Recently read this book. I found it on the ground in America so I guess it’s destiny that someone with bad time management found a biography about history’s most stressed out, unreliable director. (Each chapter is like passing kidney stones, I don’t know how I got through it). I started a course on Monday that breaks down and demystifies the script, structure of power and scheduling of time on sets, and it’s a bit like accountancy. It’s funny because everything we went over was something that can go wrong and did go wrong on the set of Apocalypse Now. i.e. hiring an expensive prop (helicopters) or actor (Brando) and them being utterly flakey and setting you back days and months.
At one point, in the book, Coppola flings a chair at a load of investors. In fact, he’s a total prick throughout. He gave Martin Sheen a 3 week break after having a heart attack on the set of Apocalypse Now and rode a crew member while his wife was making a fantastic documentary about what a prick he is, ‘Heart Of Darkness’, but he’s alright. I love The Conversation (1974) and Rumblefish (1983), though he’s a lot less consistent than people imagine, he probably makes 5 rubbish films for every good one he makes.
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