The Lives of Francis Ford Coppola

The director on recutting The Godfather Part III and an epic, chaotic career—which he’s not done with just yet.

- By Bilge Ebiri

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA is trolling me about our resemblance. “This guy looks like I did 30 years ago,” he says when my bearded face appears for the first of our Zoom calls. Coppola, 81, might be grayer now, and he hasn’t technically made a new film in nearly a decade, but that hasn’t stopped him from releasing a steady stream of material. This month comes one of the most extensive recuts of all: a new edition of 1990’s The Godfather Part III, now called Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. It’s shorter, leaner, and certainly clearer, with a new ending that, ironically, lets Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone live. Recently, Coppola discussed the power of editing, his family, and the many dramatic arcs of his career.

Let’s talk about … well, I still can’t help but call it Godfather Part III. What prompted you to go back to it?

A third Godfather was not something I had thought necessary. But I had a very happy collaboration with Mario Puzo [the author of the book The Godfather and a co-screenwriter of the films]. He was like an uncle figure to me. He came up with that idea that we should call the film The Death of Michael Corleone and that it should be a coda or an epilogue. When I suggested that to Paramount, they said, “No, it has to be called The Godfather Part III.” And I realized that was also probably because that meant there could be a four, and a five, and … But I didn’t have the clout that I had had years earlier, when Godfather was such a success.