Eleanor Coppola, Francis’ wife, passed away yesterday at the age of 87. She was his lifelong creative partner, and even took up filmmaking for a small part of her life. The couple met while working on Roger Corman’s horror film “Dementia 13,” and had a three children together — Gian-Carlo, Sofia and Roman.
Her “Hearts of Darkness” is still one of the greatest making-of documentaries ever made, chronicling the absurdly chaotic filming of “Apocalypse Now” which included typhoons, hospitalizations, recasting and rewrites. It still stands as a great and important time capsule in film history.
Eleanor later wrote and directed her first fiction film, 2016’s “Paris Can Wait,” starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin, a playfully enjoyable summer-soaked gem that never really garnered the audience it deserved.
Although it was known, in some circles, that she was ill — Sofia couldn’t attend last year’s NYFF premiere of “Priscilla” because of Eleanor’s deteriorating condition — this is still very sad news for the Coppola family and, especially for Francis as he’s just lost his beloved wife of 60 years. His upcoming “Megalopolis” will no doubt be dedicated to her.