George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award: Eleanor Coppola: Paris Can Wait
Description
Eleanor Coppola is an American filmmaker, artist, writer, and Emmy award-winner for her film Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991). After nearly 30 years in the business, she has turned her skills to narrative filmmaking with her latest film, Paris Can Wait. Her forays into storytelling champion female sensuality, independence, and a sense of adventure. Formerly presented at the Film Society Awards Night Gala, this is the first public presentation of the George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award. Join SFFILM Festival for this program and conversation, followed by a screening of Paris Can Wait.
“I can’t remember the last time Michael and I played hooky,” says Anne (Diane Lane). “Everyone has to have a wife to be happy,” says Jacques (Arnaud Viard). In Eleanor Coppola’s effervescent comedy, Anne is playing hooky, but with Jacques, not her movie producer husband (Alec Baldwin) on a road trip through France from Cannes to Paris. Bachelor Jacques’ seemingly innocent offer of a ride evolves into a full-press charm offensive as he tries to woo the woman he nicknames Brûlée with roses, side excursions, and every kind of gastronomical indulgence, alternately amusing and vexing her. Lane is luminous and Viard playfully rakish, and together they are a delight in this breezy, gorgeously lensed film that celebrates transitory romance and the glories of France. Twenty-five years after making her directing debut with the acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Fimmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), Coppola’s delicious narrative feature debut as director and screenwriter will have you packing your bags for your own Provence idyll. Or at least booking a table at your favorite French restaurant. —Pam Grady
Eleanor Coppola was assistant art director Eleanor Neil when she met future husband Francis Ford Coppola on the set of his 1963 horror film Dementia 13. She won an Emmy for Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991). Her other projects have included A Visit to China’s Miao Country (1996), The Making of ‘Marie Antoinette’ (2007), Francis Ford Coppola Directs ‘John Grisham’s The Rainmaker’ (2007), and Coda: Thirty Years Later (2007). Paris Can Wait marks her narrative feature debut as director and screenwriter. Says Coppola, “I’m this housewife who suddenly decided she’s going to write a film and actually direct it. It was terrifying, but part of the challenge was cutting through all of your fears and just going for it.”
Film Details
Language English
Year 2016
Runtime 92
Country USA
Director Eleanor Coppola
Producer Eleanor Coppola, Fred Roos
Writer Eleanor Coppola
Editor Greg Scantlebury
Cinematographer Crystal Fournier
Music Laura Karpman
Cast Diane Lane, Alec Baldwin, Arnaud Viard