3 questions for… Delphine Valloire
 

PostED ON 15.10.2025

We thought we knew everything about the filming of Apocalypse Now, but Delphine Valloire offers a new, magical, mystical and hallucinatory interpretation. 

© Zoetrope Studios / DR
Apocalypse Now Redux (1979)

Why delve into the filming of Apocalypse Now?

It was a legendary shoot that seemed like a catastrophe movie, where the filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola - consciously or not – really put himself in danger. As producer and director, he found himself in the same position as his protagonist, Willard, trapped in an uncontrollable natural environment. He had to experience the apocalypse in order to film it.

How did you proceed?

This shoot had already been widely reported on, so we had to find a new angle from which to do it. I consulted all the primary sources, especially Eleanor Coppola's diary, which served as a  kind of revelatory handbook for the film. The theme of tarot cards emerged. At the height of Eleanor Coppola's crisis, a friend gave her a  tarot card reading. In the film, Robert Duvall throws cards bearing the symbol of death onto corpses. This is a true anecdote from the Vietnam War. Cards were thrown on corpses to scare people. During the Cannes Film Festival, Coppola mentioned that his characters were like tarot cards. For me, the card of the hanged man is Martin Sheen, the empress is Eleanor Coppola... Apocalypse Now is a mystical film, a wild ride containing a deluge of hallucinations.

What does the story of this crazy shoot tell us today?

A shoot like that would be impossible today. It was taking an insane risk, reminding us that cinema can be a staggering undertaking, which explains why we must never give up. Coppola gambled away more than he had. He was often completely overwhelmed by the weight of his ambition, including during post-production, which was also a crazy two-year adventure that’s scarcely mentioned. Coppola ended up with nothing. The associate producer even offered to save him by buying the rights and taking control of the film. He had the incredible courage to refuse, which is extraordinary, because he had no protection. He was at the end of the river, like Kurtz and Willard rolled into one!

Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola (1979, 2h27)
UGC Astoria Sat 18 5pm
Apocalypse Now Redux by Francis Ford Coppola (1979-2001, 3h23)
Pathé Bellecour Fri 17 7:45pm


The story of an apocalypse
Aux cœurs des ténèbres : L'Apocalypse d'un metteur en scène d'Eleanor Coppola, Fax Bahr et George Hickenlooper (Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, 1991, 1h36)
Institut Lumière (Villa) Wed 15 4:45pm | Institut Lumière (Villa) Wed 15 5pm | Pathé Bellecour Thu 16 7pm

Encounter
"Au cœur des ténèbres de Joseph Conrad : histoire d'une adaptation" 
by Delphine Valloire author of Il était une fois… Apocalypse Now (Rockyrama, 2025)
Wednesday, October 11am salle du village Lumière