Francis Ford Coppola

“When people ask me, you know, “What’s my favorite film of all the films I’ve made?” I always give them the same answer. I say, “Well, that’s like asking, ‘Which is my favorite child?’” And I love them all, I would think, differently but equally. And I feel that way about my films, but I have a special affection for Rumble Fish because I thought of it as the antidote to the saccharine sweetness of The Outsiders. And my goal was to make Rumble Fish as an art film for kids. The kids at that time didn’t totally get it right away, and I thought it was a very big failure and was very upset about it because I sort of loved the film. But it turns out that Rumble Fish was... Took– had a destiny that I didn’t even know about. A lot of young people from Latin America who were inspired by the great literary boom of Latin America in that period, went to this one theater to see this weird movie called Rumble Fish, which they had no idea what it was, but it somehow stuck to them. And it inspired a whole generation to become filmmakers and novelists. And they even made a film about that, which is on this, called Searching for Rusty James. And so... You know, I mean, to me, the greatest award available to someone in my profession is not a big check. It’s when a young person comes to you and says, “I...” And someone– especially a young person who has made films and says, “I made a film because I saw a film of yours and it made me want to make films.” Because that’s why I made films, and that’s the greatest, the greatest justification of being in the profession I’m in, is when you can impart that to young people.”

“Okay, well, here we go to Miss Arzner. And this particular film is Dance, Girl, Dance. And Miss Arzner was my directing teacher at UCLA. I learned so much from her, but one of the things that I repeated to my children, which is really important, she said that always sit in the same place next to the camera, usually it’s to the right of the camera, because you’re right there and you can not only see the cast very well but you can look up and you can see the camera operator, who has the full sensation since he’s looking through the movement. More important than anything, you sit there because the actors can see you. Basically, the actors are doing what they’re doing for you and they need you to judge what they’re doing. So Miss Arzner had that. One night I was there at UCLA very depressed, and I decided that, “Well, I’m going to just quit.” She looked at me and she said, “You know, I’ve been around and I know you’ll make it. I’ve been around and I know.” And she left. And I figured, “Gee, if Miss Arzner said that I’ll make it maybe I ought to stay.” And I did stay, and I guess I sort of made it. So. That’s my Miss Arzner story. She was a wonderful, wonderful lady that we all admired so much. And are lucky that we had that time with her.”

“I’m very attracted right here to The Complete Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati was a wonderful filmmaker who believed in a film he wanted to make and used his entire fortune, because the financing system of the time wouldn’t finance it. And it came out and it was a big flop, and he died sort of penniless, not realizing that this film he put everything up for, which was called PlayTime, was going to be considered today the masterpiece that we consider it. And more than a masterpiece because it’s a gift of a really good time, a really– lot of fun for everybody. I think he’s the only filmmaker, other than present company, who took a big hunk of what wealth he had earned in his life and put it up to make a film that nobody else would make. And his film. And usually, when you do that, usually it withstands the test of time. So here is Jacques Tati’s PlayTime. I give that to this young lady over here.”

“Well, Noël Coward is a wonderful playwright and songwriter. And, when I did The Godfather, I sort of got to be so well known at a young age that they wanted me– They offered me many opportunities to direct operas or plays. So I did do a play, and it was a play by Noël Coward called Private Lives. And I did it with a sort of unusual twist to it. And I’m going to apply that same twist on this new material that I’m looking at.”