58. Coppola Cast Redux: Sofia #4: Marie Antoinette (2006)

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Thanks to the success of Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola was able to cash in her “I won an Oscar” chip and make an ambitious, big budget movie about Marie Antoinette. The catch…she did her way. This movie was booed at the Cannes Film Festival and was heavily criticized for its use of modern music, lack of French accents, and breaking from the traditional biopic format. However, it now seems that Sofia’s Marie Antoinette may have just been ahead of its time. Bryan and A.J. discuss the great cast, Coppola’s unique approach to a notorious historical figure, how the movie defies its grand scale to tell an intimate story, the great use of modern music, and ponder why Sofia’s movies stick so well in our memory. We also talk about Baz Luhrmann movies, bash Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, and, of course, talk about the 2006 Oscars. This episode’s themed drink was: Sofia Brut Rosè. 

43. Coppola Cast #24: Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

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This Christmas you get a Tucker car! and you get a Tucker car! ,,,and that’s it because the upstart automobile designer Preston Tucker was only able to make 50 and in this episode Bryan and A.J. find out why. Francis Coppola’s biopic of Tucker, appropriately titled Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), chronicles his attempt to build the “car of tomorrow” with unheard of features like a third headlight that turns with the steering wheel, seatbelts, pop out glass, and an engine in the rear (where it belongs!). As you might imagine, Tucker (played by Jeff Bridges) ran afoul of the Big Three automakers in Detroit and their cronies in Washington. We talk about the crossover this film has with Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004), the change in the dynamic of Coppola and George Lucas’s professional relationship, Martin Landau’s Oscar nominated performance, and Jeff Bridges’s charming screen presence. We also ask Robert Zemeckis for a sequel to Romancing the Stone with the original cast. This episode’s Coppola wine was Francis Coppola Diamond Collection 2018 Black Label Claret.