Idiom conjugation and trauma: Fear of breakdown in Francis Ford Coppola's the Conversation and Apocalypse Now

Abstract

This paper explores connections between Francis Ford Coppola's biography and recurrent themes in the choice and assemblage of The Conversation and Apocalypse Now. Framed broadly by the psychobiography tradition, the paper deploys key concepts from the independent school (Bollas, Winnicott and Phillips), coupled with textual analysis so as to expand the meaning-making opportunities available to the two films and Coppola's psychobiography. With such partnering, the paper explores Coppola's autobiographical renderings as a projective feature in the assemblage and production of the films, with dedicated attention to evolving under-standings of agony and horror as a unified affective state.