52 Films by Women Vol 2. 35. PARIS CAN WAIT (Director: Eleanor Coppola)
For film directors, passion projects come in all shapes and sizes: an adaptation of a difficult to film popular novel ( Dune , Naked Lunch , The Last Temptation of Christ ); a coming-of-age movie based on traumatic personal experience ( Au Revoir Les Enfants, Hope and Glory ); a biopic of a celebrated artist with whom the producer-star has an intimate connection ( Frida, Pollock ). For her passion project, Paris Can Wait, first time feature director Eleanor Coppola filmed a road trip from Cannes to Paris in which the principal characters take in the sites, eat a lot and take pictures. Passion projects are by their nature un-commercial or risky. They are at the very least ambitious, an attempt to show us something we haven’t seen before. You wonder whether Coppola watches Saturday Kitchen, Food and Drink and anything involving Rick Stein. To be fair, American food shows focus on consumption, in which the host gorges on mountains of chicken, steak and ribs ( Man Verses Food )...