Paris Can Wait marks Eleanor Coppola‘s feature film directorial and screenwriting debut. The film follows Anne (Diane Lane), wife of successful movie producer Michael (Alec Baldwin), as she accompanies him on a work trip to Europe. Seeing as Michael pays almost no attention to her, Anne is invited to take a ride from Cannes to Paris with one of her husband’s French colleagues, Jacques (Arnaud Viard).
A seven hours car ride turns into a romantic two days trip filled with fine food and gorgeous scenery, giving Anne a whole new lust for life. The trailer gives a first glimpse at what looks like is going to be a very “tasty” ride.
Coppola opened up to the Hollywood Reporter about directing her first feature at 81: “I’m this housewife who suddenly decided to write and direct a film. It was terrifying, but part of the challenge was cutting through all of your fears and just going for it”.
Giving the film’s synopsis, it is hard not to think of her husband, undeniable pillar of American Cinema, and wonder if there is a little truth to her story. And there might very well be! Coppola admitted that back in 2009, while at the Cannes Film Festival with her husband, she fell ill and decided to stay behind and rest as he traveled on to Budapest. A French colleague of Francis’ offered to give her a ride to Paris…
Even if Coppola admitted that she often felt frustrated that she was not able to pursue her artistic career as a young mother, she did found way to express her creativity by directing several documentaries.
In particular documenting the behind the scenes of her husband and children’s films, such as Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse which depicts the struggle behind the development of her husband’s film, Apocalypse Now, and the behind the scenes of her daughter’s Marie Antoinette.
Coppola is also an artist, whose work has been featured in museums and galleries around the world. Coppola is already on her next projects. She just finished filming a short film on a lake in northern California and is working on a series of watercolors. When asked if she would consider making another feature, she simply replied, “Anyway. To be continued”.
And so we shall see, but in the meantime we can’t wait to watch the first feature of this multi-skilled artist who should, to the very least, be rewarded for the constant support she has been giving her friends and family for more than 40 years.
Paris Can Wait made its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and will hit US theatre on May 12.
#Peace.Love.ParisCanWait
