.. article copy and pasted from the wonderful website "The Telegraph" .. article written by Hermione Eyre.. heh.. just like Draco Malfoy's loving wife, Hermione Granger.. and.. and someone else.. someone vital in Dark Gothic Literature .. .. Mugsy's father's best friend Charles Moulton's Wonder Woman: "God bless you, Francis Ford Coppola.. you are going to a very special, happy Heaven, Francis Ford Coppola.. but I suspect that that Heaven is none other than.. the Heaven of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan.."..

The Telegraph 1M Followers Francis Ford Coppola: There’s no age of woman that isn’t beautiful Story by Hermione Eyre • 4h • 12 min read Francis Ford Coppola, now 86, photographed here in July 2025 at his family’s Palazzo Margherita hotel in southern Italy - Giovanni Cipriano Francis Ford Coppola, now 86, photographed here in July 2025 at his family’s Palazzo Margherita hotel in southern Italy - Giovanni Cipriano Soon after I arrived at Francis Ford Coppola’s hotel in the Basilicata region of southern Italy, I stumbled upon the great director himself, at work in the hotel’s open-plan kitchen. He was wearing a rather chic set of green scrubs, and chopping vegetables. I stepped back, shocked. Has it come to this? It had been widely publicised that the great director had sold one of his wineries to release £90m ($120m) to fund his latest film Megalopolis, and there have since been reports of him selling several valuable watches and giving up his lease on a private island to “keep the ship afloat”. But, working in the kitchen? Shop costume spiderman 3d - Amazon.ca Official Site - Save on costume spiderman 3d Ad Shop costume spiderman 3d - Amazon.ca Official Site - Save on costume spiderman 3d amazon.ca call to action icon more Except of course, he wasn’t. He simply had a whim to cook chicken cacciatore for his guests, with the help of his hotel’s staff. That evening, he served up the brown, peppery stew to me and two of his filmmaker friends, along with torrents of debate and poetry, and finally, although no wine was taken, a Noel Coward singalong. “Some day I’ll find you/moonlight behind you”. He did not seem like a man troubled by financial woes. “I just had some good news,” he remarked at one point over dinner, looking at his Apple watch. He would say no more, but led me to infer it was about his next film project, as yet unannounced. Coppola, 86, is a living legend of cinema. He could have shooed me away, or shut down, as he did when posing for our photographer, refusing to take off his dark glasses – he prefers to be behind the camera than in front of it. But he was wonderfully hospitable and loquacious. When I asked if I could present him with a copy of a novel I wrote, he sweetly pretended to be excited, and asked me to write a dedication: “No, not to ‘Mr Coppola’! Put ‘to Uncle Frankie’”. The Salon at Palazzo Margherita, Coppola’s lovingly restored family hotel in Bernalda - Giovanni Cipriano The Salon at Palazzo Margherita, Coppola’s lovingly restored family hotel in Bernalda - Giovanni Cipriano I could see why his cast and crew adored him, working with him again and again, like a family; why they followed him into the avant-garde, making The Conversation (his 1974 Palme d’Or winner, spookily prescient about the Watergate scandal) and to hell and back making Apocalypse Now (1979). His successes have been extreme; his bankruptcies multiple. A general theme of many of the stories he told me was how he short-circuited this or that bureaucratic edict to make a movie against the odds. Unlock Savings: Get Your Cheapest Home and Auto Insurance Quote Ad Unlock Savings: Get Your Cheapest Home and Auto Insurance Quote rates.ca call to action icon more Politically, he still talks like a 60s radical. He believes that soon, we will have no countries. “They’re no longer logical. I see in the future a world that has all the cultures of the different nations, but without the nations. It’s going to happen. You know, before 1914 no one even had passports. We’re a human family. It’s our Earth.” He believes Universal Basic Income (UBI) is going to happen. “It’s a cert. There’s no doubt in my mind.” And regarding material possessions, he spoke like someone who would not struggle too much to give up those fancy watches he’s auctioning on 6-7 December. “Luxury,” he told me, “is the most exploding market, but it’s a great driver of discontent.” When I asked him where he keeps his six Oscars, he made a little moué, half-shrugging: “I don’t even know where my Oscars are. They’re at a wine company that I owned…” A pause. He’s always had a, shall we say, ambivalent relationship with these awards, throwing them out of the window in frustration while casting Apocalypse Now. He told me: “What I regard as more important [than gold statuettes] is young filmmakers telling me they got into the business because they saw one of my films.” His examples are Edward Berger and Alfonso Cuarón. Francis Ford Coppola with his wife, Eleanor, in 1987 - Juergen Vollmer/Popperfoto Francis Ford Coppola with his wife, Eleanor, in 1987 - Juergen Vollmer/Popperfoto Coppola may be selling off assets, but he still believes Megalopolis will recoup. “The same thing happened with Apocalypse Now. Interest was high in those days, like 20 per cent. And I had to give a big percentage of the gross to Marlon Brando [11.5 per cent]. I thought, I am never going to get my money back. But it’s still making money, 40 years later. In the industry, they call it ‘a long tail.’” Give now and your GivingTuesday donation will be MATCHED to make 2X the difference. Ad Give now and your GivingTuesday donation will be MATCHED to make 2X the difference. The Salvation Army call to action icon more He told me, with a boyish grin, that he plans to issue a director’s cut of Megalopolis, to be called Megalopolis Unbound. This will contain extra footage, such as scenes with the British actress Kathryn Hunter, underused in the original as a Roman matriarch. “It will be really wild.” Many found the initial edit wild enough. He looked wise, shook his head. “It takes people a while to like new things.” Palazzo Margherita sits on the hillcrest of Bernalda, not far from wide vistas down to the Ionian sea. The region’s wonders include ancient Unesco-listed cave-city of Matera, and, close to the hotel, the temple dedicated to Hera at Metaponto. Known as Magna Graecia, the region was once colonised by Greece. “Some people still speak Ancient Greek, so it’s like all of a sudden you’re having a conversation with Sophocles…” said Coppola. He bought Palazzo Margherita in 2004. It was irresistible: a neoclassical gem reminiscent of Visconti’s Il Gattopardo (1963), in the middle of his family’s ancestral town. The Coppolas lived in Bernalda for generations, innovating (his mechanic grandfather Agostino helped bring electricity to the district) and intermarrying. “Twice,” says Francis, wryly, “there was the need for a Papal dispensation so a Coppola could marry a Coppola.” But this was the poorest region of Italy, and like the fictional Corleones, the Coppolas emigrated to New York in search of work in 1904, and didn’t return. Francis grew up in New York and LA, with a classically American middle name. “We heard stories about ‘Bernalda bella’ filtering up to us since childhood, and we had to eat all this Italian food. We were kids, we hated it. Do you know what lampascioni are? Fried hyacinth bulbs. You know what capuzzelle is? Half a lamb’s head. I used to eat the brains because I wanted to be smart.” A glimpse inside Palazzo Margherita, where Coppola blended neoclassical detail with a cinematic sense of place - Giovanni Cipriano A glimpse inside Palazzo Margherita, where Coppola blended neoclassical detail with a cinematic sense of place - Giovanni Cipriano In 1962, Coppola, aged 22, realised he was within striking distance of the old place. “I was working on a film in Dubrovnik and I looked at the map and I saw it was near. I took the ferry to Bernalda.” Though he couldn’t speak the language, people recognised his family name. There were no hotels, but he was found a bed for the night. “A newlywed couple took me in, I slept in the bed with the husband, I think the wife must have slept in the barn. Think of that!” He had a different homecoming again in the 1970s. “When I came back, after I made The Godfather, it was such a huge success it put me on the map in a way I never expected. I had a lot more cousins than I ever realised.” Coppola bought Palazzo Margherita from the fourth generation of the Margherita family, who made their fortune exporting olive oil. He wanted it for a home, but knew he’d be away a lot, so it made sense to run it as a nine-room hotel. He commissioned celebrated French interior designer Jacques Grange. “The idea was to keep a patina of age,” Coppola says, gesturing to the romantically decayed masonry in the courtyard. “That’s twice as hard as a restoration.” The hotel’s Cinecittà bar is a shrine to Italian cinema. “I made a film at Cinecittà studios in Rome, and frankly, I didn’t like the way it was run,” says Coppola. “There were police everywhere, you had to have the Italian flag… the best thing about it was the bar.” The grande salone on the first floor is transformed into a home cinema at the touch of a button, as the projector comes down and the chandelier, juddering slightly, goes up. A watch-list of 200 or so films, chosen by Coppola, emphasises Italian neorealism, as well as works by family and friends, plus a few Pixar films for little ones. The uniformed staff are discreetly brilliant. If you’re thinking this sounds like Wes Anderson’s dream hotel, you’re correct – he is a regular. The swimming pool is half-chlorine, half-saline, wholly inviting. “It’s unusual because the lining of the pool is black,” says the manager, Rossella De Filippo. “This was Mr Coppola’s idea.” His daughter, film director Sofia Coppola, married French musician, Thomas Mars, here in 2011. “It was a great night,” he says, remembering waiters running food in from local restaurants. “Which room are you staying in?” he asks. I describe the vaulted ceiling, the white frescoes – “Ah, you’re in George Lucas. That’s where he stayed when he came for Sofia’s wedding.” When did he know Sofia would be a director too? “She was always unusual, even as a little kid, unique. She came to me when she was 13 or 14, and said ‘am I just a dilettante’? ‘I’m studying painting, but I love fashion, I love to write stories but I also love photography.’ I said, Sofia, just do what you love. At high school they made a film, Lick the Star, you can see it online. I saw it and I said, that girl’s a director.” Film titbits abound. “You know what Olivia de Havilland liked? Champagne. Sofia and I sent her a bottle when she turned 100. You can get better at acting if you work at it – look at Kevin Spacey. I was offered to write the film of Midnight Cowboy, but I was young, I had no reference for what a male hustler was, then of course I saw the movie and I loved it. John Schlesinger was so supportive, a wonderful man… Ken Russell, now, he was an influence on everyone…” Al Pacino and Francis Ford Coppola on the set of The Godfather in 1990 - ScreenProd / Photononstop / Alamy Stock Photo Al Pacino and Francis Ford Coppola on the set of The Godfather in 1990 - ScreenProd / Photononstop / Alamy Stock Photo Boyhood memories surface. He was schooled in the tuba by his father, so he could get a scholarship to the New York Military Academy. A great idea, except he hated it, and decided immediately to quit. Did he meet Trump, who studied there too? “No, he was younger than me. He was a rich kid, I was the opposite. I sold my uniform for the wonderful sum of $200. I was afraid to go home, so I hung around in New York, completely alone, sleeping in flophouses, spending my money on professional women who would dance with you for a few bucks.” Luckily, he had the perfect book on the go at that time: JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Now, he’s just read George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, and a biography of Herbert Spencer. Clues, perhaps, that his next film will be set in England. He liked Katherine Rundell’s book, Super-Infinite, about the English poet John Donne. He’s obsessed with Christopher Marlowe. “Without him, no Shakespeare!” I asked if botox is OK for actresses. “Well, that’s scary. The bloom of youth is 27. But at every decade women are beautiful. There’s no age of woman that isn’t beautiful. I always enjoyed inviting 90-year-old ladies, of whom I was fortunate to know a few, to lunch. They’re fascinating, they’ll tell you stories about their lives.” Indeed, throughout our interview he has mentioned admiringly grande dames such as US socialite Lee Radziwill, and Lady Antonia Fraser (“could you do what she did? Run off with Harold Pinter after you met him at a party?”). “Just don’t try and look like a blossom when you’re a flower. It starts just with a little bit here, and then that sags, and you do more, and by the time you’re done, you don’t even look like a person any more!” The most beautiful part of his hotel is the garden. Cooled by a traditional stone fountain, it is planted with little walkways and secret sunlit sitting areas amongst the greenery. After breakfast, I chanced upon him sitting in one of these spots alone, with his laptop. He invited me to join him, and started talking about his wife. He was married to Eleanor Coppola, née Neil, for 61 years. “And I lost her a year ago,” he says. “My favourite time with her [Eleanor] was always in the mornings. All my life, there was someone to check in with, emotionally – so now, I… don’t know where I am. May I?” He held my hand briefly. Coppola with Hermione Eyre in the garden of Palazzo Margherita - Hermione Eyre Coppola with Hermione Eyre in the garden of Palazzo Margherita - Hermione Eyre She was an artist. “I just learned so much from talking to her every day. She told me about conceptual art, how anything could be art – someone peeling a potato could be art. I thought it was the dumbest thing I ever heard, but it was interesting, even if I didn’t understand or agree with it.” He believes in marriage. “You know what I hope survives the future? Marriage. There’s a lot more to marriage than fidelity.” He uprooted Eleanor and their three children every time he was filming a big project. “I always took the whole family, took the kids out of school, they loved the adventure. But Eleanor had things going on in her life. She said: “What am I going to do?” Why not make a documentary about the film, I told her, and I bought her a motion picture handheld camera. She was one of the best I ever saw. She held it in such a way, I could never do.” Her documentary, the acclaimed Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, was released in 1991. At the age of 84, she put out her first feature film, Paris Can Wait, starring Alec Baldwin and Diane Lane. A new memoir by Eleanor, Two Of Me, about her parallel lives as artist, wife and mother, is published posthumously this month. She was not around to attend the premiere of Megalopolis, but she died knowing he had finally achieved it. “She did,” he nods. “She saw it, in its final version.” To keep his equanimity without Eleanor, he has developed a new morning routine. He showed me his laptop. “Every morning I write a list of 10 positive words, that I turn into a poem. And I learn a new word.” Today’s word is rescind. “It’s hard to find a good new source of words.” Coppola has recently been living in London. “The reason I moved to Putney was that I never lived there with her”. A fresh start, free from memories – except for jolly ones from the last time he hung out there, in the 1960s. “There are some bohemian girls in Putney who want to take care of me, and take me to plays. We’ve had a great time. I’ve been staying with an old girlfriend of my friend, the British writer David Benedictus.” Coppola met Benedictus in 1964, who had already made a splash with his first novel, The Fourth of June, about sex, snobbery and sadism at Eton, and was recovering from a liaison with the actress Sarah Miles. (He would become known for continuing AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, but that curveball was to come.) Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, a late public appearance before her death the following year - ABC Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, a late public appearance before her death the following year - ABC “David was a really cool guy in what was then known as Swinging London. I took an option on his novel You’re a Big Boy Now and it was my first film. There were a lot of cute chicks at his place, and we both loved looking at movies – he had a 16mm projector. I watched Buster Keaton’s The General for the first time with him.” The friendship endured. “I was just this nutty guy and then I became the guy that directed The Godfather, and even David got a buzz off that. My latest film, Megalopolis, I had been sending him different drafts. Then I got a sad note from his daughter Jessica saying, he’s died.” He paused. “I love people, and I’ve lived a life of love. Friends are a religion to me… My family used to say of the three kids, my brother August is the brilliant one, my sister Talia is the beautiful one, but Francis, he’s the affectionate one.” He laughs, but he really did spread the love. His father, Carmine Coppola, for many years a frustrated working musician, won an Oscar for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II; his sister Talia Shire was Oscar-nominated for her performance as Connie Corleone in the same film. By this point in our conversation, the embers of the evening were running low, and he started to sing. Coppola is a great singer, known for it among his friends. Sitting beside him at the dinner table, I joined in, as he sang, word-perfect, Cole Porter, and Gilbert and Sullivan:“And now I am a captain in the Queen’s navy.” “How,” he says, “can people be sad, when there are such riches to enjoy?” Recommended Francis Ford Coppola: 'Hollywood doesn't want me any more' Read more Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword. 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