Francis Ford Coppola’s 7 best films to watch again and again – VOGUE Paris

From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now and Dracula, here is Vogue's express guide to the best films by Francis Ford Coppola, the film director with 5 Oscars and 2 Palmes d'Or.

Winning the Oscar for Best Picture in 1973, The Godfather is one of the great masterpieces of the history of cinema. A hyperrealistic portrait of a mafia family in New York in the late 1940s, the first part of the saga follows the rise of the young Corleone wolf, Michael (Al Pacino), under the merciless gaze of the patriarch Don Vito, known as The Godfather (Marlon Brando). The Hollywood icon, who for the role distorted his jaw with dentures to make his cheeks heavier, received the Oscar for Best Actor. The Godfather II and III follow in the footsteps of Michael's criminal schemes, who rules the family after the death of Don Vito.

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a great specialist in surveillance, has to follow and spy on a couple, but when listening to the sound recordings, their seemingly banal remarks pique his curiosity and arouse his suspicions, gradually plunging him into paranoia. This spy thriller, released in the middle of the Watergate scandal, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974.

With Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola received his second Palme d'Or at Cannes, 5 years after The Conversation. A free adaptation of a short story by Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness), this breathtaking film plunges us into the hell of the Vietnam War, in the footsteps of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who is sent into the hostile jungle to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), suspected of committing barbarities. Served by sublime cinematography and an incredible visual palette (the shots of ominous sunsets are grandiose), Apocalypse Now is a masterpiece that is still unequalled.

Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke)'s older brother, Rusty James (Matt Dillon), wants to play the new gang leader and take on a rival himself. But he's a little undersized and is saved at the last minute by the return of the enigmatic Motorcyle Boy. In his second role noticed in this spirited film, Nicolas Cage would later become one of the most bankable actors of the 1990s.

1966, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The young delinquents of the slums, the Greasers, are at war with the sons of the bourgeoisie, the Socs. Ponyboy, the leader of the Greasers, meets Cherry who tries to prove to him that all Socs are not bad. In a fight, Ponyboy's best friend Johnny kills a Coulter, Bob. The two guys will do anything they can to get away from the police. In a tight black T-shirt and leather perfecto - reminiscent of his look as a rebellious dancer in Dirty Dancing - Patrick Swayze lit up the screen in his second film, even eclipsing the young Tom Cruise, still unknown at the time.

Darker and more erotic than its predecessors, Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula is based on an impeccable Gothic aesthetic and characters that are each more complex than the last. In the skin of Dracula, Gary Oldman is unrecognizable. Under his thumb, the young notary clerk (Keanu Reeves) is gradually forced to abandon his beloved fiance Mina (Winona Ryder) to the clutches of the Count's wives. Winner of three Oscars (Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling), Coppola's film remains a reference in the genre.

COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL American Zoetrope / Columbia Pictures CorporationAmerican Zoetrope / Columbia Pic / Collection ChristopheL

With the Godfather saga, and Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola marked his time as few filmmakers have done. He then went through a strange period, because it was less free, alternating beautiful films (Stone Gardens, Dracula, The Godfather III...) and others, for much more dispensable ones (Jack, with Robin Williams). At the beginning of the 2000s, he returned to a more personal cinema that he financed entirely from his own money. Shot in Argentina, in black and white, the film Tetro plunges into the rets of a family history blackened by a heavy secret, and illuminated by a cast that borders on perfection: Vincent Gallo in the role of Tetro, a cursed writer unable to complete his only masterpiece; young Alden Ehrenreich, a superb breakthrough, in the role of the little brother who bursts into his life and tries to understand his tragedy; Klaus Maria Brendauer as pater familias, a genius conductor with a devouring ego; and Carmen Maura, an exceptional eccentric and megalomaniacal literary critic.

Alicia Schemper. All rights reserved

Translated by Freya Doggett

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Francis Ford Coppola's 7 best films to watch again and again - VOGUE Paris