The geniuses Francis Ford Coppola wanted to emulate: “I would steal anything I could”
No matter what your chosen artistic practice is, be it filmmaking, painting or writing, you probably have that one person you hold to the ultimate standard of greatness and aspire to be like.
It’s natural to be inspired by others, and by collecting a group of influences and storing them in the back of your mind, you can create an amalgamation of these references and shape them into your own unique style – something that many modern masters, like Francis Ford Coppola, have done to achieve perfection.
It’s impossible for any artist not to draw influence from others. The books you read, the films you watch, and the paintings you linger in front of at a gallery all shape your approach to creation. Francis Ford Coppola, often regarded as one of the most important figures of the New Hollywood era after the success of The Godfather, is no exception. Like any great artist, he drew inspiration from those who came before him.
Coppola made his debut feature film, Dementia 13, in 1963, although his first Oscar actually came from writing the screenplay for Patton, directed by Franklin J Schaffner, in 1970. Two years later, he directed The Godfather before releasing various other acclaimed classics like The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now, making the 1970s an incredibly fruitful decade for the filmmaker.
However, Coppola might not have been able to enjoy such a prolific and celebrated decade of movie-making had he not grown up loving the work of two artists. He told The Talks, “When I was young, I wanted to be Tennessee Williams or Elia Kazan, so I would steal anything I could from them because that was my idea of greatness.”
Williams is best known for penning plays like A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with the former being adapted for the big screen by Coppola’s other idol, Kazan. “And the truth of the matter is that if a young person is influenced by something I do, he’s welcome to it because there’s no way you can steal from another person,” Coppola said.
He continued: “You do it in your own way. Even as hard as I tried to steal from Tennessee Williams, it came out some other way. And that’s the purpose of art. It means you live on in somebody else’s work, which is something very pleasant as a thought. So if something I did influenced another film or if I had some small part in encouraging them, then I am pleased.”
A Streetcar Named Desire featured Marlon Brando as Stanley, which became his breakthrough role and proved his genius as an actor. It’s unsurprising, then, that Coppola got Brando to star in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, clearly loving the actor’s work as far back as Streetcar.
With Kazan working heavily in theatre as well as film, he became quite the expert when it came to knowing how to get exactly what he wanted out of actors. Stars loved to be directed by Kazan, and his approach to telling powerful stories with unforgettable performances certainly inspired Coppola.
