On the DVD commentary, Coppola says he was shocked to learn that the film utilized the very same surveillance and wire-tapping equipment that members of the Nixon Administration used to spy on political opponents prior to the Watergate scandal.

Later in the film, he breaks down in tears while confessing having ordered Fredo's death to Cardinal Lamberto ( Raf Vallone ), who later becomes Pope John Paul I. Michael's daughter, Mary ( Sofia Coppola ), however, appears to be unsure whether or not Michael was behind Fredo's death ; she asks her cousin and love interest, Vincent Mancini-Corleone ( Andy García ), if it is true, but Vincent says it is " just a story " and changes the subject.

The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman.

Coppola noted in the DVD commentary that Hackman had a very difficult time adapting to the Harry Caul character because it was so much unlike himself.

Coppola also notes on the commentary that Hackman considers this one of his favorite performances.

A film documentary and tribute about Cazale, titled I Knew It Was You, was an entry at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and featured interviews with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Lumet.

The Conversation, which Coppola directed, produced and wrote, was released that same year, winning the Palme d ' Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.

Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family of Italian ancestry ( his paternal grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata ).

His parents were Italia ( née Pennino ) and Carmine Coppola, who was the first flautist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

He was the second of three children ( his older brother was August Coppola and younger sister is actress Talia Shire ).

While pursuing his bachelor's degree, Coppola was elected president of The Green Wig ( the university's drama group ), the Kaleidoscopians, ( its musical comedy club ) and he then merged the two into The Spectrum Players.

While a graduate student, one of his teachers was Dorothy Arzner, whose encouragement Coppola later acknowledged as pivotal to his film career.

Coppola was hired as an assistant by Roger Corman.

However, fame was still eluding him, and partly out of desperation, Coppola bought the rights to the David Benedictus novel You're a Big Boy Now and fused it with a story idea of his own, resulting in You're a Big Boy Now ( 1966 ).

Following the success of You're a Big Boy Now, Coppola was offered the reins of the movie version of the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow, starring Petula Clark, in her first American film, and veteran Fred Astaire.

It was written, directed and initially produced by Coppola himself, though as the movie advanced, he fell short of his budget and the studio had to underwrite the remainder of the movie.

While touring Europe, Coppola was introduced to alternative filmmaking equipment and inspired by the bohemian spirit of Lanterna Film.

However, it was not easy for Coppola to convince Franklin J. Schaffner that the opening scene would work.

There was disagreement between Paramount and Coppola on the issue of casting ; Coppola stuck to his plan of casting Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, though Paramount wanted either Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas.

At one point, Coppola was told by the then-president of Paramount that " Marlon Brando will never appear in this motion picture ".

After pleading with the executives, Coppola was allowed to cast Brando only if he appeared in the film for much less salary than his previous films, perform a screen-test, and put up a bond saying that he would not cause a delay in the production ( as he had done on previous film sets ).

Although Coppola insisted that this was purely coincidental, for not only was the script for The Conversation completed in the mid-1960s ( before the election of Richard Nixon ) but the spying equipment used in the film was discovered through research and the use of technical advisers and not, as many believed, by revelatory newspaper stories about the Watergate break-in.

The movie was a critical success, and won Coppola his first Palme d ' Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.

In the director's commentary on the DVD edition of the film ( released in 2002 ), Coppola states that this film was the first major motion picture to use " Part II " in its title.

According to Coppola, the studio's objection stemmed from the belief that audiences would be reluctant to see a film with such a title, as the audience would supposedly believe that, having already seen The Godfather, there was little reason to see an addition to the original story.

It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and received 6 Oscars, including 3 for Coppola: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director.

Coppola said that all the advice Corman offered was " Don't go ".

Coppola also founded the cinema workshop at Hofstra and contributed prolifically to the campus literary magazine.

After obtaining his bachelor's degree from Hofstra University, Coppola enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles, where he met Jim Morrison.

According to Robert Evans, head of Paramount Pictures at the time, Coppola also did not initially want to direct the film because he feared it would glorify the Mafia and violence, and thus reflect poorly on his Sicilian and Italian heritage ; on the other hand, Evans specifically wanted an Italian-American to direct the film because his research had shown that previous films about the Mafia that were directed by non-Italians had fared dismally at the box office, and he wanted to, in his own words, " smell the spaghetti ".

Francis Ford Coppola at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

Francis Ford Coppola at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

Shortly after completion of production Lucas and Coppola brought the finished film to Warner Bros., along with several other scripts for potential projects at American Zoetrope.

He appeared at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in 2007 with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola to present the Best Director award to their friend Martin Scorsese.

Thomas declined the role and urged the studio to cast Brando at the behest of Coppola and others who had witnessed the screen test.

In the spring of 2008, Fanning appeared in a Volkswagen commercial directed by Roman Coppola, in which he poked fun at his file-sharing past.

Murch had more or less a free hand during the editing process, since Coppola was already working on The Godfather Part II at the time.

The film currently holds 98 % on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 8. 6 / 10 based on 43 reviews of which 42 were positive and 1 negative with the consensus: " This tense, paranoid thriller presents Francis Ford Coppola at his finest — and makes some remarkably advanced arguments about technology's role in society that still resonate today.

* Marlon Brando initially agreed to return for the birthday flashback sequence, but the actor, feeling mistreated by the board at Paramount, failed to show up for the single day's shooting ; Coppola rewrote the scene that same day.

Coppola and the editors returned to the cutting room to change the film's narrative structure, but could not complete the work in time, leaving the final scenes poorly timed at the opening.

The Godfather DVD Collection was released on October 9, 2001 in a package that contained all three films — each with a commentary track by Coppola — and a bonus disc that featured a 73-minute documentary from 1991 entitled The Godfather Family: A Look Inside and other miscellany about the film: the additional scenes originally contained in The Godfather Saga ; Francis Coppola's Notebook ( a look inside a notebook the director kept with him at all times during the production of the film ); rehearsal footage ; a promotional featurette from 1971 ; and video segments on Gordon Willis's cinematography, Nino Rota's and Carmine Coppola's music, the director, the locations and Mario Puzo's screenplays.

Sofia Coppola wrote the screenplay and directed a 97-minute film version, filmed in Summer 1998, and released on May 19, 1999 at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ferdinand's oppressive government led in 1485 to an attempt at revolt on the part of the nobles, led by Francesca Coppola and Antonello Sanseverino of Salerno and supported by Pope Innocent VIII ; the rising having been crushed, many of the nobles, notwithstanding Ferdinand's promise of a general amnesty, were afterwards treacherously murdered at his express command.

Carmine Coppola was nominated for Best Original Score at the Golden Globe Awards.

These were George Lucas at Lucasfilm and Francis Ford Coppola.

Coppola noted that he first noticed Keaton in Lovers and Other Strangers, and cast her because of her reputation for eccentricity that he wanted her to bring to the role ( Keaton claims that at the time she was commonly referred to as " the kooky actress " of the film industry ).

I called Francis Coppola and asked who was young and exciting and he said to look at a movie called Mean Streets, which hadn ’ t been released yet.