Philip Kaufman Movies
Born in Chicago, IL, writer/director Philip Kaufman makes accessible American art films and stays out of the Los Angeles area, preferring the home base of San Francisco, working with his wife, Rose, and his son Peter. After studying at the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School, he taught English in Europe and began work on a novel. He got into filmmaking in the '60s after traveling to California to meet his literary mentor, Henry Miller. His first two films were satirical comedies: Goldstein, co-directed by Benjamin Manaster, and Fearless Frank, starring a young Jon Voight. During the '70s he reworked several great American genres with the Western The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, the whaling adventure The White Dawn, the sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and the coming-of-age drama The Wanderers. During this time, he also received writing credits for the highly successful films The Outlaw Josey Wales and Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the '80s, he turned to literary adaptations and began to craft his signature style of so-called American European films. The Right Stuff, adapted from Tom Wolfe's novel about the astronauts of the U.S. Mercury 7, didn't do that well at the box office but won four Academy Awards and remains a fan favorite. He made his masterpiece in 1988 with The Unbearable Lightness of Being, adapted from the novel by Milan Kundera and nominated by the Academy for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography. As an intellectual art film embraced by American audiences, it also offers fine performances from leads Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin. After a lifelong passion for the work of Henry Miller, Kaufman adapted autobiographical writings of Anaïs Nin into the film Henry & June, set in 1930s Paris. Despite fine production values and performances, the erotic drama had the unfortunate first-ever NC-17 rating. Kaufman briefly returned to mainstream commercial appeal with the Michael Crichton adaptation Rising Sun before heading out to Asia to help his son Peter Kaufman with the documentary China: The Wild East. In 2000, he directed the costume drama Quills, based on the play by Doug Wright depicting the incarceration of the Marquis de Sade. It was nominated for three Oscars and won Best Picture from the National Board of Review. In 2003, he completed The Blackout Murders, starring Ashley Judd as a police detective who finds herself a suspect. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
A 1936 meeting between novelist Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn sparks a nine-year relationship dominated by a volatile romance that nearly rivaled the combat zones into which they threw themselves in Spain, China, and World War II. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi
- 2007
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While Los Angeles has been the capital of major studio filmmaking in America since the early ears of the 20th Century, in the northern part of California, San Francisco has become home to a different breed of filmmaker -- artists who treasure their independence and carefully guard their creative vision, even while working in the highest echelons of the commercial movie business. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas are just two of the best-known directors to emerge from the San Francisco film community, and Fog City Mavericks is a documentary which pays homage to a number of important filmmakers from the City by the Bay. In addition to Coppola and Lucas, Fog City Mavericks profiles directors Clint Eastwood, Carroll Ballard, Philip Kaufman and Chris Columbus, pioneering independent auteur John Korty, experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner, producer Saul Zaentz, editor and sound designer Walter Murch, cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel, digital animation moguls Brad Bird, Pete Docter, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, and actor Robin Williams, and many more. While examining these individuals, the film also embraces the whole of the San Francisco film scene, and explains why these artists remain so loyal to their hometown. Fittingly, Fog City Mavericks received its world premiere at the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Philip Kaufman directs the detective thriller Twisted (originally to be titled The Blackout Murders), with a script by up-and-coming filmmaker Sarah Thorp. Ashley Judd plays troubled police detective Jessica Shepard, who works under the jurisdiction of the man who raised her as his daughter, police Commissioner Mills (Samuel L. Jackson). While investigating a serial murder case, Jessica -- who is has a proclivity for dangerous, drunken one-night-stands -- discovers that all of the victims are men whom she's recently bedded. Complicating matters are her bitter ex-boyfriend (Mark Pellegrino), her very curious therapist (David Strathairn), and her odd-behaving new partner Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
- 2004
Plenty of folks have a favorite movie they'll watch over and over again, but Jayson Lamb, Chris Strompolos, and Eric Zala enjoyed Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' freewheeling action picture Raiders of the Lost Ark a bit more than the average fan. The three friends were between the ages of 11 and 12 and attending school in Mississippi when Raiders became a runaway hit in 1981. Fascinated with the movie's intricate plot, striking special effects, and nonstop action, Jayson, Chris, and Eric decided to remake the film themselves, partly for fun and partly to figure out how it all was done. Armed with home-video cameras, improvised sets and costumes, and a lot of imagination, the three friends shot and edited a virtual scene-for-scene recreation of Raiders of the Lost Ark between 1982 and 1989 starring Strompolos as Indy; Lamb served as director and editor while Zala handled camerawork and special effects. After a screening of the final product for family and friends, the homegrown remake gathered dust in the guys' attics until filmmaker Eli Roth obtained a bootleg copy in 2002 (Zala made a few dubs of the video for some friends while attending New York University) and eventually passed it along to Steven Spielberg, who to the great surprise of Jayson, Chris, and Eric invited the guys (now in their thirties) to Hollywood and expressed his enthusiasm for their tribute to his film. Since then, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation has been receiving occasional screenings at film festivals, and producer Scott Rudin has purchased the screen rights to Lamb, Strompolos, and Zala's story, with Daniel Clowes writing a screenplay based on their youthful adventures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, (more)
The Marquis de Sade was a man who liked to stir up trouble, at a time when his native France was in a state of tremendous political turmoil, and this historical drama examines how much controversy he could cause even under repressive circumstances. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) manages to narrowly escape execution during the Reign of Terror, and instead is sentenced to the Charenton Asylum for the Insane. Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), the priest who heads the asylum, is sympathetic to the political machinations that have put the Marquis in his care, and allows him not only to write what he pleases, but to stage theater pieces using the other patients as actors. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), a tyrannical doctor overseeing the mental institutions of Napoleonic France, is as outraged as the emperor when he reads Justine, a scabrous volume the Marquis penned while an inmate at Charenton, and he demands that de Sade be stopped. But Royer-Collard soon learns that stopping the Marquis from writing is not so simple; when de Sade's quills and ink are taken from him, he uses wine and even his own blood to write his stories. When these options are no longer available, he dictates his work with the help of Madeline (Kate Winslet), a laundry girl working at the asylum, who is fascinated by the notorious de Sade, though she declines his frequent requests to satisfy his notorious sexual appetites. Based on the play by Doug Wright (who also penned the screenplay), Quills was directed by Philip Kaufman, who previously documented the line between eroticism and literature in Henry and June and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, (more)
- 1995
This documentary offers a sweeping look at China's recent past and its future as the great country prepares to enter the 21st century. The filmmaker Peter Kauffman explains that the reason he made the film was due to an excited phone call from Xiozhen Jiang, his longtime friend and daughter of renowned Chinese screen actress Bai Yang. During the call she told Kauffman that China had turned into "the wildest place on Earth." Intrigued, Kaufman and his father, distinguished filmmaker Philip Kaufman, journeyed to China and made this film, which is divided into titled segments. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
When Michael Crichton wrote his best-selling thriller Rising Sun, he wrote the character of hero John Connor with Sean Connery in mind. For Philip Kaufman's film version of the novel, Sean Connery, needless to say, fits seamlessly into the role of a legendary police detective who is an expert in Japanese culture. The story takes place in the towering office building of the Japanese Nakamoto Corporation in Los Angeles, who are negotiating a deal with Microcon, an American electronics firm. During a gala held one night in the Nakamoto offices, the body of a woman, Cheryl Lynn Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is found murdered in the main conference room. Arriving quickly on the scene is high-amped police lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel), who oozes hatred for anything Japanese from every pore. When he has trouble getting cooperation from the Nakatomo executives, Graham calls in Web Smith (Wesley Snipes), a Special Services liaison, and John Connor (Connery), a man well-versed in Japanese culture and traditions. Together they form a team as they investigate the crime. Connor questions computer video expert Jingo (Tia Carrere), who works on a security system computer disc that captures the killer's identity. The only problem is that the image of the killer on the disc has been altered to conceal the murderer's face. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, (more)
- 1990
- NC17
The real-life relationship between two of the most controversial literary figures of the 20th century forms the basis for this drama. Anaïs Nin (Maria de Medeiros) is a struggling author trying to finish her first book, a study of the work of D.H. Lawrence. She also has a keen sexual curiosity that is not being satisfied by her sweet but unexciting husband, Hugo (Richard E. Grant). Through Hugo's friend Richard (Kevin Spacey), Anaïs is introduced to Henry Miller (Fred Ward), a writer from America who shares Anaïs' passion for both eros and literature; she is later introduced to June (Uma Thurman), Henry's wife and a practicing bisexual. While Anaïs is attracted to Henry, to her surprise, she's even more strongly drawn to June; June, however, must return to America, and with her approval, Henry and Anaïs begin an affair. Anaïs' newfound sense of sexual liberation leads her to several new lovers over the next several months, but she and Henry find themselves pursuing the same object of affection when June returns to Paris. Henry & June's frank but tasteful treatment of sexual themes led the MPAA to threaten the film with an X-rating; instead, the film became the first feature released with the revised NC-17 classification. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria de Medeiros, Fred Ward, (more)
- 1988
- R
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In Philip Kaufman's surprisingly successful film adaptation of Czech author Milan Kundera's demanding 1984 best-seller, Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, an overly amorous Prague surgeon, while Juliette Binoche plays Tereza, the waiflike beauty whom he marries. Even though he's supposedly committed, Tomas continues his wanton womanizing, notably with his silken mistress Sabina (Lena Olin). Escaping the 1968 Russian invasion of Prague by heading for Geneva, Sabina takes up with another man and unexpectedly develops a friendship with Tereza. Meanwhile, Tomas, who previously was interested only in sex, becomes politicized by the collapse of Czechoslovakia's Dubcek regime. The Unbearable Lightness of Being may be too leisurely for some viewers, but other viewers may feel the same warm sense of inner satisfaction that is felt after finishing a good, long novel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, (more)
Covering some 15 years, The Right Stuff recounts the formation of America's space program, concentrating on the original Mercury astronauts. Scott Glenn plays Alan Shepard, the first American in space; Fred Ward is Gus Grissom, the benighted astronaut for whom nothing works out as planned; and Ed Harris is John Glenn, the straight-arrow "boy scout" of the bunch who was the first American to orbit the earth. The remaining four Mercury boys are Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin), Scott Carpenter (Charles Frank), Wally Schirra (Lance Henriksen) and Gordon Cooper (Dennis Quaid). Wolfe's original book related in straightforward fashion the dangers and frustrations facing the astronauts (including Glenn's oft-repeated complaint that it's hard to be confident when you know that the missile you're sitting on has been built by the lowest bidder), the various personal crises involving their families (Glenn's wife Annie, a stutterer, dreads being interviewed on television, while Grissom's wife Betty, angered that her husband is not regarded as a hero because his mission was a failure, bitterly declares "I want my parade!"), and the schism between the squeaky-clean public image of the Mercury pilots and their sometimes raunchy earthbound shenanigans. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, (more)
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a "history" with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, (more)
The year 1979 saw an epidemic of American street-gang films, including Phil Kaufman's hit period drama The Wanderers. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film concerns the titular gang of Italian-American teens and their ongoing power struggle with the rival "Fordham Baldies." Richard Price, upon whose novel this film was based, drew from his own experiences to weave his tale. Essentially a series of anecdotes-some tension-filled, some amusing -- The Wanderers climaxes on the occasion of the J.F.K. assassination, which for Price and hundreds and thousands of his aimless contemporaries served as a wake-up call. Viewed from the vantage point of the 1990s, one would wish that the current street gangs be shocked into adulthood with such suddenness (though not through the same tragic means). Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, and Linda Manz are among the standout performers in this richly detailed period piece. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, (more)
- 1978
- PG
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This remake of the 1956 horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers moves the action from small-town USA to 1970s San Francisco and replaces at least part of the original's psychological horror with special effects. Spores rain forth, unseen, from outer space, and soon strange flowers begin popping up all over the city. After bringing one of these hybrid specimens home with her one night, biologist Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) notices that her live-in boyfriend, Geoffrey (Art Hindle), doesn't seem like himself; he's cold and distant and somehow just not quite there. When she turns to her friend Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), a colleague at the Department of Public Health, he convinces her to see his friend Dr. Kibner (Leonard Nimoy), a pop psychologist who argues that the problem is all in Elizabeth's head. Soon, though, Matthew and Elizabeth begin to notice that people all over the city are changing subtly and inexplicably. When their friend Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright) find a lifeless, half-formed doppelganger covered with plant fibers in the mud baths they own and operate, the group of friends finally begins to understand that a sinister transformation is sweeping their city. Kevin McCarthy and Don Siegel, respectively the star and director of the original film, have small roles in the new version, as does an unbilled Robert Duvall. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, (more)
Clint Eastwood's fifth film as a director and eighth Western as a star (ninth if you count Paint Your Wagon), The Outlaw Josey Wales chronicles the hero's violent journey westward after the Civil War. With fresh memoris of his family's slaughter by Red Leg soldier Terrill (Bill McKinney), Confederate Josey Wales (Eastwood) refuses to join his captain Fletcher (John Vernon) and the rest of his comrades in surrender to a U.S. Army regiment. Deemed a dangerous outlaw after a bloody one-man battle with that regiment, Josey is pursued by U.S. cavalry soldiers led by the unwilling Fletcher and the murderous Terrill, as well as by bounty hunters who eventually learn how coolly lethal Wales can be. Despite his desire to remain a lone fugitive, Josey soon has a crew of travelling companions that includes Cherokee Lone Watie (Chief Dan George) and the pretty Laura Lee (Sondra Locke) and her vigorous Grandma Sarah (Paula Trueman), settlers on their way to a ranch near ghost town Santa Rio. The few Santa Rio residents welcome the group, but their peace and Josey's burgeoning romance with Laura Lee are soon interrupted by Terrill's arrival. A skillfully violent man of few, well-chosen words, Josey Wales resembles Eastwood's previous Western heroes in Sergio Leone's trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). However, the emphasis on friends and family served notice that, in the words of one critic, "the Man With No Name doesn't live here anymore." Indeed, Josey Wales would be Eastwood's last western before 1985's Pale Rider. Although it did not garner similar critical praise when it was released, Eastwood considers The Outlaw Josey Wales to be the equal of the Oscar-winning Unforgiven (1992). ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, (more)
Director Philip Kaufman took his production of Eskimo life to actual locations in the Arctic Circle, making it only the third film in history (after Nanook of the North and Eskimo) to shoot there. Kaufman also employs authentic Eskimo dialect in the film, which adds a heightened bit of realism. The story concerns three whalers -- Billy (Warren Oates), Daggett (Timothy Bottoms), and Portagee (Louis Gossett Jr.) -- who becomes stranded in the Arctic Circle and are rescued by a tribe of Eskimos. Living in the Eskimo village, the three men introduce the chief vices of their civilization -- gambling, thievery, and Western-style sex -- to the isolated Eskimo village. At first the natives put up with the behavior of the Westerners, but as their ways begin to encroach upon the traditional Eskimo customs, the villagers begin to resist the three men's habits. A clash of cultures results. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, (more)
- 1972
- PG
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The oft-told story of the rise and fall of the James Younger gang is given the Dragnet treatment in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid. With meticulous attention to detail, the film recreates the outlaw gang's most infamous escapade: the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank west of the Mississippi" in Northfield, MN. Cliff Robertson plays Cole Younger, and Robert Duvall appears as Jesse James, herein depicted as a pair of vengeance-driven sociopaths, but no worse than the greedy railroad magnates who've driven them into a life of crime. Younger is also quite the manipulator, convincing the immigrant farmers of Northfield that the bank is completely impervious to robbery, thereby increasing the deposits that he intends to steal. Duvall's Jesse James is a cold-blooded murderer, but, like Younger, not without his own personal charm. The climactic raid is filmed cinéma vérité style, looking more like a haphazard CNN news event than a well-oiled machine (this film is not, thankfully, the standard "slick" Hollywood product). Though it drags in spots, The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid is a superb, iconoclastic reproduction of an era long past. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cliff Robertson, Robert Duvall, (more)
- 1972
In this rites-of-passage drama, two suburban children, one 12-years old, and the other 14, run away and head for L.A. En route they meet a hunter and his retarded son. They later meet and become friends with a pair of dope smoking hippies who operate a tavern. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1967
In this eccentric independent comedy filmed in Chicago, Frank (Jon Voight) is a hayseed who heads north to the big city of Chicago, only to run afoul of gangsters and wind up murdered. Frank soon finds himself resurrected as a virtuous superhero, Fearless Frank, but a mad scientist (Severn Darden) soon crafts an evil twin, False Frank, to do his sinister bidding. Monique Van Vooren plays Plethora, one of the gangster's molls, and novelist Nelson Algren appears as Needles; much of the supporting cast was drawn from the Second City comedy troupe, including David Steinberg and Ben Carruthers. Frank's Greatest Adventure was the first solo directorial credit for Philip Kaufman and the screen debut for Jon Voight, though it would not receive wide distribution until after his breakthrough role in Midnight Cowboy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Voight, Monique Van Vooren, (more)
The Hebrew prophet Elijah (played by Lou Gilbert) comes from Lake Michigan--rather than Gilead of Biblical legend--into the city of Chicago in the appearance of an elderly tramp. He proceeds to wander about, coming into contact with various characters and their assorted problems. Among those who meet him are a sculptor, the sculptor's pregnant ex-girlfriend, a violinist/beggar and the like. Even the Chicago author Nelson Algren appears onscreen as himself, pondering the difficult choices an artist must face. After his many adventures throughout the city of Chicago, Elijah vanishes back into the lake. Though interpretations of this work vary, it is most likely a retelling of the Biblical story in modern times. Regardless of symbolism or metaphor, Goldstein successfully captured the attention of critics at the time of its release. This was the first film for screenwriters/directors Benjamin Manaster and Philip Kaufman. Kaufman would go on to direct and/or write such critically acclaimed features such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Right Stuff (1983) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lou Gilbert, Thomas Erhart, (more)
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