A neglected American wife is with her husband in France while he closes an important business deal but before they can reach their next stop in Paris, quirky circumstances force them to travel separately.
On her journey she ends up hitching a ride with a charismatic local who introduces her to the sights and tastes of the culture that inevitably awakens this bored woman from her slumber. That’s the set up for the new road trip comedy Paris Can Wait and it also marks the feature debut of Eleanor Coppola, a woman who knows a thing or two about living with a tortured artist.
Primarily known as a documentarian for her husband Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor has finally decided to make a feature in her 70’s, a trade that did not comes easy despite having many filmmakers in her immediate family (including children Sofia and Roman). According to her, Paris Can Wait took six years to put together and in that time Eleanor studied her craft and learned how not to make rookie mistakes on set.
She also assembled an accomplished cast including Diane Lane as the aforementioned wife and Alec Baldwin as the husband. Mrs. Coppola recently traveled to San Francisco to promote Paris Can Wait and we spoke to her about making her first feature. This is a transcription of that conversation.
Eleanor Coppola: It feels funny to be on the other side of the table receiving questions instead of asking them.
Q: Does that make you more or less comfortable?
Coppola: I’m much more comfortable on the other side of the camera as a documentarian.
Q: I promise to make this as painless as possible.
Coppola: Thank you.
Q: You must get this a lot but your movie made me very hungry.
Coppola: (laughs) I’d love to have a cut of the food concession charges at the theatre.
Q: A small chunk of that would be nice. In the movie you’re balancing all kinds of beautiful images ranging from vistas to delicious food. Since the movie essentially takes place during a road trip how did you decide which particular images to showcase?
Coppola: I wanted the movie to be very entertaining and pleasurable and yet have some current of real-life issues. It focuses on a woman whose child has grown and her husband is focusing on his own business endeavors. So what is this woman going to do with these changes? I wanted all of that to be packaged in a fun and entertaining journey.
Q: Did you find it necessary at all to cut out some shots of food and the French countryside so they didn’t overwhelm the story?
Coppola: I don’t think I was as calculated as that, I just wanted to tell a good story and I wanted to make it rich with food and scenery. Things that are interesting to me.
Q: Was it an easy sell to your three leads to bring them on board and shoot a movie where they would be surrounded by French food and architecture for several months?
Coppola: (laughs) Not at all. It took six years to find the financing and the cast because in today’s climate I was selling a film without any special effects, nobody dies, there’s no car crashes and no aliens. For a first-time filmmaker like myself to make a film without any of those exploitation elements was tough. Everyone kept saying I would never get it done so I took that as a challenge. At my age in my 70’s I thought why-the-heck-not?
Q: Having said that, did you have any reservations about making your first film before jumping into the deep end?
Coppola: I never knew for sure that I would get the opportunity so I prepared as much as I could. I took a directing class and I also took an acting class to understand how to communicate with my actors. I prepared myself in the eventuality that I could make it come together. In those six years of putting the movie together I was doing many things like improving the script and learning as a filmmaker.
Q: Scouting locations sounds like the fun part.
Coppola: (laughs) That was definitely my favorite part.
Q: You said earlier you took an acting course to better understand actors. What kinds of things did you learn from that program that helped you on set?
Coppola: It’s very scary because you are your own instrument. I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing my husband Francis working with his actors and documenting it so I was being observant and learning how he communicated with his actors and that stuck with me. When I was in rehearsal with my actors on this film I definitely used some of those techniques.
Q: You’re obviously surrounded by a large family of filmmakers. Besides Francis, did you go to anyone else for advice or did you feel comfortable tackling this film on your own?
Coppola: I wish but they were all busy with their own projects. That gave me the opportunity to put in some of my own personal quirks into the script.
Q: Did you have someone on set documenting the making of this film the way you have done before on other film sets?
Coppola: We did have someone on set but I haven’t seen that material yet.
Q: You’re obviously going from city to city and answering a lot of the same questions, is there one question you wish would go away?
Coppola: (laughs) I wouldn’t tell you if there was such a question.
Paris Can Wait is now playing in limited release.
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