"Death is a funny thing," Francis Ford Coppola said in 1996. "Death is on the back of everyone's mind whether they want to admit it or not."
Coppola said this to R. H. Green this while promoting Jack, a movie about a boy aging at four times the normal rate and starring his friend Robin Williams, who took his own life 10 years later after sliding into neurological disrepair. Now, Coppola is 77-years-old, with 34 directing credits, five Academy Awards, and a formidable film legacy to his name. PBS's Blank on Blank illustrated the 20-year-old transcript for an animated video published Tuesday.
Coppola's movies often depict elongated, if not grisly, death scenes. Solitude also creeps through his classics, juxtaposed with inclusion and family, and reflective of Coppola's own life, according to the interview. But Coppola made a quick and easy peace with death in light of his career, his children, his wife, and his good fortune, a peace denied to more than a few of his characters. "It's not a matter of how long you live," Coppola said. "It's a matter of how well you live."
Twenty years later, here's hoping he continues to live well.
