Francis Ford Coppola Praises Martin Scorsese and His Newest Film
Martin Scorsese‘s newest film Killers of the Flower Moon is set to premiere this month and his fellow director and longtime friend Francis Ford Coppola is already singing its praises. He shared the trailer for the film on his Instagram page and wrote, “My longtime friend @martinscorsese_ has a new film coming out this month, “Killers of the Flower Moon” – He is a wonderful person and the world’s greatest living filmmaker. His new film delivers on every level.”
In a world where Scorsese and Coppola could be rivals due to working in the same profession, they have always admired each other’s work. Scorsese once praised The Godfather Part II, one of Coppola’s films, and said that it was “constructed like a symphony and directed by a master as a great conductor directs his orchestra, it reaches its highest points of lyricism.” He added that it was his favorite film of Coppola’s.
Turns out, they could have worked together on the film. Coppola suggested hiring Scorsese to help work on The Godfather Part II but Paramount turned it down. Even though it could have been a great opportunity, Scorsese isn’t actually mad about it.
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He explained, “I don’t think I could have made a film on that level at that time in my life, and who I was at that time. To make a film as elegant and masterful and as historically important as ‘Godfather II,’ I don’t think…Now, I would’ve made something interesting, but his [Coppola’s] maturity was already there. I still had this kind of edgy thing, the wild kid running around. I didn’t find myself that comfortable with depicting higher-level underworld figures. I was more street-level.”
Everett Collection
He continued, “There were higher-level guys in the street. I could do that. I did it in ‘Goodfellas’ particularly. That’s where I grew up. What I saw around me wasn’t guys in a boardroom or sitting around a big table talking. That took another artistic level that Francis had at that point. He didn’t come from that world, the world that I came from. The story of ‘Godfather II’ is more like Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. It’s wonderful art.”
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Killers of the Flower Moon premieres in theaters on Friday, October 20, 2023. You can watch The Godfather Part II on Pluto TV, Peacock TV, Prime Video, Apple TV, Redbox., Vudu, or ROW8.
Oh What A Year: 1980
January 2020
Take a look back at our retrospect of the year 1980 where we celebrate the hottest in movies, music and TV.
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