The first celebrity to take to the Dolby Theater scene to celebrate filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola becomes the 50th recipient of AFI The Life Achievement Award was an actor who has never actually worked with the iconic director. Morgan Freeman, herself an AFI Life Achievement Award winner in 2011, still set the tone of what the rest of Coppola’s colleagues and family members would highlight from his stored career.
“Francis Ford Coppola is still the independent filmmaker, a believer for dreams of a penny, narrator of stories that cost and lost millions,” Freeman said. “But tonight, fuck the bankers and supporters. We’re here to celebrate art. ”
Although she was not at the event personally, his daughter Sofia Coppola, an Oscar-winning filmmaker in her own right, filmed a retrospective interview with AFI-Honoreen that served as a framework for the event.
One of the first films that got their own segment was actually “American Graffiti”, which Coppola only served as a producer on, but still gave star Ron Howard an invaluable story to tell about the experience. “After a very early show, a studio manager told Francis and George (Lucas),” You should be embarrassed by this movie. It is too long. We hate what it looks like. It seems unprofessional, “said the former actor now director.” Francis, with an appetizing authority, pulled out a checkbook and said, “Okay, listen. If you don’t want the picture, I will buy it back from you right now. I’ll buy it back from you today.” Well, you never had the money. Earning over $ 100 million, “American Graffiti” became the highest return on investment a film Had ever had it then.
Talk about the risk and reward of being part of the Coppola experience took on a different form in what “The Godfather Part II” stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino had to say about the director. “This is a quote from Francis Ford Coppola:” The things you do when you are young that you get fired for are the same things that years later give you life, “said the latter actor, who played Michael Corleone in” The Godfather “trilogy. After they talked more about how Casting was almost every actor on the project Corleone in the first movie “was the best job I ever never got.”
Later speakers such as Harrison Ford and Diane Lane expanded on Coppola’s ability to discover talent and promote a productive creative society, with the former actor who explained the director’s role in getting him to throw as Han Solo, and the latter actress who explained how she ended in “Rumble Fish” after Coppola ended up.
Speaker Spike Lee, Ralph Macchio and C. Thomas Howell took a more sentimental path in their speeches aimed at Coppola. Director Lee mentioned that he still has his “Apocalypse Now” ticket stub, which he saw when he was at the film school. And while “The Outsiders” star Macchio revealed that he left five dollars below the midpoint in Coppola’s table as a way to repay him for the lessons he learned on the film’s set, Howell told the story of how Coppola decided to make “The Outsiders” after a library in California wrote him a letter with the proposal. The said librarian then stood up from his table at the event to say the filmmaker to “stay gold.”
After a segment on Coppola’s “Dracula”, another of the director’s children, Roman Coppola, was shown, which got his filmmaking to start making visual effects on the 1992 film and has since become an Oscar-nominated screenwriter together with Wes Anderson, again repeated what made his father such an inspirational artist during the years. “We all know that one of his biggest attributes is his wave and his comfort with risk, but not only the major investments he has made, but his willingness to support, encourage unproven talents, discover some special quality in someone, entrust them with great responsibility,” he said.
Dustin Hoffman, who had never worked with the recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award until his latest film ”Megalopolis“Ekd that idea and told Coppola,” You are what actors call an actor’s director. After launching the careers for so many incredible actors, you not only saw their potential, you fought for them, “he said.” And it was early in your career when your career depends on every choice you make that day. You did this at a time when you had no effort, just chutzpah and taste and foresight. Where the studio wanted stars, you fought for actor. “
Throughout the night, Coppola could be described as secluded when the camera flashed to him. Whether he had a positive or negative reaction to the speeches was not noticeable until the “Megalopolis” star Adam actually got a laugh from him when he joked that they had different opinions about how much humanity would be celebrated. He also moved the idea that Coppola is the prime example of a director “who does not let the money dictate the content of the film”, expel the idea that he ever welcomed calls about making his latest film “more commercial”.
“The Last Showgirl” film creator Gia Coppola, the last of the director’s family members who spoke at the event, called her grandfather an “og influencer” who has been devoted to lifting the next generation of directors. Her speech was followed by a musical performance from Josh Groban.
When it was time to finally take Coppola to the stage to accept his award, it was awarded by both Steven Spielberg and George LucasTwo of his oldest friends in the industry. When he went first, Spielberg called Coppola “A Warrior for Independent Artists”, reminded the time he sat in awe after the director accepted feedback from his fellow film creators after showing them a five -hour average of “Apocalypse Now.” Spielberg also called “The Godfather”, in his opinion, “the biggest American film ever made.”
Lucas, which Coppola took under his wing as a UCLA degree, was the last to stop how Coppola’s innovative strategy for filmmaking changed the entire industry. “We moved to San Francisco in the hope of beating the system, and we did,” he said with reference to their company American Zoetrope. “We had no rules. We wrote them, with you holding the pen.”
In the end, Coppola spoke a little about filmmaking, and more about how he has treated change over time and realized that “my home is not really a place at all. But you, friends, colleagues, teachers, playmates, family, neighbors, all beautiful faces welcome me back because I am and will always be nothing more than one of you.”
In Lieu of the Emphasis on Community, and What It Means for Afi to have Handed Out the Life Achievement Award For 50 Years, Finally Giving It To Coppola, Who Has Worked With The Institute From The Beginning, It Seems All The More Fitting For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event For The Event To The Event For The Event To The Event To The Event For The Event To The Event To The Event To The Event To The Event. Medal, usually given to a newly notable afi alum, and instead spotlight its very first winner: the late David Lynch.
