filmmaking and how it is different from Hollywood. Movies are repetitions of similar stories that made money in the past. Anything with emotion, or which is unique or artistic isn't sought after by Hollywood. He said, "We're in a commercial dictatorship, that the movie has to make money." I think many agree this is a rule in Hollywood, which is why he set out to make his own films, with his own funds. Coppola decided to start the journey with "Youth Without Youth" and "Tetro," but first he needed to tap into his emotional side...which he surely did.
Overall, Francis Ford Coppola is Considered an auteur director, as he seems to transform cinema and culture so radically on all levels as he brings another’s visions to the screen. What makes him an auteur is that he uses his own personal stories to create a film, Coppola makes you feel a real connection with his films as he represents real life stories.
