In a bittersweet turn of events, the world bids farewell to Eleanor Coppola, the acclaimed filmmaker and documentarian, at the age of 87. Her journey through the lens of cinema captivated audiences worldwide, weaving tales that touched hearts and sparked imagination. As we reflect on her legacy, let’s delve into the remarkable life and lasting impact of this cinematic luminary.
Eleanor Coppola Dies At 87
A statement from Eleanor Coppola’s family, provided to news outlets, states that the actress passed away on Friday at her Napa Valley home in Northern California. Her age was eighty-seven. Her death’s cause has not yet been made public.
With a career spanning over 60 years, the documentarian was most recognized for following her father, Francis Ford Coppola, and daughter, Sofia Coppola, as they made movies.
Eleanor Coppola, Award-winning director and Sofia Coppola’s mom, dies at 87. pic.twitter.com/foNIvCelI9
— Sofia Coppola Updates (@CoppolaUpdates) April 13, 2024
When Francis Ford Coppola invited Eleanor Coppola, a mother of three, to travel to the Philippines to document the production of his 1979 masterpiece on the Vietnam War, Apocalypse Now, starring Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen, she was an expectant mother.
Eleanor Coppola described the bodyguards the Philippine government employed to safeguard the Coppola family during their stay there as “very casual about their weapons” in a 1992 interview with WHYY’s Fresh Air, expressing concern that rebels would try to kidnap the well-known Hollywood director. “Our main bodyguard would stick his pistol in his belt of his blue jeans and he’d get it out and show the kids how it worked.”
Filmmaking was a notoriously difficult process, which Eleanor Coppola candidly documented on camera. During filming, a typhoon damaged sets and heavy rains caused delays. Sheen had a heart attack.
The character had to be completely recast since Brando was too big to portray the part as Francis Ford Coppola had initially imagined. The director was in danger of going bankrupt since the project went much beyond budget and ran behind time.
Francis Ford Coppola informed his wife, “Everyone says, yes, well, Francis works best in a crisis,” during one of their many heartfelt conversations that she had recorded for the camera at the time. “I’m saying this is one crisis I’m not gonna pull myself out of. I’m making a bad movie, so why should I go ahead?”
Three years after its release, Apocalypse Now was hailed as a masterpiece, as was Eleanor Coppola’s 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness, which focused on the difficult process of making that movie.
When it comes to the documentary, “it strips Coppola bare of all defenses and yet reveals him as a great and brave filmmaker,” said 1992 film critic Roger Ebert. “It also reveals the ordeal he put his actors and crew through, on location in the Philippines – and what he endured at their hands.”
Growing up in Southern California, Eleanor Coppola studied applied design at the University of California, Los Angeles. She was a visual artist at the beginning. While working in the art department of Francis Ford Coppola’s low-budget feature film debut, Dementia 13, in 1962, she met the man who would become her husband. The next year, they tied the knot.
Later, Eleanor Coppola produced documentaries about her husband’s film The Rainmaker and her daughter Sofia Coppola’s films Marie Antoinette and The Virgin Suicides. She also wrote and directed two of her own feature films, Paris Can Wait and Love is Love, in her later years.
In addition, Eleanor Coppola was a writer. She finished her third memoir at the age of 87. According to her family’s statement, the writer wrote in the book, “I appreciate how my unexpected life has stretched and pulled me in so many extraordinary ways and taken me in a multitude of directions beyond my wildest imaginings.”
The Cinesthetic, one of Eleanor’s close friends wrote on Twitter, “RIP Eleanor Coppola.”
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