Francis Ford Coppola Attends Venice Film Festival After Heart Procedure

Francis Ford Coppola’s summer Italian adventure rolled on to the Venice Film Festival.

The legendary auteur touched down on the Lido Wednesday evening for a high-profile appearance during the 82nd edition’s opening night festivities inside the Sala Grande where he was due to honor his friend and fellow filmmaker Werner Herzog with a Golden Lion.

While walking the red carpet with assistance on each arm, Coppola got a round of applause from the crush of festival photographers. He seemed to be soaking in the moment, and later returned the applause to adoring fans lining the barricade.

Coppola’s appearance in Venice comes a couple of weeks after he was hospitalized in Rome. On Aug. 5, Coppola confirmed that the stay was for a scheduled procedure with Dr. Andrea Natale, a renowned heart doctor who has treated Coppola for more than 30 years. Amid a flurry of headlines about his health that day, Coppola took to Instagram to offer an update for his nearly 500,000 followers: “Da Dada (what my kids call me) is fine, taking an opportunity while in Rome to do the update of my 30-year-old afib procedure with its inventor, a great Italian doctor — Dr. Andrea Natale!”

He had also spent time in Italy earlier this summer. Coppola told local media that the reason for that visit was location scouting for a new project. “I’m here in Calabria to see some locations for a new project that’s very important to me,” he reportedly said. “A new film that will focus on the beautiful things of Calabria.” Not much is known about the project but Coppola teased that it won’t be a mafia-based project like his iconic Godfather trilogy. “Calabria is a region very famous for its mafia, but that doesn’t interest me. My film instead will focus solely on the beautiful things about this region.”

Back to Venice. It’s shaping up to be a big festival for the Coppola family this year. Not only was Coppola scheduled to hit the stage to honor Herzog, who is presenting his latest documentary Ghost Elephants out of competition, the 86-year-old Coppola will also be seen on screen in a major way courtesy of Mike Figgis’ Megadoc. The selection, included in Venice Classics – documentaries about cinema section, promises to reveal a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Megalopolis, Coppola’s decades-in-the-making epic. Megadoc debuts on Thursday.

Meawhile, Coppola’s daughter, Sofia Coppola, will unveil her first documentary, Marc by Sofia, about fashion designer Marc Jacobs. “I wanted to make a portrait of my friend of 30 years, designer Marc Jacobs, and show his creative process, connecting his inspiration and references to future generations,” Sofia offered by way of an official director’s statement about the film, which is described as an “intimate, unconventional portrait.”

Sofia is also due to sit alongside costume designer Milena Canonero for a masterclass session presented by Cartier on Aug. 29, the same day as the debut of her documentary.