“I am one of the group”: Francis Coppola reflects as ‘The Godfather’ turns 50
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">American writer and director Francis Ford Coppola has made dozens of films and gone on to win five Academy Awards and six Golden Globes, but </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Godfather</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> may just be his crowning achievement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With the first film in the trilogy celebrating its 50th anniversary, the acclaimed director shared the dramatic effects its success had on his life in an exclusive interview with </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/francis-ford-coppola-godfather-at-50-changed-my-life-exclusive/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Empire</span></a></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> magazine.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Well, it’s odd, of course. To think that 50 years has gone by since the adventure of </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Godfather</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and when that changed my life so dramatically,” he told the publication. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Because now the Coppola family is considered synonymous with [the film by] many people, [but] when I came to LA, to UCLA Film School, I just dreamed to get a peek inside a studio.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Movies were an exotic fairyland.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While making the film and in the leadup to its initial release, Coppola was under financial pressure to support his wife and kids. But, its debut in 1972 - prompting lengthy queues just to buy tickets - saw Coppola’s fortunes change drastically.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I went from having zero money at all and a family to support, to having several million dollars, which was astonishing,” he recalled. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“No one in my family had that kind of money. I went from being unknown and poor with a lot of family responsibilities - I was married young and I loved my kids and my family - to having some money and acclaim. I was famous, everyone knew about </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Godfather</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and everyone knew about me.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Godfather</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> certainly provided Coppola with fame and wealth, the 82-year-old says it gave him something else he had always wanted: a sense of belonging.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The way I look at it, I always wanted to be one of the group,” he said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As first, I was an outsider, and I wasn’t included in the group because I was a new kid, or I was poor. Then I became famous, and a success, so I still wasn’t one of the group.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“In my heart, all I ever really wanted was to be considered one of the group, which I am now because when they talk about all the big directors of the ‘70s, they say George Lucas and Francis Coppola and Marty Scorsese and Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma and Paul Schrader.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“So I have what I want - I am one of the group.”</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Trailer for the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece ‘The Godfather’, which will be released in select theatres on February 25 <a href="https://t.co/7vgsBADsF1">pic.twitter.com/7vgsBADsF1</a></p>
— Lost In Film (@LostInFilm) <a href="https://twitter.com/LostInFilm/status/1481648113307701259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To celebrate the film’s milestone, Paramount Pictures and Coppola’s production company American Zoetrope have restored the trilogy - which will be released in 4K Ultra HD for the first time in March this year.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We felt privileged to restore these films and a little in awe every day we worked on them,” </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://thelatch.com.au/the-godfather-50th-anniversary-australia/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Andrea Kalas, the senior vice president of Paramount Archives.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We were able to witness first-hand how the brilliant cinematography, score, production design, costume design, editing, performances, and, of course, screenwriting and direction became famously more than the sum of their parts.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It was our commitment to honour all of the filmmakers’ exceptional work.”</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Godfather 50th Anniversary</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> will be released in select cinemas from February 25, 2022.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Vivien Killilea (Getty Images) / Silver Screen Collection (Getty Images)</span></em></p>
