Just finished reading a wonderful "The Path to Paradise. A Francis Ford Coppola Story" by Sam Wasson. It's a fantastic book.
At the end of it the author acknowledges the openness and support he got from Coppola. They must have hit it off from the start, I guess. The character of FFC that emerges from the book is fascinating: always curious, always passionate, taking risks, sensitive and mad at times.
Among many intriguing isights there is one that I've been thinking about for the last few days. It is an account of what FCC said to Sam Wasson about the creating process. It was the thought that a director controls the elements of his creation the same way the painter controls the brushstrokes on the canvas or a writer controls the words on the page. In the case of film the director he controls "the real life". Another words to produce a strong, significant film whatever happens in front of the camera or later on the screen has to be a part of real life. He spoke about it while discussing "One from The Heart" but I thought about "Apocalypse Now" which is so real, so personal, so dramatic that it fits the above deception beautifully.
It is also an admonishment to those who try to put things in front of camera that are not filtered through the "real life" urgency.
