Eleanor Coppola, director and wife of Francis Ford Coppola, died Friday at the age of 87 at her home in California, her family announced in a statement to the American agency Associated Press. The causes of the filmmaker's death have not been specified.
She is particularly known for having directed
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
, a documentary which retraces the 238 days of filming of her husband's cult film
Apocalypse Now
. Behind the scenes of the feature film had been chaotic: a member of the technical team had lost his life, actor Martin Sheen had had a heart attack and a typhoon had destroyed the film set.
Director but also screenwriter
She also worked as a director and screenwriter on two recently released films:
Paris Can Wait,
in 2016
, and Love is Love is Love
in 2020
.
Eleanor Coppola met her husband while working as an assistant art director on his first film,
Dementia 13
. Together, they had three children: Gian-Carlo, Roman and Sofia. The first unfortunately died in 1986 in a boat accident. He was only 22 years old then.
This news comes only a few days after the announcement of Francis Ford Coppola's entry into competition at the next Cannes Film Festival for "Megalopolis", a science fiction film that he has dreamed of for forty years. He is aiming for a third Palme d'Or after those obtained for "Secret Conversation", in 1974, then "Apocalypse Now", in 1979.