Coppola honors late wife Eleanor on Instagram
Francis Ford Coppola paid tribute to his late wife on social media with the first Instagram post from the family since her death.
The 85-year-old director of “The Godfather” shared a photo of Eleanor, a respected filmmaker in her own right, standing behind a bouquet. The post, shared on Tuesday, April 16, did not include a caption.
Eleanor Coppola died at their Napa Valley home in Rutherford on Friday, April 12, at 87. She and Francis met on the set of his debut film, “Dementia 13,” in 1963, and they married that same year while Eleanor was pregnant with their first son, GianCarlo. After raising their three children — Sofia, 52, Roman, 58, and Gian-Carlo, who died in a boating accident at 22 in 1986 — Eleanor returned to filmmaking as a documentarian.
Eleanor’s work often centered on her family’s cinematic endeavors. She co-directed the 1991 documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” with Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, exploring the making of her husband’s 1979 classic, “Apocalypse Now.” She also provided behindthe-scenes insights into Sofia’s films, including 1999’s “The Virgin Suicides” and 2006’s “Marie Antoinette.”
In recent years, Eleanor shifted to writing and directing narrative features. At the age of 80, in 2016, she released “Paris Can Wait,” a tale of midlife romance starring Diane Lane.
“I’m this housewife who suddenly decided she’s going to write a film and actually direct it,” Eleanor said in a 2016 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, reflecting on her career pivot. “It was terrifying, but part of the challenge was cutting through all of your fears and just going for it.”
Eleanor’s death coincides with Francis Ford Coppola’s ongoing struggle to find a distributor for his passion project, “Megalopolis,” which has been 40 years in the making and cost an estimated $120 million.
Despite an all-star cast including Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Laurence Fishburne and Forest Whitaker — and Francis selling a portion of his wine empire to fund the production — no studios have shown interest in the project due to its complex storyline and perceived lack of commercial appeal.
The film, first conceived by the director in 1979, completed shooting last summer and is set to premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, running May 14-25.