This Article is From Nov 21, 2014

Godfather Story Was Always a Metaphor for America, Says Francis Coppola: Highlights

Filmmaker Francis Coppola at the HT Leadership Summit

New Delhi: Filmmaker Francis Coppola is speaking at Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi.

Here are the highlights: 

  • To make a good war film, it has violence in it - very difficult to make it anti-war
  • My idea always was that the Godfather story was a metaphor for America
  • Wine is like music. The more you learn about it, the more you enjoy it (on owning a winery)
  • Wine as we know it is basically a bottle of fermented grape-juice with a label on that - but it is much more than that... it is a story.
  • All businesses I've been involved in are about story-telling
  • On making Godfather Trilogy: I wanted to call the third movie 'The Death of Michael Corleone'
  • People went to see the third movie wanting another installment for the first two but got something different
  • There are now people who think that Godfather Part III is interesting compared to the other two
  • Movies change over time because people watching them change in TV and cinema
  • Godfather III made under terrible financial distress. Didn't want to call it Godfather III
  • The audience will get anything it wants. Avoid films that are unduly violent, the responsibility lies with you
  • Audiences can tell when it is fake but let's face it - cinema is a marriage of writing and acting. Ultimately it is in the choice of the story and how that reaches people
  • On Apocalypse Now - It was the most daunting venture I went on. Absolutely no one wanted to be in my shoes, and I ended up owning it

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