"Ten Days That Shook The World, by Eisenstein, I went to see it, and I was so impressed with this film, so impressed with what cinema could do"
About this Quote
Coppola is describing a conversion experience: the moment cinema stops being “movies” and becomes a machine for history, ideology, and sheer sensory force. The title he cites signals the kind of ambition that would later define him. “Ten Days That Shook the World” isn’t just a film for him; it’s proof that images can reorganize reality, that montage can turn politics into rhythm and emotion into argument. When he repeats “so impressed,” it’s not elegant prose, but it’s revealing - awe doesn’t come out polished. It comes out doubled.
The context matters: Coppola comes of age in an era when American film is still shaking off its industrial conservatism, when the European avant-garde and Soviet montage are mythic touchstones for young directors who want art to feel dangerous again. Eisenstein represents cinema as construction, not documentation: meaning made in the cut, the crowd turned into a protagonist, the individual swallowed by history. Coppola’s subtext is that filmmaking can be more than entertainment; it can be an instrument that engineers audience belief.
There’s also a quiet self-portrait hidden in the admiration. Coppola isn’t praising “story” or “performance.” He’s praising what cinema “could do” - scale, orchestration, the ability to make private viewers feel swept into public events. That line points forward to his own maximalist projects, where the goal isn’t merely to tell you what happened, but to make you feel history bearing down, frame by frame.
The context matters: Coppola comes of age in an era when American film is still shaking off its industrial conservatism, when the European avant-garde and Soviet montage are mythic touchstones for young directors who want art to feel dangerous again. Eisenstein represents cinema as construction, not documentation: meaning made in the cut, the crowd turned into a protagonist, the individual swallowed by history. Coppola’s subtext is that filmmaking can be more than entertainment; it can be an instrument that engineers audience belief.
There’s also a quiet self-portrait hidden in the admiration. Coppola isn’t praising “story” or “performance.” He’s praising what cinema “could do” - scale, orchestration, the ability to make private viewers feel swept into public events. That line points forward to his own maximalist projects, where the goal isn’t merely to tell you what happened, but to make you feel history bearing down, frame by frame.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|
More Quotes by Francis
Add to List
