2024-08-25 10:11:29
The Directors Guild of America will pay tribute to Francis Ford Coppola at its gala this year. The 85-year-old veteran has already received his award twice, for the 1972 film The Godfather and two years later for the sequel The Godfather II. This year, the entire ceremony will be dedicated to him.
As the AP agency writes, the 25th gala evening of the association known by the acronym DGA will take place on October 17 in New York. The famous director was chosen by the organizers in the year when, after a thirteen-year hiatus, Francis Ford Coppola re-released a feature-length film, a big-budget project called Megalopolis.
The film, which the director financed out of his own pocket, had its world premiere at the May festival in Cannes, France. There, however, it divided the audience and the critics, and for a long time it was not clear whether this parable connecting antiquity with the present and cast by star actors Adam Driver, Dustin Hoffman or Jon Voight would even find a distributor. In the end, it was successful and Czechs will also see Megalopolis, it will premiere on October 17. “We will pay tribute to the iconic Francis Ford Coppola, who made an indelible mark in the history of cinema and inspired several generations of directors,” explains the Directors Guild of America.
Coppola, who in addition to The Godfather is also the director of the films Apocalypse, The Interview and Dracula, will receive further honors a month and a half later, when he receives the award from the Washington Kennedy Center. He will take over on December 8 at a ceremony that will be broadcast two weeks later on CBS. Other recipients of the same award will be the remaining surviving members of The Grateful Dead, blues guitarist and singer Bonnie Raitt and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
“There is no greater honor than to be ranked among those who have inspired me, who I look up to and who have given me hope in darker times,” thanked Coppola. “I’m looking forward to meeting my dear San Francisco colleagues from the Grateful Dead on stage,” adds the Detroit native, who set up the first office of his production company Zoetrope in San Francisco in 1969 and still owns a restaurant in the city.
Czech readers were recently reminded of Coppola’s life and work by journalist Sam Wasson’s book entitled Journey to Paradise, translated by Iva Hejlíčková and Michael Málk and published by the Universum publishing house. It colorfully describes some risky ventures where the director’s money and health were at stake. “Wasson mainly wrote an entertaining book about a man who never stopped looking for ways to live and create on a large scale,” noted critic Martin Šrajer.
Video: Trailer from the movie Megalopolis
Coppola’s latest film Megalopolis will be shown in Czech cinemas on October 17. | Video: American Zoetrope