Coppola A Biography

By 1982 Francis Ford Coppola had won five Academy Awards; at the same time he was over $20 million in debt following the disastrous failure ofOne from the Heart.This astute biography critically examines Coppola's singular vision and why it makes such paradoxes not only possible but prevalent in his long turbulent career. At the age of 32 Coppola became a superstar in Hollywood withThe Godfather,which rapidly climbed to the top of the all-time box-office hits. Two years later he won the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes festival forThe Conversation.His savage epic of the Vietnam War,Apocalypse Now,established him as the most daring, brilliant filmmaker of his generation. This book not only goes behind the cameras to track the creative and financial turmoil involved in his productions, but offers perceptive analyses of his films, including all three parts ofThe Godfatherand the visually stunning remake ofDracula.Based on three years of research and exclusive interviews with the subject,Coppolailluminates the director's rise to prominence, his personal tragedies, intermittent failures, and resurgent successes with telling insights into the shaping of his artistic sensibility. This is a spirited, penetrating study of a man whose films have a strange way of mirroring his own sometimes tempestuous life.

Peter Cowie is founding editor of the annual International Film Guide and author of The Cinema of Orson Welles (available from Da Capo Press/Perseus Books Group) and Ingmar Bergman: A Critical Biography. He is now senior international advisor to the publication and lives in London.