Before Megapolis… Rated 4.5 out of 5, this is Coppola’s best movie!

It’s one of the Cannes Film Festival’s most anticipated big comebacks: Francis Ford Coppola will be on the Croisette at the 77th edition of the festival with a film in Official Competition. And the filmmaker returns with a long-running project that he financed himself.

It’s a feature film he’s been trying to make since the early 2000s, but has since had to put on hold. After nearly twenty years, Francis Ford Coppola was finally able to direct Megalopolis, a large-scale science fiction film.

One of the most emblematic directors of New Hollywood can collect a third Palme d’Or fifty-five years after Secret Conversations and Apocalypse Now.

Even if he doesn’t win, Francis Ford Coppola is running the event with Megalopolis and his incredible cast of Adam Driver, Natalie Emanuel, Dustin Hoffman, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Aubrey Plaza.

Before we discover Megalopolis, which tells the story of an architect who tries to rebuild New York after a cataclysm and create a utopia, we look at 5 films that marked the career of Francis Ford Coppola and which are also 5 feature films. – Movies rated best by AlloCiné viewers.

The Godfather (4.5 out of 5)

According to the prestigious American Film Institute, it is one of the greatest films of all time. A measure of the degree of cinephilia (also a source of tension) in social networks. And simply a monument to the history of cinema. A crime thriller in the form of a trilogy that spans a good part of the 20th century and tells the stories of Vito and Michael Corleone at the same time as America.

The Godfather is a story that can be scary and about which almost everything has already been said. But which did not lose its power, rather than steal its status, despite the fact that the third part was less popular than the previous two (even if its latest build will improve the situation a little).

A reference from the movie about the mafia (but not only), an example of a better sequel than the first episode, iconic music… not bad for a saga that Francis Ford Coppola did not want to touch, refused to work on. A big studio.

If the production was not easy, he changed his mind well. With the help of performances by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, which he masterfully directed, he wrote his name in film history with this violent and exciting long story. and achieved the Oscar for Best Picture with his two opuses.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll be jealous of your moment when you discover it.

Apocalypse Now (4.3 out of 5)

Francis Ford Coppola’s second Palme d’Or, Apocalypse is now a major masterpiece from the filmmaker. And yet, this Vietnam War movie would never see the light of day. Indeed, the director had to invest his personal fortune for this free adaptation of the short novel in the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad and could have been a financial disaster if he had not succeeded.

Because problems never come alone, filming Apocalypse Now was chaotic, between budget problems, weather conditions, but also problems with actors, including being overweight. Marlon Brando And replacing Harvey Keitel with Martin Sheen, who will have a heart attack.

A film is like a production: an experience of trying. We’re not coming out of the apocalypse now unscathed. More than a war drama, this work is a psychedelic and mesmerizing dive into the haunting soul of a traumatized man, through the journey of a young captain responsible for killing a colonel by barbaric methods that goes beyond the borders of Cambodia.

Dracula (4.1 out of 5)

The ultimate vampire movie! Francis Ford Coppola managed to adapt Bram Stoker’s famous work by staying true to the original material, introducing a baroque and romantic atmosphere. Without forgetting the horror aspect of a character as monstrous as Dracula, the filmmaker adds a martyred sensibility and erotic power to this damned figure.

Coppola’s Dracula, which has won many awards, including 3 Oscars, is distinguished by dreaminess, eccentricity and very sophisticated images. But this masterful tale also rests on the performances of its five-star cast, including Winona Ryder, Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves.

More than a reimagining of myth and spectacle of big and dark costumes, Coppola’s Dracula is one of the most beautiful love stories and one of cinema’s greatest tragedies. A great romantic and subversive work that touches the soul and heart.

Rain People (3.8 out of 5)

category “This work that deserves notice”, the rain people appear there. Despite its very good average on AlloCiné, who thinks of this film released in 1969 when we talk about Francis Ford Coppola?

It must be said that the Rain People do not have the scale of The Godfather. Nor the excess of Apocalypse Now. or the prestigious awards of secret conversation. But it shines precisely because of the ease with which the filmmaker explores human relationships, a theme that serves as a common thread throughout his filmography.

Before becoming Vito Corleone’s son, James Caan plays a mentally challenged football player who meets a pregnant runaway (Shirley Knight). A challenging role he handles delicately in this gentle road movie with a fragmented timeline that also marks the birth of the American zoetrope director producer. and anchors it as one of the forerunners of New Hollywood.

Secret Conversation (3.7 out of 5)

Between two parts of The Godfather (and as many Oscars for Best Picture), Francis Ford Coppola went to pick up the Palme d’Or. normal. Thanks to a feature film that, although well written before that, was released during the Watergate scandal, which is hard not to think about before this paranoid thriller amid the espionage, eavesdropping and conspiracies.

And not just because the devices used are the same as those used by the Nixon administration, a detail that did not surprise Francis Ford Coppola when he discovered it. Even taken out of context, Secret Conversation remains a fascinating film. Along with exploring the power of images and sounds and what we can tell them.

A film about cinema, in a way. And perhaps that’s why its author describes it as his favorite (waiting for Megalopolis?) in his impressive filmography. Like the best Gene Hackman ever starred in, he said. Somehow, we understand them.