One from the Heart

Critics uniformly complained that the story is “paper-thin”, but there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a simple tale. The film's weaknesses lie more in Forrest’s underwhelming charisma and performance, and the feeling that the two protagonists have been underwritten. Coppola was trying to do something different and surprising, here, and there are so many obvious compensations in terms of craft and talent that it just seems narrow-minded and mean-spirited that almost no one supported the film.

might be the most misguided thing ever. if ever a filmmaker deserved to go bankrupt... i do love him for it (and many other things) though. when enough time passes that i forget about the rest and only remember the look and the sets and teri garr then the score will probably creep way up.

Fascinating tribute to Golden Age musicals feels like Coppola saw NEW YORK NEW YORK and had his passions inflamed - extraordinarily garish set design (and an overbearing soundtrack) dwarf the actors, though Garr and Julia are a sensuous couple; taken simply as a series of hypnotic, disconnected images, the film is a unique and captivating ride; soundstage filming gives the film a stylised dreamlike quality, but not sure if it was entirely necessary (especially for the legendary expense).

The raconteur of The Godfather turns into a pure technician here. He seems virtually on the lookout against the actors who inhabit its painstakingly designed scenes. They're frequently suffused in loud red glimmering or overpowering blues and greens. They're positioned before off-puttingly glitzy sets or adrift shoddily stage-managed hordes. And occasionally they're interrupted at the heart of a sentiment because the uncompromisingly planned camera has affairs elsewhere.

One could argue that Coppola disappeared up his own ass and temporarily confused himself with Federico Fellini, but at least Fellini's preference for constructed environments made sense: he was recreating something that no longer exists or never existed. Coppola went bankrupt reconstructing this colourful and gaudy vision of Las Vegas when he could have just shot it on location, yet the oddly surreal atmosphere of longing and loneliness connects even when the story doesn't. Underrated.

This movie has an (accidental?) unworldly or alternate reality feel, at a level rarely achieved outside of low budget, amateur productions. It gets that from a number of things: everything being shot on soundstages with elaborate sets and painted backdrops, strange lighting, cheesy shots (especially during the song and dance number in the middle), and the leads being an oft-nude Garr and a dumpy hayseed Forrest. The love story is awful, becoming bearable in scenes with Julia or Kinski.

Francis Ford Coppola's experimental musical was dismissed at the time as technically brilliant, but hollow. True, the story and characters are archetypal at best, but the stylization Coppola applies to this simple romance is genuinely dazzling. A fantasy vision of Las Vegas is mixed with flights of fancy that burst with color and imagination. The script is functional, the acting is mostly fine (Frederic Forrest is a weak lead, though), and Tom Waits' score is quite good. Flawed, but underrated.

This movie looks amazing, like a neon fever dream created with old-school stagecraft. A pity that the story and characters don't come remotely close to matching the allure of the visuals.

A studio film for a (then) modern era. Watched the reprise cut.

If you create something formally inventive and aesthetically gorgeous, yet it is an empty vessel, is it still valuable? Coppola hits the limit of that debate with this one. It is beautiful, a technical masterpiece. Too bad that's in service to a remarkably half-baked premise and story. Lopsided film, less than the sum of its parts.

A different work in genre!

Plays weirdly as a companion/inversion of something like Zhangke’s The World where every interaction is artifice. Where technology dictates feeling. In the world it’s real it’s tangible. In this it’s about how movies create this artifice. How they create emotional responses whether they’re real or not. You can get lost in the neons, the homages and the camera trickery but the movie is constantly there to remind you that this is all taking place on a sound stage. Nothing matters but movie magic

An interesting failure.

Touro

wow

Style handily drowns out substance. I'm someone who doesn't care for Tom Waits' glorified white noise, making this doubly painful. An interesting historical curiosity, but that's about it.

62.000

This one is really hard to judge. It's a very flawed film, with the two leads never really convincing us that there's any particular reason they should be together- but on the other hand, the visuals, Tom Waits' song score, and the atmosphere the combination of the two creates adds up to something unforgettable. A successful failure? A failed success?

62.500

Unfortunately the film did not entertain me as much as I hoped it would, the plot was very flat. The superb soundtrack by Tom Waits is the only good thing about this film.

Coppola's self indulgent style, an aimless plot and terrible performances sink this boat but not before leaving some pretty striking images.

Love the soundtrack, which is pretty much the main reason I saw it. And you gotta love the design of the movie - all made on a soundstage, somewhere between a classic Hollywood romance and a Disney cartoon. But dear GOD, it's boring. Endless talking with no real drama, no interesting characters, nothing original to say... Tom Waits' soundtrack told the story much better than Coppola did, and in one third of the time.

I like the original better than the re-cut "restoration," so knocked a few points off. Also, as I've gotten older, the characters have come to seem more shallow to me. But it is one of the most visually stunning Romantic movies ever made.

all virtuosity and no play makes francis a dull boy.

57.00

Seriously miscalculated but it has a bit of campy charm.

S: 10/100 Sophia: This movie was seriously, seriously bad. Tom Waits cannot rescue it. Do yourself a favor, and don't watch it, even though I just said that Tom Waits had something to do with it.

The plot itself is boring as shit. The colorful scenarios look good in the beginning, but I got tired of them by the end of the movie. Well, the Tom Waits' soundtrack is wonderful. And Nastassja Kinski takes my breath away.

O Fundo do Coração estreava em Seattle há 40 anos. Esse filme é tão maravilhoso que nem sei. A trilha sonora, os planos, a direção de arte, a fotografia, é como se fosse uma conjunção de esplendor. Me parece que Coppola aqui inaugura os anos 80. Plus: Raul Julia tá dolorosamente sexy aqui. BlurayRip no MakingOff.