T13-17-05-08.qxd
16.05.2008
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CULTURE&ARTS
TODAY’S ZAMAN 13
S AT U R D AY, M AY 1 7 , 2 0 0 8
‘Notes on a Life’: an exploration of the Coppola clan in details MARGARET WAPPLER CALIFORNIA
Eleanor Coppola doesn't consider herself a writer, yet she frequently records her thoughts and observations, a writer's habit if there ever was one. Her practice, which she admits is catch-as-catch-can, began on the set of "Apocalypse Now," husband Francis Ford Coppola's difficult masterwork that kept them in the Philippines for three years in the late '70s. Her extensive notes for "Hearts of Darkness," an acclaimed documentary on the making of the film, became "Notes on the Making of 'Apocalypse Now'," published in 1979 and also well-regarded. Now, Coppola has published "Notes on a Life," her second set of observations jotted down in notebooks in the odd moments. The book covers the period roughly from the mid-'80s to 2005, with occasional dips in the further past. "Notes on a Life," Coppola said in an interview at her home in the Napa Valley, "doesn't have a specific projection or underpinning, but it's reflective of the way we think. In the present time, we are aware of something, but maybe it reminds us of something else and then we're in the past and then we're back to the present again. ... As I looked back on the notes, I could see strong themes emerging, repeating themselves, certain images or ideas." The result is a document that draws power from a steady accumulation of detail rendered in quiet, natural prose. It's the testament of a woman
devoted to her family, seemingly at the disservice of her own artistic goals. But it's also not that simple. Radiating a kind of serenity that was clearly hardearned, Coppola, 72, often found a way, on the farflung locations of her husband's work, to reinforce her own creative impulses or at least operate as a key emissary. She set up makeshift homes in Thailand, France and Washington, D.C., comforted and encouraged Francis and, later, her filmmaking offspring, Sofia and Roman. The specter of the accidental death of her oldest son, Gian-Carlo or Gio, in 1986 colors the book with grief and a heightened appreciation for what she still has. The Coppola home is a dramatic, eggcream-colored Victorian set near rolling hills and rows of grapevines for the Rubicon Estate winery next door. In "Notes on a Life," Coppola is always yearning to get back to the land that the couple bought in the '70s with a payment from "The Godfather." "This place is part of my nature," Coppola said, seated in a chair on the wraparound porch. "It's where I'm most comfortable." Beyond the grapevines, there's her studio, a converted barn where she works on watercolors and sketches near an altar she built with seashells for her elderly mother. Several sets of tables and chairs were spaced out on the porch, along with a pingpong table that was apparently the center of action at a recent soiree of Sofia's. Coppola's birthday was coming up that weekend, and she planned to host a group of female friends for lunch.
Francis is not home at the moment; he is shooting "Tetro" in Argentina, about the rivalries, suitably enough, within an artistic Italian family. In a passage in "Notes on a Life," Eleanor describes how Francis, at near breaking point from the making of "The Godfather: Part III," unleashes a litany of complaints. "He spoke so convincingly about all the things wrong in his life: how he hated that he was doing the same thing again that he had done nearly 20 years ago ... he talked about his family, he complained about me. I sat there while he ran it all out. ... I went for a walk outside. I tried to visualize all his dark words draining out of me, dripping off the ends of my fingers and running out my toes through my shoes." That is not to suggest that Coppola only sponged up Francis' complaints and aired none of her own. In "Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now," she states that Francis and she fought for several days, concluding that they should get a divorce, a notion that unraveled moments later. In "Notes on a Life," she drops in such lines as "when our marriage almost ended" but doesn't go into much detail. Conflicting personalities in marriage are something readers can relate to, including the editor of both of Coppola's books, Nan Talese, who is married to writer Gay Talese. "Gay is very different from Francis, but there are similarities. ... For women particularly, they will find themselves in the book because of the balance between work and family life, relationships and their own aspirations. Eleanor is amazingly honest and open."
CONCERT
FESTIVAL
Freddy Cole Quartet set for two gigs at Jazz Center
Altýn Koza festival pays tribute to Romy Schneider
American jazz musician Freddy Cole, the brother of Nat "King" Cole, is set for two performances along with his quartet at the Ýstanbul Jazz Center next week on May 23-24. The Freddy Cole Quartet, with Cole on the piano and vocals, Jerry Byrd on guitar, Curtis Boyd on drums and Zachery Pride on bass, will take to the stage at 9:30 p.m. in both performances, where they will present a repertoire of jazz classics from the 1930s. Tickets at www.biletix.com
The Altýn Koza (Golden Boll) International Film Festival will commemorate Austrian-German actress Romy Schneider (1938-1982) in its 15th edition, slated for June 2-8 in the province of Adana. The festival will screen four films by Schneider: "Les Choses De La Vie" ("The Things of Life," 1970), "Cesar et Rosalie" ("César and Rosalie," 1972), "La Mort en direct" ("Death Watch," 1980) and "Garde à vue" ("The Inquisitor," 1981).
FESTIVAL
Bitter:Sweet, Morcheeba to headline Chill-Out fest The US bands Bitter:Sweet and Pacha Massive, UK's Morcheeba and Ralfe Band and France's Sebastien Tellier will be performing live at the Third Chill-Out Ýstanbul Festival, slated for May 25 at Ýstanbul's Kemer Golf and Country Club. The festival, organized by the Ýstanbul-based Radio Lounge 102FM, will feature 12 hours of non-stop music from a wide range of genres from trip-hop to Latin and from jazz to funk. Tickets at www.biletix.com
Coppola is also aware of boundaries, of where her story ends and others begin. Sofia's experience with critical reviews for her performance in "The Godfather: Part III" is acknowledged but not indulged. Looking back, Coppola acknowledges the pangs of jealousy she felt with other family members' successes, the resentment that burned in her for often being tasked with the least glamorous aspect of making films, but it's a muted observation now, distanced by time and acceptance of both herself and Francis and their path. Coppola's father, who trained as an artist in France and worked in Mexico, was a political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Examiner. He died when she was 10, but she clearly inherited some of his wanderlust. Coppola graduated from college and traveled to exotic places such as Machu Picchu. In line to be the old maid of her group of friends, Coppola met Francis in Ireland in 1963. She was working as an assistant to the art director on Francis' horror film "Dementia 13." "I never expected Francis to be a celebrity when we got married. He was making ["Dementia 13"], this black-and-white film, very low budget. I thought we were going to live in the Valley," she said with a smile. "I was just as startled and unprepared for how our lives evolved. ... I really feel very strongly that he should be whatever he wants to be. That's why I could always be supportive of his projects, because I felt like this is artwork and he wants to make it as much as I want to make mine." © Los Angeles Times, 2008
CONCERT
Flamenco legend Amigo plays at CRR tonight Spanish flamenco composer and virtuoso guitarist Vicente Amigo, widely considered one of the greatest living guitarists and a successor to Paco de Lucia, will tonight perform a concert at Ýstanbul's Cemal Reþit Rey (CRR) Concert Hall. Amigo, known for his openness to experimenting and his collaborations with other artists, including Khaled, Miguel Bosé, Alejandro Sanz and Sting, will take to the stage at 8 p.m. Ticket price: YTL 25
CM Y K
ALÝ ÜNAL
US film director Francis Ford Coppola (2nd R) poses with family members Roman (L), wife Eleanor (2nd L) and daughter Sofia (R) at the world premiere of his movie "Youth Without Youth" at the Rome International Film Festival in October 2007.
Young Iranian filmmaker Hana Makhmalbaf's "Buda as sharm foru rikht" (Buddha Collapsed out of Shame) emerged as the winner of this year's Uçan Süpürge (Flying Broom) International Women's Film Festival, which wrapped up its 11th edition on Thursday night with a ceremony in the Turkish capital. Makhmalbaf's feature earned the festival's prestigious International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize, the only FIPRESCI prize given in a festival devoted in its entirety to films with women directors. "Buddha" was up against 11 other entrants, including "XXY" by Argentinean director Lucía Puenzo; "Kurz davor ist es passiert" (It Happened Just Before) by Austria's Anja Salomonowitz; and "Trés Bien, Merci" (Very Well, Thank You) by France's Emmanuelle Cuauand in the festival's international feature film competition entitled "Each Has a Different Color." Makhmalbaf, born in 1988 into a family of filmmakers, showed her first short film at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland when she was only eight years old. "Buddha" is her feature debut and it already won an award at Canada's Montreal Film Festival in 2007 as well as two awards at Spain's San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film follows a 6-year-old Afghan girl named Baktay as she tries to go to the school amid the violent war games played by boys in her village. This year's Flying Broom Film Festival ran May 8-15 at the Kýzýlýrmak movie theater, featuring over 100 films by women filmmakers from across the world in 11 various sections. Ankara Today's Zaman
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REUTERS
‘Buddha' wins critics' prize at Flying Broom
Ýhsan Daðý compiles articles in new book Ýhsan Daðý, a professor at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) International Relations Department and a regular columnist for Today's Zaman, has compiled his commentaries published in Today's Zaman in a new book, titled "Turkey between democracy and militarism." As Daðý explains in the book's introduction, the book discusses various aspects of the "grand struggle" between the bureaucratic/authoritarian center and the democratic periphery in Turkey. Issues such as nationalism, secularism, Islamism, militarism, Kemalism, the Kurdish question, political parties, the EU membership process and relations with the United States are extensively discussed. "Though covering a wide time span and such a wide array of issues, the articles share a common stand: They seek to develop a post-Kemalist reading of contemporary Turkish politics," Daðý writes, noting that the articles present the reader with an alternative reading on the "current history of Turkey." Daðý has been writing articles on current political affairs for Today's Zaman since the daily was launched in January 2007. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
Turkish artists head to Italy for biennale Nine young Turkish artists will be heading to Italy next week to take part in the 13th Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, scheduled for May 22-31 in the southern Italian region of Puglia. This year's biennale will have the theme "Our Creative Diversity: Kairos." The Greek word kairos means the right or opportune moment. Artists representing Turkey in the event include painters Þenay Kazalova, Deniz Üster and Halil Vurucuoðlu, video artists Umut Sakallýoðlu and Beliz Demircioðlu, installation artists Þebnem Özbe Arýkan and Elif Süsler, sculptor Yaþam Þaþmazer and animator Yüzgül. They will be showcasing their works of art at the 10-day event along with their peers from 48 countries. Around 900 artists between the ages of 18 and 30 are taking part in this year's event. The biennale, a multidisciplinary event which features a wide range of creations from music to visual arts, and from theater to video and literature, is a get-together of selected artists from the Euro-Mediterranean zone, which covers the entire European Union, the Balkans and the "Rive Sud" of the Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey). The works of the Turkish artists featured in the biennale were earlier this year put on display in an exhibition called "Geleceðe Esintiler" (Winds into the Future) that was held in two editions at Sabancý University's Kasa Art Gallery in Ýstanbul's Karaköy district. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman