Cult Cinema: One from the Heart (1982) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Lionsgate

Following his Palme d’Or win in 1979 after a work-in-progress screening (the festival’s first) of his years-in-the-making Apocalypse Now, a gargantuan super production that nearly killed its leading actor Martin Sheen and drove its director to near madness and potential bankruptcy, writer-producer-director Francis Ford Coppola initially intended to slow down some, pumping the brakes in favor of a smaller easier production next: an escapist Las Vegas set romantic-comedy tribute to Old Hollywood musicals called One from the Heart.  Influenced by musicals from the forties and fifties as well as the live stage theater filmed teleplays of the sixties, in genesis it was supposed to be a much-needed break for Coppola after putting years of his life into his Vietnam-set adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.  However in the time-honored tradition of Coppola, once on set he rarely maintains his word. 
 
Initially intended as a $2 million musical production by MGM which Coppola promptly rejected in favor of buying the rights outright through his own production company American Zoetrope, the project ballooned to a whopping $26 million paying for lavish set pieces and expensive miniatures with principal photography largely taking place on Zoetrope soundstages that struggled make ends meet mid-shoot.  Utilizing a new process where he could pre-visualize scenes as well as watch takes via video feed for faster editing as well as a number of innovative lighting and technical visual effects, what was meant to be a day off for the director rapidly spiraled into another kind of out-of-control gargantuan project.  The resulting film is perhaps the grandest director-driven musical throwback folly since Martin Scorsese’s comparatively far better New York, New York or Herbert Ross’ film of Pennies from Heaven.  It also, unlike the considerably more ambitious Apocalypse Now, nearly bankrupted its director as one of the biggest flops in silver screen history.
 
With a recurring original score of songs sung and performed by Tom Waits with Crystal Gayle omnisciently commenting on the action in the film rather than having the characters sing, One from the Heart follows Las Vegas couple mechanic Hank (Coppola regular Frederic Forrest) and travel agent Frannie (Teri Garr) celebrating their fifth anniversary on the fireworks heavy Independence Day.  Living on the outskirts of the neon-lit multicolored kaleidoscope of downtown Las Vegas, Frannie grows bored with Hank’s complacency and role as the sole decision maker in the relationship and following news he bought a house without checking with her first she storms out and seems to leave him.  With the twosome going on separate paths, he meets up with sexy circus performer Leila (Nastassja Kinski) while she runs into smooth talking waiter (perhaps singer/piano player too?) named Ray (Raul Julia), sending each other off into their own respective love affairs which are laced with fantastical dance numbers and playfully outlandish set pieces.  Things seem escapist for both couples, but how long can the dream last and the glittering sparkling high of a Las Vegas love affair last?

 
An experimental Coppola musical of sorts that feels somewhere between the dreamy musicality of Koyaanisqatsi and the clash between artifice and stark realism ala Pennies from Heaven, One from the Heart is a movie better remembered for its absurd production woes than being any kind of compelling narrative vision with characters we can care about.  Coppola infamously crafted a trailer set with electronic machinery such as video screens and editing equipment which gave him total control over the glossy glittery shooting by Vittorio Storaro and future Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me cinematographer Ron Garcia in the Academy Ratio of 1.33:1, also lending an air of nostalgia for a bygone era of escapist Hollywood musicals.  The soundtrack by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle feels better suited for the world of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts than a quasi-jukebox musical where the characters themselves don’t sing.  Written by Coppola and Armyan Bernstein (based on his own story), however, the terrific and committed performances by its ensemble cast are in service to clunky if not plodding musical numbers in a film that for all of its spectacle and glamour never quite takes off the runway.

 
Coppola regular Frederic Forrest who appeared in The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Tucker: The Man and His Dream and even garnered an Oscar nomination for the far more involving musical drama The Rose is stuck with a thankless character given next to nothing to do but hastily maneuver Coppola’s light and fluorescent tube laden phantasmagoria.  Teri Garr bares more than you’d expect of the actress here, earning the film its R rating, when she isn’t dancing her ass off in intensely choreographed numbers opposite her costar Raul Julia surrounded by lights and extras.  Nastassja Kinski also is a free-spirited character leaning towards sex, bringing to mind similarly shaped caricatures adorning his equally glittery, madcap but somehow more cohesive and engaging Megalopolis.  Raul Julia, like Garr, also provides an intensely committed physical performance filled with a lot of movement and dancing.  However unlike his legendary portrayal of Gomez Addams years later which was equally if not more physical, the role here is thin with little else for the otherwise gifted actor to do.

 
A troubled production due in large part to Coppola blowing an initially small film grossly out of proportion ala a Michael Cimino film, One from the Heart like Megalopolis was met with tepid criticism and distribution woes having trouble finding a buyer who would release the film.  Initially shown to exhibitors before many backed out with Paramount Pictures last-minute ditching the film following Coppola illegally screening the film without the studio’s permission for Columbia Pictures to pick it up, the $26 million epic was an astounding commercial failure making just around $637,355 in meager ticket sales.  As a result, Coppola declared bankruptcy and remarked the next several projects to be directed by him going forward still felt residual pain from the financial losses of One from the Heart.  Despite this, the film did garner an Academy Award nomination for Tom Waits for Best Original Score. 

 
Years later in 2003, Coppola recut the film, shaved down from its 107 minute initial running time to a leaner 99 minutes for a home video 2-disc DVD rerelease.  Circa 2023 on the cusp of Lionsgate restoring and re-releasing much of Coppola’s catalogue in the United States on Blu-Ray and 4K UHD disc, the director revisited it once more this time dubbed the Reprise cut at an even leaner 95 minutes.  Whatever minor changes were made to and from the piece, it somehow works even less than his most recent film Megalopolis which despite being of different genres it shares the most in common with in terms of a berserk bonkers trainwreck.  At this stage, One from the Heart remains a curious misfire only its chief réalisateur seems to still firmly believe in.  His first real disappointment but still interesting to see where all that money went.

--Andrew Kotwicki