More wines were to follow under the Niebaum-Coppola Estate label, with Francis steadily working towards his ultimate goal of "restoring Inglenook to its rightful place in history." In 1995 he bought the remaining part of the original Inglenook property, renovating its Chateau-which had stopped making wine-in both aesthetic appearance and function as a winemaking facility. He established his own estate winery of Niebaum-Coppola that same year, and produced the first vintage of his flagship red wine, Rubicon, in 1978. It was during this same period that Francis embarked on an entirely different venture, to tell an entirely different story that would further develop the course of one of America's most venerable wine estates-Inglenook.Įver since 1975, when he purchased the major portion of what was then under corporate ownership, Francis vowed to reunite Inglenook's land, the land to its name, and Inglenook's name to its former integrity. The whole of the 1970s was an extraordinary time in his career-writing, directing, and/or producing The Godfather (1972), American Graffiti (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979), a bevy of films earning him 12 Academy Award nominations, five Academy Awards, and two Palme d'Or awards from the Cannes Film Festival. His creative pursuits run wide, however, and he is one of those rare individuals who can turn his dreams into viable realities, perhaps because of his clarity in seeing life as being full of all the possible ways to tell stories wanting to be told. As a writer, director, and producer, he has been a central figure in contributing to the shape of contemporary American cinema. Francis Ford Coppola is best known as the six-time Academy Award-winning director of such epic films as The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |