Coppola to reappear in Venice after surgery to award Herzog

Italian-American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola will present the honorary Golden Lion to German director Werner Herzog at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, returning to the public 20 days after undergoing heart surgery in Rome.
Festival organizers announced on Monday (25) that Coppola will give a laudatory speech to Herzog at the opening ceremony of the 82nd edition of the Festival, on August 27, starting at 7 pm (local time). The German director, author of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)" and "Fitzcarraldo (1982)", will be one of the veterans to receive the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement this year, along with actress Kim Novak, famous for her role in "Vertigo (1958)", by Alfred Hitchcock.
"Considered one of the greatest innovators of New German Cinema, he never stopped testing the limits of cinematic language, denying the traditional distinction between documentary and fiction, while at the same time inviting a radical questioning of themes of communication, the relationship between images and music, the infinite beauty of nature and its inevitable corruption," highlighted the director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.
Coppola's appearance in Venice, which earned him the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in 1992, came just 20 days after he underwent surgery for atrial fibrillation in Rome.
One day after the tribute to Herzog, Mike Figgis' documentary "Megadoc" will be shown in the "Venice Classics - Documentaries on Cinema" section, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the production of Megalopolis, Coppola's latest feature.
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