One from the Heart (1982)
"Frances Ford Coppola... still owes
me money for 'One from the Heart.'" - Terri Garr
The title of this Francis Ford Coppola
clunker implies honesty, sentiment, and emotional
resonance, none of which this film has. This is the
most phoney film I've ever seen. Nothing rings true
and it is about as hollow as a film could be. Looking
at it now, in a print restored 20 years after the
original release, the film might more rightly be called
"One from the Pretentious Filmmaker" because, surely,
that is all the film has to offer, a remarkably directed
center that shows off how brilliant Coppola was as
a director early in his career.
Nothing works here but Coppola's
cool visual panache in the center of the film. Other
than this, he makes every wrong choice a director
could make.
I'm not sure what this film is supposed
to be really. One assumes Coppola was trying to make
a heartfelt romantic drama based in reality. Then
again, his film suggests that it is an homage to those
romantic dramas from Hollywood's past. His story,
a simple boy has girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl
back premise, is one of the most poorly scripted,
poorly acted and ridiculously presented films ever
to dis-grace the silver screen.
Here's a laundry list of problems
with the film:
1. Terri Garr - I love Garr and
think she is one of the finest film comediennes to
emerge in the 70's. But here she is asked to play
a dramatic lead and she fails miserably. She seems
lost in this role and simply doesn't know what to
do here. Even more embarrassing are her nude scenes
which would make even the horniest straight guy in
the world cringe.
2. Frederick Forrest - Although
he is perfectly suited for his character, he is stuck
in a role that makes him look, in retrospect, like
a crazed stalker. He has no chemistry with Garr -
Zero! - and when he chases after her after their split,
he looks like a brainless idiot.
3. Nastassja Kinski - When she says,
"We circus people disappear into the night like spit
on a griddle," you can not help but laugh out laugh
hysterically. This is a girl who simply cannot act.
She is nothing but tits and a pussy here and she can't
even play that convincingly. And that accent that
filters in and out of her performance is annoying
as hell. Truly one of the most horrible film performances
of all time.
4. Harry Dean Stanton - He looks
as close to death here as any living person I've ever
seen. When Garr suggests that she once let him kiss
her, we wonder if she is completely insane.
5. Tom Waits - The first 30 minutes
of this film is like an insufferable Waits album made
into a video starring Terri Garr and Frederick Forrest.
Waits will warble in his archetypical gravely and
sorrowful tone, accented by sorrowful trombones, for
three or four minutes and then Garr will mumble a
line and then Waits will warble some more. It is one
of the most annoying and boring beginnings to a film
that I have ever had to endure. It's no wonder that
the film was a huge commercial flop when it was released
in 1982; no one could sit through the first 30 minutes
of it. Patrons must have been at the box office screaming
for their money back across the country when the film
opened. Waits' music is not only some of his most
atrocious (and I, for one, find must of his music
annoying as fuck), but it permeates this film, particularly
the beginning.
6. Crystal Gayle - If there is anything
worse that Tom Waits' songs, it would be a syrupy,
sickeningly smooth crooner singing them. When you
add the dimension of a singer who couldn't possibly
fathom the subtlety and adult ideas in the lyrics
crooning them, the effect is deadly. Waits and Gayle
singing a duet here is like pouring soda pop on rock
salt, it seems like an interesting combination but
the reaction is foamy nothingness and the result is
ultimately unpalatable.
7. Zoetrope Studios - Coppola, in
his insane genius, opts to shoot the entire film on
a soundstage. This is pure madness. This is a film
that begs for honesty and realism and Coppola creates
a soundstage look at every opportunity. Everything
looks fake here and, by comparison, his romance here
looks fake as well. We never believe a moment of this
film. Although Coppola does create a Las Vegas street
scene that looks like the real thing, its appearance
in the film also only makes everything else here look
fake. Coppola uses obvious matte shots and obvious
miniatures that also add to the lack of realism. One
has to believe that Coppola was purposefully opting
for a lack of verisimilitude since he sets his film
in Las Vegas, perhaps the most fake city in the world.
Yet, this again begs the question: Why set a film
about a romance with the ultimately personal title
"One from the Heart" in the most plastic city in the
world? Why film it as if it were all phoney? Is Coppola
suggesting that all relationships (or at least male/female
ones) are ridiculous and phoney?
8. The choreography by Kenny Ortega
- which is about as lame as one could imagine.
9. The plot and ending - again,
this film is simply unbelievable. The plot is simplistic
and stupid. We hate that Garr ends up going back to
Forrest because they are quite possibly the most lackadaisical
and mismatched couple ever to be presented as lovers
in a motion picture ever. We never believe them here
and this reduces Coppola's simplistic plot to cinders.
Coppola's film is a glorious mess,
a train wreck that students of film will be analyzing
for years to come. For serious fans of film, the middle
of the piece is an amazing ode to filmmaking of yesteryear,
before the advent of computer graphics and techniques.
Coppola's use of blue screen is amazing. His transitory
effects, which must have been planned out quite meticulously,
are often glorious and astounding. There are many
visual moments in the film that are simply breath-taking,
as far as they way they were filmed goes.
Raul Julia has some decent moments
in the film and Lainie Kazan doesn't embarrass herself
when called upon to do her usual second-banana schtick,
but the film's plot and delivery rarely shines even
in the hands of the secondary cast. This is a film
for film studies classes only, when all is said and
done.
Notes:
Also with Allen Garfield, Coppola's
parents, and Rebecca DeMornay, who has a small role
and is credited as an "Understudy."
Scripted by Coppola and Armyan Bernstein
who also wrote the story. Bernstein is also a producer.
Waits was nominated for an Oscar
for his score.
The film cost 26 million dollars
to make and grossed less than a million on its initial
release in the U.S.
The film was restored by Coppola
for a 2003 re-release presumably with a digital soundtrack.
Viewed at a press sneak at the Dobie
in December 2003.
