History of Cinema - Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. After directing The Rain People in 1969, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer, with Edmund H. North, of Patton in 1970. His directorial prominence was cemented with the release in 1972 of The Godfather, a film which revolutionized movie-making in the gangster genre, earning praise from both critics and the public before winning three Academy Awards including his second Oscar (Best Adapted Screenplay, with Mario Puzo), Best Picture, and his first nomination for Best Director. While a number of Coppola's ventures in the 1980s and 1990s were critically lauded, he has never quite achieved the same commercial success with films as in the 1970s. His most well-known films released since the 1980s are The Outsiders and Rumble Fish , The Cotton Club, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.