Coppola's One From the Heart (1982)

Forget spending a couple of hours with a plot heavy traditional movie. This is film as art and should be seen the way you view a great painting. It's not so much what happens or even who plays who; it's about how it all looks and sounds. This one is so much like dreaming. And it is a beautiful dream.

Some people react negatively to the casting of Teri Garr and Fredrick Forest as the leads. I don't. Forest is everyman: approaching middle age with a pouching stomach and driven by his needs for both stability and adventure. Garr maintains a kind of sweet innocence even while banging another man. Plus, she can dance. There is a scene where she and Raul Julia are doing a Tango. He drops her to the floor where her stilletto heeled foot points so perfectly. I wonder how many takes that required.

But the stars of this movie are not Garr, Forest, Kinski, Stanton, Julia and Kazan. They are Waits and Gayle and Coppola. Francis gets my rave for his vision and willingness to risk. The result is visually stunning. And the scoring of this painting in motion by Waits is the glue that holds it all together. Really: it's color and lighing and music that tell this simple tale. They work together in perfect harmony.

Please don't gather a room full of chattering pals to pop corn and watch this movie. See it alone or with one special person . . . in a dark room . . . on a widescreen TV if you can.No popcorn: just some nice red wine (Coppola?). Don't expect to be entertained;plan on being moved, transported, taken to a new and very beautiful place. It is a film to be seen; not watched.