Filmmaker

George Lucas's cinematic diary of his mentor Francis Ford Coppola's trials while making The Rain People captures the frustrations of movie-making but fails to adequately place its scenes into context. I might have misheard, but it seems that the director - as well as the rest of the crew - had to cut their hair and shave off their beards in order to film in Pennsylvania. A bizarre moment in an otherwise so-so film

An early film from director George Lucas that chronicles the making of Francis Ford Coppola's ‘The Rain People', Lucas goes on the road with the crew and documents the processes and troubles involved in the making of the film. Starting off with shots of the cast in rehearsals with Francis, then heading off through the countryside as the cast and crew travel to the different locations. Lucas focuses his film on Francis and mostly just chronicles the process of daily filming, using narration from the different crew to explain the problems they had making a low budget film. One of the most interesting points of the film is its depiction of the new wave of filmmaking, as the equipment was now lightweight it was easy to break away from the studio backlots and go out on the road. This gave directors a new sense of freedom which Lucas's film captures perfectly. The cast and crew travel around in cars and had problems when parts of their convoy would get lost. Lucas manages to capture the spontaneity of low budget filming and shows Francis rewriting the script to include a local parade that's happening in town. Francis is show arguing on the phone with the Directors Guild about their insistence that he take along an extra assistant director, which he vocally disagrees with. Afterwards he claims that the current system will be brought down by its own weight. One of the highlights of the film is seeing Francis without his beard, Lucas explains in his narration that everyone had to get their hair cut to look presentable on the road so they would be aloud to shoot in the towns they came to. Francis looks unrecognisable without his beard. It's an informal film and shows that Lucas was in tight with Francis as he's allowed access to everything, while his direction is laid back but also reveals a lot about the making of this underrated film.

Now here is a genuinely interesting and possibly priceless artifact: Francis Ford Coppola on the set of one of his films, this when he was still this young, brash filmmaker and before he took the world by storm with the two Godfather films and the Conversation. While there's already Hearts of Darkness: a Filmmakers Apocalypse, that was directed by two filmmakers (with some assist from Eleanor Coppola) and was using footage shot during the making of that film and modern-day interviews.

Here, young apprentice George Lucas is there to get his mentor Coppola making a cross-country film that's going from east to west (this by the way as Easy Rider was going from across the south west to east, though obviously they didn't know that during shooting). And what we get is the full, unvarnished Coppola, a man who could be found tearing into his actors (Shirley Knight is the one who seems to get an argument going with the director about a scene), or over the phone with some unnamed guy about union issues. Oh, and passion, lots and lots and LOTS of passion.

One can see why Lucas, or anyone, would be attracted to the orbit that was the Sun of Coppola: he has a temperamental but forceful way of talking with people (if not exactly *at* them), and in such a way that makes them contribute as well. The Rain People (which by the way is, along with Tetro, the filmmaker's most underrated and under-seen work and an unusually powerful drama) is an ideal production to follow along anyway; the fact that Lucas has so much access while getting so much footage both on the fly and from places that seem almost impossible (where he's at during a filming at a wedding scene, who knows) that the diary aspect seems to be more than just the subtitle of this little documentary. He's there charting as much of the day to day as can happen.

I think if this had been simply a puff piece of Lucas metaphorically giving his filmmaking brother in arms and bestest friend at the time a BJ then it might not work as well, if it was only adulatory in tone. This is more... helpful than that, more about showing all the dimensions of Coppola and also showing a few components of the production (though if I had one small criticism there could have been more of that, not just the art director or grip, like how did the sound guy feel while we're at it). There are even points near the end of this documentary, as Coppola is talking about how the editing is going, that he comes out and says that some sections of the film are bad (though he's quick to follow up and say some parts are really brilliant, so there's that). But still, that's got some guts for Coppola to even let Lucas keep that in there, much less say that on film.

At the time Lucas had just finished graduate school at USC, and this was a production that was a total 180 from the lumbering Hollywood sprawl of McKenna's Gold, which he also shadowed in the summer of 1967. The energy of shooting a production for under a million dollars with a small crew and actors who could/would work without trailers and such must have been inspiring to Lucas, and that inspiration comes through in what he shows us and in the voice-overs from Coppola.

Filmmaker (1968)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This early George Lucas film is identified in the opening credits as a "diary" and it follows the making of Francis Ford Coppola's THE RAIN PEOPLE. If you've seen HEARTS OF DARKNESS then you'll notice that this much earlier film follows the same process as we see Coppola working behind the scenes with the actors and the production while also narrating his thoughts on filmmaking and the process of dealing with actors, the studio and other demands.

FILMMAKER isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's a very well-made movie and it's certainly worth watching if you're a fan of Coppola. As I said, this film almost seems like an earlier version of HEARTS OF DARKNESS, although there appears to be a little less stress here and of course no Marlon Brando to deal with. The film gives you a wonderful look at what Coppola was dealing with and there are some very funny moments including one where he's frustrated that the DGA forced a co-director on him.

At just thirty-two minutes there's nothing ground-breaking here but if you're a fan of Coppola then it's a must see.