FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Francis Ford Coppola - One From The Heart


What a beautiful, wonderfully kitschy film! And the best thing is: hardly anyone knows it!

Accompanied by sound and smoke Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart finally made it to the cinema in 1981. Until then you could read a lot about the production and little about the stars of the film. For sure a new experience! You learned how Coppola supervised his production by means of a specially invented video technology. Coppola could see on a TV monitur what his cameraman was filming through the lens. Malicious tongues claimed that he turned an eight million dollar project into a 23 million "blockbuster". We know the end: Coppola went bankrupt, he had to sell his beloved studios and from then on he had to do small commissions during the 80s. To this day, One From The Heart is virtually unknown. Wrongfully so! Because like hardly any other film he stylizes a whole decade - the 80s! Even more: One From The Heart is a pure facade, without content. That's what people always hated in the 80s. Or loved it! Back then, in 1981, people talked mainly about the process of creation. It was supposed to be neutral, a means to an end! And the film itself? I find it desolate in terms of content, yes, the narrative rhythm is missing. It all seems like a ballet of camera movements and breathtaking sets, but the characters get lost in it. There is no moment when we even care about who is being hurt. The actors never reach US, the audience, in Coppola's technical marvel. The narrator Coppola became a technician. Obviously, One From The Heart is not intended for the audience. Coppola acts cinematically like an engineer who put technical results before humanity. But - we are in the dawn of the 80s! Blockbuster cinema replaced "New Hollywood", art became mainstream, style replaced substance. That's why Coppola's actors must never dominate. They don't represent characters, but act exemplary as guys. Coppola depicts them in the picture just like pieces of furniture. He gives them close-ups; sometimes they glow in deep red or dull green, are positioned in front of fancy sets or choreographed in crowds - but we never get close to them. They (Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest) are inhabitants of a Las Vegas of disappointment, boredom and glittering lights. For a while they break out of their dull life with new lovers (Raul Julia and the box office poison of the early 80s, Nastassja Kinski) who tease them with dreams and fantasies. I think it's about how extremely boring people spend an extraordinary night in the city. But the city (and especially the Las Vegas in Coppola's production), crushes them and spits them out again. To enjoy One From The Heart, it is necessary to turn away from the frame story. The life of Coppola's boring couple is just as boring for us to watch! But we will enjoy his pictures of an unreachable world! Only moments are tangible; this is true for Coppola's boring couple as well as for us. For example Harry Dean Stanton as the shabby operator of a scrap yard. Or Nastassja Kinski, who looks even more beautiful here than ever before! Kinski, the sad circus girl who realizes, "To make a circus girl disappear, all you have to do is blink your eyes." Somehow, Coppola's film has also disappeared in the splendor of its set. ...so he invented something new. It's called "Style Over Substance. "