Eleanor Coppola, filmmaker and companion of Francis Ford Coppola, dies at 87

“Heart of Darkness: A Director’s Apocalypse”, his documentary on the tumultuous filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s film “Apocalypse Now”, won an Emmy in 1992.

Director Eleanor Coppola, who signed At the heart of darkness: the apocalypse of a director THE making of the movie Apocalypse Now of Francis Ford Coppola, her husband, died Friday April 12 at the age of 87, her family announced. The filmmaker is died surrounded by her family at her home in Rutherford, California, her relatives said in a statement sent to the American agency Associated Press.

The documentary In the hearts of darkness : the apocalypse of a director (Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, 1991) is the story of a chaotic 238-day shoot in the Philippines, during which one of the members of the construction team died, recalls Associated Press. Comedian Martin Sheen also had a heart attack and the sets were destroyed by a typhoon.

This exceptional document, about an extraordinary cinematic experience, is nevertheless the work of chance. “I made a few small art films in the early 70s, explained Eleanor Coppola to Deadline in 2017 reports Variety. “But when I received this camera in the Philippines, I was just fascinated by looking through the viewfinder. I really reacted to that”. It was from around sixty hours of filming that she made the film which won an Emmy (the American television awards) in 1992, more than a decade after the release ofApocalypse Now (1979).

First fiction at 80

At the age of 80, in 2016, Eleanor Coppola decided to take up fiction. First of all Paris Can Wait, then four years later, Love Is Love Is Love.

Born Eleanor Neil on May 4, 1936, in Los Angeles, the director married Francis Ford Coppola in 1963. From their union were born three children: Gian-Carlo, who died at the age of 22 in a boat accident, the director Sofia Coppola and the filmmaker Roman Coppola. Eleanor Coppola had also documented her children’s work.

The news of his disappearance comes the day after the announcement of the presence in competition of Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film, Megalopolis, at the next Cannes Film Festival. The American director returns to the Croisette with the project of a lifetime, as had been Apocalypse Now, for which he won a Palme d’Or.