One From the Heart, 1982.
One From the Heart: Reprise, 2024.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Starring Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, Lainie Kazan, and Harry Dean Stanton.
SYNOPSIS:
Movie critic Gene Siskel once called One From the Heart a “buried treasure,” so if you feel the same way, you’ll want this new 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition from Lionsgate. You get the theatrical and Reprise cuts of the movie, along with tons of bonus features and a code for a digital copy.
Coming off an incredible decade that included The Godfather Part I and Part II, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now, I don’t think you could blame Francis Ford Coppola for wanting to try something different. That “something different” became One From the Heart, a personal little story that’s a musical, in a sense.
I say “in a sense” because the actors don’t break out into song every so often (okay, except one little ditty toward the end), but music sung by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle conveys the twists and turns in the two main characters’ heads as they negotiate their relationship difficulties during one night in Las Vegas, where they live.
Teri Garr plays Frannie, who works at a travel agency and dreams of going somewhere exotic, like Bora-Bora. Frederic Forrest is her boyfriend Hank, who runs a wrecking yard with his buddy Moe (Harry Dean Stanton). Their five-year-old relationship is in a rut, with both having been unfaithful in the past, and an argument drives them apart on July fourth.
The two of them take refuge in the company of their friends, although Hank is unhappy with Moe because he and Frannie kissed during the last New Year’s Eve. Frannie visits her friend Maggie (Lainie Kazan) and later encounters a man named Ray (Raul Julia), a struggling singer working as a waiter.
Frannie is enthralled with Ray, and Hank is likewise smitten by the interest shown in him by Leila (Nastassja Kinski)a circus performer. The two spend an evening on the Las Vegas Strip with their new partners, but the next morning, Hank tracks down Frannie at Ray’s motel room, and she must decide whether she should run off with her new man or stay with the old one.
The film was shot on Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios soundstages, which allowed him to create a heightened artificiality for the sets. That approach was perfect for portraying the Las Vegas Strip, which is one of the most artificial environments in any city.
And, of course, since One From the Heart is meant to evoke old school musicals, the soundstage approach gives the viewer the impression of watching a stage show (there are even understudies listed in the end credits), complete with fake backgrounds.
This film notoriously bombed at the box office when it was released, creating enormous financial headaches for Coppola, who had, true to form, exceeded his initial budget. It’s easy to see how audiences in 1982 couldn’t make sense of the storied director’s approach, especially given the films he had made during the 1970s.
That said, One From the Heart is a fine little film. The photography is wonderful, as is the cast, and the “like a musical but not really a musical” approach is interesting. However, that approach also makes the movie feel a bit schizophrenic, as if it could have been so much more if Coppola had been all-in on making it a musical, or had instead simply made a smaller character study in the same vein as The Conversation.
Also true to form, Coppola hasn’t been able to resist tinkering with this movie either, and he recently released One From the Heart: Reprise, which adds six minutes of new footage but actually subtracts enough old footage that it nets out to a 95-minute running time. The original theatrical version (both versions are included here) was 107 minutes.
Unlike, say, Apocalypse Now Redux, which became a fuller experience with new scenes added, the shortened running time for Reprise makes it feel cramped and rushed. Some of the new scenes are useful, such as an early one in which Maggie and Hank wake up and Maggie shows him plane tickets for a trip to Bora-Bora, thus making her wistful dream more concrete from the beginning, but the loss of the old footage is a bit of a head-scratcher.
This is the movie’s debut on 4K Ultra HD, although only the Reprise version gets the benefit of the improved image quality, with the theatrical cut relegated to a Blu-ray. (There may be another edition that has 4K platters for both versions, but that’s not what I received for this review.) Given the movie’s setting, the neon lights of Vegas are perfect for 4K.
The bonus features are spread across both discs. My understanding is that some of the extras are new in the sense that they’re being newly made available now, even if the footage used is archival. However, I don’t have previous home video releases of the movie to make comparisons.
Here’s what you’ll find on the 4K disc:
• Commentary track with Coppola: It’s always a lot of fun listening to one of the director’s commentaries, since he doesn’t mind being honest about what didn’t work with one of his films. Yes, this time there are a lot of things that fall in that category, but they’re balanced by his explanation of what he was trying to do with the film.
• The Look of One from the Heart (17 minutes): Like I said, the neon lights of Las Vegas are prefect for 4K, and this featurette examines the approach to creating that aesthetic.
• The Cast of One from the Heart (22 minutes): I’ll admit that I rarely look at a character in a movie and think, “Oh, they should have been played by so-and-so instead.” Most professional actors are good enough at what they do that I can buy their performance and go along for the ride, and that’s true of this film too.
• The Choreography of One from the Heart (25 minutes): Intricate choreography abounds in this film, from simply seamlessly transitioning to one character’s situation to another’s as they pass each other on the street, to some elaborate dance numbers.
• Reinventing the Musical (25 minutes): Director Baz Luhrmann is no stranger to musicals either, and here he talks about how One From the Heart upended the idea of what a movie musical should be.
• Restoration comparison (4 minutes): A quick overview of the restoration of the film.
On the Blu-ray Disc, you’ll find:
• The Making of One from the Heart (23 minutes): This is pretty standard fare, and it includes interviews shot when the movie was being made, along with behind-the-scenes footage.
• The Dream Studio (28 minutes): Coppola made the film under his American Zoetrope banner, which proved disastrous for the studio when One From the Heart bombed at the box office. This is a look back at that time period for the studio, as well as an examination of Coppola’s fights with Paramount over the movie.
• The Electronic Cinema (10 minutes): Coppola has always tried to be on the forefront of new technology, and way back in the early 80s, he created a video storyboard for One From the Heart that could be consulted as the movie was made. He dubbed the idea “electronic cinema,” and it was revolutionary at the time.
• Tom Waits and the Music of One from the Heart 13 minutes): Waits composed the original songs that he and Crystal Gayle sand, and this is a look back at that.
• Videotaped rehearsals (9 minutes) and press conference footage (8 minutes): Both of these are self-explanatory.
• Deleted scenes (37 minutes): Some of these scenes ended up in the Reprise cut, and some of them are actually alternate takes or extended scenes. Commentary by Coppola is available for two of them.
• Francis Ford Coppola Speaks to Distributors (1.5 minutes): Back in the day, movies were sold to distributors via efforts like the one seen here.
• This One’s from the Heart (4 minutes): Here’s another relic from the past: a music video of one of Waits’ songs. I don’t remember if I ever saw it on MTV. Probably.
• Stop Motion Demo (4 minutes): A look at the montage created for the opening credits.
• Tom Waits Score – Alternate Tracks (25 minutes): This is an audio-only extra of six songs from Waits.
Trailers for Reprise, the theatrical version, and a 2003 restoration round out both platters.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
