On the Edge: The Life and Times of Francis Coppola

Director of 16 films and writer, producer and distributor of many more, Francis Ford Coppola, according to Goodwin and Wise, has created ``expensive flops, pretentious failures, and forgettable jobs for hire,'' but also three-and-a-half masterworks ( The Godfather I and II, The Conversation and the first half of Apocalypse Now ). Without Coppola's cooperation, these two San Francisco film critics have written a skeptical, enjoyable account of a man whom they find ``inherently fascinating''--as an artist and patron, scientist and dreamer, builder and destroyer, media victim and exploiter, martyr and megalomaniac. Largely in the words of Coppola's associates and detractors, this lively book tells the saga of his San Francisco studio, American Zoetrope, and describes the making of each of Coppola's films, but since he is ``more interesting than his films,'' Goodwin and Wise focus on the enigmatic artist ``who may have murdered his own muse.'' Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)