| One from the Heart | |
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theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Produced by | Gray Frederickson Fred Roos |
| Written by | Armyan Bernstein Francis Ford Coppola |
| Starring | Frederic Forrest Teri Garr |
| Music by | Teddy Edwards Tom Waits |
| Cinematography | Vittorio Storaro Ronald Víctor García |
| Editing by | Rudi Fehr Anne Goursaud Randy Roberts |
| Studio | American Zoetrope |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 12, 1982 |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$26,000,000[1] |
| Box office | $636,796 (U.S.)[2] |
One from the Heart is a 1982 musical film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The characters themselves do not actually sing but the powerful score dominates the movie. It is set entirely in Las Vegas, on the Las Vegas Strip and the desert surrounding the city. Though the film realistically evokes the feeling of being on the busy Las Vegas Strip, there were no location shots used in the film. Instead, it was shot on studio sound stages, with the single exception of one space on the back lot for a "Las Vegas junkyard" set, described by a character in the film as being "the garden of the Taj Mahal".
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The evening of July 4, in Las Vegas, Hank (Frederic Forrest) and Frannie (Teri Garr) break up while celebrating their 5 year anniversary, due to Hank's insensitivity to Frannie's yearning for adventure and excitement. They both spend a night with their idealized partner—Leila, a nubile and beautiful circus girl (Nastassja Kinski), for Hank, and Ray, a dark, handsome musician (Raúl Juliá), for Frannie. After their nights of passion, Hank breaks down and tracks Frannie to her lover's apartment and abducts her. On returning home she refuses to go in and walks away, saying that this time it is definitely goodbye forever. Hank follows her to the airport where she is about to leave for her dream trip to Bora Bora with Ray. Hank sings to her to prove he is willing to be more romantic, but she boards the plane, saying it is too late. Hank, distraught, goes home and is about to burn her clothes when Frannie returns, realising she "made a mistake".
Carmine and Italia Coppola appear as a couple in an elevator.
The cost of the production of this film would lead to Coppola's declaring bankruptcy. One from the Heart was originally intended as an "antidote" to the enormous cost, pressures and production setbacks of Apocalypse Now[3] , but the production costs ballooned from $2 million to over $25 million. Rather than shooting on location, Coppola insisted on assembling sets to add to the artificiality of the proscenium.
Set construction proceeded to such an extent that a replica of Las Vegas' McCarran Airport—complete with a jetway and jet airliner (built from the nose section of a crashed plane)—was built and used for the penultimate scene. The sets for the film consumed the entirety of sound stage space at Coppola's recently acquired American Zoetrope studio. Because of the maze of wiring and flammable scrims, backdrops and other materials, Dean Tavoularis half-jokingly referred to the Vegas Strip set—the centerpiece of the film—as a "firetrap", saying it caused him to have "nightmares about fires" during the film's production.
Coppola has stated that the films he made during the rest of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, such as The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, The Godfather, Part III, Jack and The Rainmaker, were done to pay off the debts incurred by the production of One from the Heart.
One from the Heart features an original soundtrack from Crystal Gayle and Tom Waits. Waits received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score. Dean Tavoularis, whose art department was next door to the musical rehearsal space, used Tom Waits' music as tonal inspiration which was incorporated into the film's highly stylized 'look'. Mickey Hart, drummer for The Grateful Dead, and musician Bobby Vega were also credited for their contributions to the production.
Los Angeles street musician and one-man band Arthur Nakane claims to have been cut from the film, his scene having been integral to the main character hearing "You Are My Sunshine" during a performance by Nakane (unnamed in the film) on the Vegas Strip, which explains the song's appearance later in the film.[4]
The movie received mixed reviews. As of January 2009, it has a 50% "rotten" rating on RottenTomatoes.com.[5] The film had a glamorous New York City preview on January 15, 1982, at Radio City Music Hall, to an audience in which the city's then current celebrities were well represented. At the time the film opened, Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times called it an "innovative, audacious effort", but continued that the film lacks story and tension.[6]
However, regarding the poor critical reception to the film, Coppola has said that the film was still a "work in progress" when screened for blind bidding, calling the unfinished version "a mess". He went on to say that "it was clear that it wasn't going to get a fair shot."[7]
The movie grossed $389,249 on its first weekend on 41 theaters to a disastrous total gross of only $636,796 against a US$26 million budget. With gross receipts only being 2.45% of its investment, a 97.55% loss gives One from the Heart one of the lowest percentage returns in the history of film.
A DVD of One from the Heart has been released. The DVD contains many extras, including an alternate version of the theatrical trailer.
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