NEW DELHI: Eminent filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola who made the iconic The Godfather has said cine craftsman Satyajit Ray was a major influence in life.
“I love Bollywood films because I come from a family involved in musicals.” he told Riz Khan during the twelfth edition of Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Addressing the enthusiastic audience, Coppola said that all businesses he has been involved in are about story-telling.
He talked about his path breaking films and creative journey. The acclaimed director emphasised on the value of changing techniques and what could be the future of cinema. He said, “Cinema is a marriage of writing and acting. Ultimately it is in the choice of the story and how that reaches people.”
“Cinema is about to change dramatically. The audience will be the master of the situation and there won’t be Paramount, MGM any more. It will be Netflix and Facebook in the future,” he said.
Talking about The Godfather he said, “Godfather was the metaphor for America. It was an accident. I never intended to be an important Hollywood director. I wanted to make small, personal cinema. I also never wanted to make the sequel of The Godfather, but I did so because of financial distress.”
He also spoke about the challenges of adapting a book to film. He said, “A novel is tricky because it wasn’t intended to be seen in two hours. The challenge is trying to find ways to collapse it and shorten it without destroying the original book. There has to be a balance in cinema. It’s like literature.”
Talking on whether he felt that The Godfather was dealt with the mafia, glorified violence, he said, “That’s always a problem with a war film. It’s very difficult to make a good anti-war film because it has so much violence in it. Italians are associated with great people – great artists, writers, designers – and to have it reduced to these bloodthirsty gangsters is problematic. Avoid films that are unduly violent, the responsibility lies with you.”
“I want to see films that make me more human,” he further added.
