Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola

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Above: After serving his apprenticeship under independent producer Roger Corman, Coppola wrote and directed his first feature, Dementia 13y which Corman produced. The film featured Mary Mitchel and William Campbell (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Below: In the psychological thriller Dementia 13, the lives of newlyweds Kane (Mary Mitchel) and Richard (William Campbell), a sculptor, are threatened by a serial killer (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Coppola wrote the screenplay for Jack Clayton's film of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford. This is the only script Coppola wrote for another director after becoming a director himself (Author's Collection). Elizabeth Hartman and Peter Kastner in You re a Big Boy Nowy which Coppola submitted as his master's thesis at UCLA (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Fred Astaire in Finians Rainbow, one of the last big Hollywood musicals (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). SRN Shirley Knight as a distraught housewife in The Rain People. This film is considered one of the first feminist films to come out of Hollywood (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). James Caan as the mentally retarded hero of The Rain People, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Right: Gene Hackman as Harry Caul in The Conversation , which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Below: Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, far left) in The Conversation (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Marlon Brando in the title role of The Godfather, which earned Academy Awards for both Francis Coppola and Brando (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Above: Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen and Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone at a summit meeting of Mafia chiefs in The Godfather (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Right: Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, right) names his son Michael (Al Pacino) as his successor in The Godfather (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Lawyer Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton), and Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) at a Senate investigation of the Mafia in Godfather II (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for playing the young Vito Corleone in the flashback sequences of Godfather II. Coppola received Oscars for directing the film, coauthoring the screenplay, and producing the best picture of the year. In Godfather II, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) ostensibly forgives his brother Fredo (John Cazale) for betraying him, all the while planning to have him murdered (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Francis Ford Coppola (center) directs Joe Mantegna (left) and Al Pacino (right) on the set of Godfather III (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). In Apocalypse Now, Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) is a renegade American officer who has sunk into madness during the Vietnam War (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Above: Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is captured by natives in Apocalypse Now (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). Below: Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) harangues Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) in Apocalypse Now (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive). A Catholic chaplain offers Mass (center) in the extended battle scene in Apocalypse Now Redux, the expanded version of Coppola's film (Cinemabilia). Jackie Willow (D. B. Sweeney), a young recruit, with officers Clell Hazard (James Caan) and Goody Nelson (James Earl Jones) in Gardens of Stone, Coppola's follow -up to his earlier Vietnam film, Apocalypse Now (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Above: Frederic Forrest as Hank and Nastassia Kinski as Leila in One from the Heart (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Below: Teri Garr as Frannie in Onefrom the Heart, Coppola's least successful film (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Dallas (Matt Dillon), Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), and Johnny (Ralph Macchio) are buddies in The Outsiders (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) is comforted by his brothers Sodapop (Rob Lowe) and Darrel (Patrick Swayze) after he is injured in a street fight in The Outsiders (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Above: Mickey Rourke as Motorcycle Boy in Rumble Fish, Coppola's follow-up to The Outsiders (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store). Below...