One From the Heart

One From the Heart, from 1982, basically ended Francis Coppola's run as a major director. His follow-up to Apocalypse Now, it was intended to be a small film but costs ballooned, and when it was released it became a huge boondoggle. He spent the next several years making films just to make money to pay off the debts incurred by this one. After seeing it last night, I could see why this all happened. It's really atrocious.

It reminded me a lot of Martin Scorsese's New York, New York, in that it seemed to be the director's attempt to capture a kind of cinema of yesteryear, one that celebrates its artificiality. One From the Heart is set in Las Vegas, but is not shot on location, instead it was recreated on the soundstages of Coppola's Zoetrope studios. He and his production designer, Dean Tavouleras, built everything, from Glitter Gulch to McCarran Airport. This certainly gives the film a different sort of glow, reminiscent of a Vegas that exists only in the mind, especially in scenes set in a neon graveyard, where old signs sit in the sands of the desert.

The problem is the script, which is shriekingly amateurish. The story of the film centers on a couple, Frederic Forrest and Teri Garr. It's the Fourth of July and their anniversary, and they end up in an argument (how they get there is unclear--they're all lovey-dovey and then suddenly they're not). Garr leaves, and the two end up in romantic adventures with other people--she with a smooth-talking pianist (Raul Julia) and he with an acrobat (Nastassia Kinski). I felt bad for all of the actors, as they are adrift, saying lines that have no anchor in any kind of reality. Garr, in particular, is ill-served, as she spends much of the film getting in and out of her clothes.

The only good takeaways from the film are the lavish sets and the music of Tom Waits, whose songs, sung by he and Crystal Gayle, run almost continually under the action. One From the Heart must have been a huge shock to those who had seen Coppola dominate the 70s with landmark films. He would never be that kind of director again.