Rain People is a movie with lots of style, but it's strangely lifeless and lacking in heart. There are at least three great performances, but strangely they don't bring you any closer to the characters.
Natalie is a beautiful blonde housewife on the run from a suffocating marriage. She's a very typical Sixties heroine, and the late Ms. Knight gives a sensitive performance. But Coppola just has no patience with the character. She keeps explaining how weak and helpless she is, and at first it seems ironic. But by the end of the movie you can see that Coppola isn't being ironic. He really believes this woman is just a spoiled baby who needs to be told what to do.
You can see why in his greatest films, the women are all silent, subservient and weak.
Natalie is a beautiful blonde housewife on the run from a suffocating marriage. She's a very typical Sixties heroine, and the late Ms. Knight gives a sensitive performance. But Coppola just has no patience with the character. She keeps explaining how weak and helpless she is, and at first it seems ironic. But by the end of the movie you can see that Coppola isn't being ironic. He really believes this woman is just a spoiled baby who needs to be told what to do.
You can see why in his greatest films, the women are all silent, subservient and weak.