Coppola on Bergman

In the interview, headlined 'Hollywood taking over? Total nightmare!', Francis Ford Coppola talks about his new film and his rather rollercoaster-like career.

Compares himself and his family with a circus company, Bergman's name comes up. Many artists, Coppola claims, have constantly been on the move, 'just think about Goethe'. And he goes on:

'Even the greatest filmmakers saw themselves as entertainers, like Bergman or Fellini. In the Coppola circus I was once the director, sometimes I went up on the trapeze, sometimes I walked in the ring securing the rope for the tightrope artists. dancer. Often, however, I was all alone up there under the roof of the tent. The risks, in particular financial ones, I had to take alone.'

Later in the interview, when asked whether his daughter Sofia is continuing a family tradition, he points out that he's been married to the same woman for forty years, as opposed to Ingmar Bergman, who 'changed wife every year or so' (which is not entirely true, but, well). Traditionally artists have not been the most examplary family men, he notes, and also mentions Picasso and Fellini. "No wonder these great artists haven't found any worthy successors.'

The interviewer Lars-Olav Beier asks whether artistry is a question of genetics, upon which Coppola replies:

'Power is a question of genetics. Look around: of the people you see here in the street, many are related to Genghis Kahn. His DNA is in us. He's spread his genes as much as he could. A great man, that Genghis Kahn.'

Photo: Reuters.