One From The Heart (1982)

46% of critics liked it
(26 reviews)
61% of users liked it
(2,654 ratings)

After completing Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola initially planned for his next picture to be an intimate romantic musical shot on a low budget in Las Vegas. Three years later, One from the Heart had mushroomed into a big-budget spectacular, shot on strikingly stylized sets at his newly opened… More After completing Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola initially planned for his next picture to be an intimate romantic musical shot on a low budget in Las Vegas. Three years later, One from the Heart had mushroomed into a big-budget spectacular, shot on strikingly stylized sets at his newly opened Zoetrope Studio and costing a then-massive $27 million. The story concerns Hank (Frederick Forrest) and Franny (Terri Garr), a working-class couple living on the outskirts of Las Vegas; after five years together, their relationship has fallen into a rut, and they both set off in search of new partners. Hank meets up with Leila (Nastassia Kinski), a beautiful high-wire artist, and Franny has a fling with Ray (Raul Julia), a dashing actor-waiter. But Hank and Franny still love each other, and their search for romance brings them back into each other's arms. Singer/songwriter Tom Waits received an Oscar nomination for his widely acclaimed song score, performed with country crooner Crystal Gayle. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 41 min.
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola
Written By: Armyan Bernstein
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy

In Theaters: Feb 12, 1982 Wide
On DVD: Jan 27, 2004

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
A hybrid musical romantic fantasy, lavishing giddy heights of visual imagination and technical brilliance onto a wafer-thin story of true love turned sour, then sweet.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
An interesting production but not a good movie.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
There's not a moment in One From the Heart when Mr. Coppola isn't after something romantic and glorious, something inexpressibly grand. At times, he even gets what he's after.
Douglas Pratt, Hollywood Reporter
[An] often maligned, giddy, superlative romantic musical.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
A playful, delightfully unfathomable piece of magic.
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
An integral piece of the oeuvre of one of America's great directors.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Razzle-dazzle gimmickry and photographic techniques dwarf the trivial story.
, Time Out
At times the project seems in danger of being scuppered by its own lavishness; the saving grace is a light heart.
Douglas Pratt, Movie City News
Its head-over-heels excitement for the imagination, heritage and emotion that the movies can share with a viewer is the ultimate aphrodisia.
Rob Nelson, City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
With more than 200 salaried employees on a 10-acre lot that included 9 soundstages, 34 editing suites, and a gigantic trailer that the mogul dubbed the Silver Fish, Coppola videotaped rehearsals in an effort to cut down on film costs. Alas...
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
... simultaneously ahead of its time and delightfully quaint, a simple romantic comedy that revels in the dreamy artifice of a meticulously re-created fantasy Las Vegas.
Kim Linekin, eye WEEKLY
It's even worse now, when its perms and polyester mark it as dated as its sexual politics.
Brent Simon, Entertainment Today
A 1982 curio about feeling, not the weighty machinations of plot... but one that offers only moments of studied amusement, not rapt absorption.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
If any film from the 1980s needs to be re-examined, it's Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Ken S

Gorgeous to look at, but kind of slow, but the cinematography is stunning, but it's fairly uneven, but that uneven-ness is photographed by Vittorio Storaro. I would also like to note that it's a crime that so much of Stararo's work isn't avaliable on blu-ray.
AJ V

I liked this movie for the most part, the story, sets, and songs go well together, but it could have been better.
Drew S

One From the Heart is really only recognized as a box office torpedo anymore, which is sort of a shame. It has a bevy of flaws, and its status as an obvious vanity project will turn off most viewers (especially those coming into the movie off of the high of Coppola's previous… More
One From the Heart is really only recognized as a box office torpedo anymore, which is sort of a shame. It has a bevy of flaws, and its status as an obvious vanity project will turn off most viewers (especially those coming into the movie off of the high of Coppola's previous movie, Apocalypse Now). I found most of it unconventional and sweet, and the soundtrack is just fantastic - it has turned me into a Tom Waits fan. The plainness of the two leads is sort of difficult to get behind, but they have to be ordinary in contrast with the extraordinary people they meet up with later, and thus to convince us that they belong together. The bombing of this film confuses me in a sense, as Frannie and Hank make for successful audience avatars. You could blame it on the lack of market value of Frederic Forrest and Teri Garr, both of whom give strong performances here. They aren't completely depthless or without personality, but their struggles and lives are immediately relatable; they feel more like friends or acquaintances than surrogates or metaphors. One From the Heart falters in its excess, such as a scary propensity toward slapstick comedy that is every bit as bad as it sounds. Forrest + Bugs Bunny = the stuff of my nightmares. The film also has a tendency to let its characters shriek unbearably about whatever's troubling them, which grows obnoxious after a while. The first half an hour of the movie is sort of an endurance test, when their relationship is at its rockiest. If you can't stomach these people in this passage of the film, you should really just stop watching. Furthermore, the visual approach is distracting and, though unique, doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose in the film's goals at large. Bathing the shot in overcontrasted red or blue or yellow looks cool the first couple of times, but then you start to wonder what it's all for. Despite all that excess, One From the Heart sort of registers as a trifle, which is the last think Coppola wanted it to be I think. With its comparatively high budget, histrionic composition and the overall challenge that appreciating the film seems to bring, something about it doesn't really feel consistent. Perhaps musical romantic comedy is just a genre in which I'm not versed, but I didn't find it to be an exceptional movie, even though I appreciated and sympathized with it. This will assuredly be remembered as the point of Francis Ford Coppola's burnout, an unfair role for it to assume in history. I do recommend it, but only as a strange pit stop into some of the murkier depths of his filmography.
Burger S

Well, there is brief nudity from Teri Garr, but otherwise you can see why this movie flopped and ruined Francis financially. It is always good to see Raul Julia though.
Alec B

The film that ruined Francis Ford Coppola. I know it gets a lot of shit, but I rather enjoyed it. The sets, the lighting, and the music creates am eerie, dreamlike quality that allows the story to transcend the real world. Not all of the film works, but Coppola was really trying… More
The film that ruined Francis Ford Coppola. I know it gets a lot of shit, but I rather enjoyed it. The sets, the lighting, and the music creates am eerie, dreamlike quality that allows the story to transcend the real world. Not all of the film works, but Coppola was really trying something different here and I really like that. In my opinion he mostly succeeded. The best thing is that Tom Waits score with some wonderful sad songs.
Marion R

I felt the music took me out of the story, it was too distracting. An interesting, surrealistic feeling and background were the best thing about the film.
Donna D

Oh...this one I loved from Frances Ford Coppola so long ago in 1982. The movie was awesome, but I need to rewatch it again to review it accurately. But it was a great movie. :)