Francis Ford Coppola

2009 
 
On the heels of the self-financed, modestly budgeted 2007 drama Youth Without Youth -- his first directorial outing after a ten-year hiatus -- filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola remains situated in the director's chair for this semi-autobiographical family drama concerning an artistic family of immigrants whose fierce rivalries span several generations. Vincent Gallo stars with newcomer Alden Ehrenreich, with Carmen Maura, Maribel Verdú, and Alden Ehrenreich rounding out the cast. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Vincent GalloCarmen Maura, (more)
2007 
 
Three decades after shooting perhaps the most critically acclaimed filmmaking documentary ever, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Eleanor Coppola again turns a camera lens toward her husband Francis. Coda: Thirty Years Later serves as both a behind-the-scenes look at the making of 2007's Youth Without Youth and a retrospective of Francis Ford Coppola's post-Apocolypse Now career. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Francis Ford Coppola
2007 
 
AddLights! Action! Music!to QueueAddLights! Action! Music!to top of Queue
The documentary Lights! Action! Music! consists primarily of interviews with composers, directors, and actors who explain the many challenges involved in writing original music for motion pictures. Among the many famous names who appear on camera or whose work is used during the film are Francis Ford Coppola, Carter Burwell, Rachel Portman, and Spike Lee. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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2007 
 
AddFog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Franciscoto QueueAddFog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Franciscoto top of Queue
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, All Movie Guide

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2007 
AddYouth Without Youthto QueueAddYouth Without Youthto top of Queue
Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair after a ten-year hiatus with this adaptation of Romanian author Mircea Eliade's tome detailing the arduous journey of a professor whose life is thrown into chaos as World War II looms ominously on the horizon. When the 70-year-old scholar is struck by lightning, his age begins to reverse as his mind grows infinitely more brilliant. Now determined to understand the origins of language and consciousness, the fugitive professor leads authorities on a wild chase through Romania, Switzerland, Malta, and India. Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Marcel Iures star in an ambitious low-budget drama trumpeted by Zoetrope as a "return to personal filmmaking" for the revered Godfather director. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Tim RothBruno Ganz, (more)
2006 
PG13 
AddMarie Antoinetteto QueueAddMarie Antoinetteto top of Queue
Writer and director Sofia Coppola puts a new spin on the life and times of one of Europe's most infamous monarchs in this lavish historical drama which fuses a contemporary sensibility with painstaking recreations of the look of the 18th century. Born to Austrian nobility, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is only 14 years old when she's pledged to marry Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), the 15-year-old king of France, in an alliance that has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with love. Sent to France and literally stripped of her former life, Marie weds Louis, but to the consternation of the royal court, he seems either unwilling or unable to consummate the marriage while their advisors clamor for an heir to the throne. Young and more than a bit out of step with the new life that's been thrust upon her, Marie gives herself over to the pleasures of life in Versailles, knowing and caring little of the political intrigue that surrounds her. In time, Marie's trusted older brother, Joseph (Danny Huston), is brought in to coach Louis on the finer points of marital relations, and before long the couple is finally blessed with a child. However, as Marie tends to her children in the gilded cage of her palace and enjoys an affair with a Swedish nobleman, political power plays are throwing France into chaos, and the growing ranks of the poor rebel against the royals and their life of privilege. Also starring Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, and Asia Argento, Marie Antoinette was given a controversial reception when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Kirsten DunstJason Schwartzman, (more)
2006 
 
AddThe 4400: Season 03to QueueAddThe 4400: Season 03to top of Queue
Season Three of USA Network's sci-fi thriller The 4400 largely focuses on the surviving members of a group of 4400 people who, after being abducted from the earth over a sixty-year period, suddenly reappeared in a bolt of light in the year 2004--only to be systematically eliminated by the US Government when it was discovered that many of "The 4400" have developed paranormal powers which, if used improperly, could destroy all mankind. Since the previous season, the National Threat Assessment Command (NTAC) has been forced to back off on its campaign of "ethnic cleansing", but not before the radical Nova group, comprised of a band of "4400" rebels, carry out a master plan to take over the world. Forming a united front against the Nova group are the "good" 4400 members, as well as NTAC agents Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie). Meanwhile, the infant Isabelle, whose blood contains the antidote for the "promicin inhibitor" that has been used to decimate The 4400, has suddenly grown into womanhood (she is played this season by Megalyn Echikunwoke) and remains a fugitive, not only from the Government but also from the Nova group. Many of the episodes this season detail the growing relationship between Isabelle and the kindly 4400 Shawn Farrell, who has the power (albeit limited) to revive the dead. As the season progresses, it is revealed to the viewer that the supposedly "martyred" Jordan Collier, an early leading light of the 4400, is still alive, calling the shots behind the revolt against humanity. Even so, Tom's son Kyle remains in prison for fulfilling his mission of assassinating Collier--a mission determined by the futuristic earthlings who'd originally abducted the 4400 as part of a long-range plan to save the world from total annihilation! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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2006 
AddThe Good Shepherdto QueueAddThe Good Shepherdto top of Queue
One man bears witness to the secret history of America during the Cold War in this drama directed by celebrated actor Robert De Niro. In 1939, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) is a young man with a bright future ahead of him -- he's a top student at Yale and the protégé of one of the school's leading English professors, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon). But Wilson's life changes dramatically when he's invited to join Yale's powerful secret society, Skull and Bones. Through his Skull and Bones connections, Wilson meets Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin), an mysterious FBI agent who asks Wilson to investigate charges that Fredericks is a Nazi sympathizer working with the German government. Later, at a Skull and Bones party, Wilson is introduced to Clover Russell (Angelina Jolie), the sister of one of his classmates and the daughter of a powerful politician; their one-night stand leaves Clover pregnant, and Wilson must leave the woman he loves, Laura (Tammy Blanchard), to wed Clover and give their child a name. Shortly after their wedding, thanks to his work with Murach, Wilson is invited to join the Office of Strategic Services, a military intelligence organization organized by Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro), and Wilson accepts. Through World War II, Wilson serves with the OSS, and learns he can trust no one in the game of international espionage, which helps make him little more than a stranger to his wife, his son, and his few friends. As the OSS evolves into the Central Intelligence Agency after the war, Wilson becomes party to America's darkest and most dangerous secrets, and in the wake of the futile Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Wilson is forced to make a terrible choice between the security of his nation and the safety of his family. Inspired by the true-life story of CIA founder James J. Angleton, The Good Shepherd boasts an impressive supporting cast, including William Hurt, John Turturro, Billy Crudup, Joe Pesci, and Timothy Hutton.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Matt DamonAngelina Jolie, (more)
2005 
 
AddThe 4400: Season 02to QueueAddThe 4400: Season 02to top of Queue
As Season Two of USA Network's sci-fi thriller The 4400 gets under way, several of the secrets closely held during Season One have been revealed--foremost among the fact that those 4400 humans who'd suddenly reappeared in a flash of light after having been kidnapped from the earth over a period of nearly six decades were not alien abductees, but instead had been snatched up by futuristic earthlings. The purpose was to "seed" the abductees throughout history to prevent the apocalyptic destruction of the earth! Of special importance to National Threat Assessment Command agent Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch), who along with fellow agent Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) had been assigned to track down all of the "4400" once some of them had begun exhibiting awesome paranormal powers, is the fact that the futuristic kidnappers had selected Tom's own son Kyle (Chad Faust as their primary messenger--and also as an avenging angel, foresworn to kill the one "4400" member who poses the greatest threat to mankind It is also now known that it is the "promicin", a transmitter imbedded in each of the 4400's brains, that gives them their unique powers, and that NTAC plans to kill off the most "dangerous" abductees (as well as few innocent bystanders!) with a promicin inhibitor. The only antidote to this inhibitor is found in the blood of Isabelle, the infant daughter of "4400" Lily Moore (Laura Allen) and Richard Tyler (Mahershalhashbaz Ali)--and thus Isabelle has been targetted for elimination as soon as she can be found. As the season ends, the NTAC goes to great lengths to wipe out all evidence that the 4400 ever existed. But those "in the know" intend to see that justice is done to the surviving 4400...and to solve the many puzzles still remaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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2004 
AddKinseyto QueueAddKinseyto top of Queue
Alfred Kinsey was an entomologist who taught at Indiana University and had a keen interest in an area of human behavior that had seen little scholarly research -- human sexuality. While the courtship and reproductive patterns of animals had been carefully documented, Kinsey believed that most "established facts" about human sexual behavior were a matter of conjecture rather than research and that what most people said about their sex lives was not born out by the evidence (a subject that had personal resonance for him given the troubles he and his wife Clara Kinsey had in the early days of their marriage). After introducing a course in "Marriage" at Indiana University which offered frank and factual information on sex to students, Kinsey began an exhaustive series of interviews with a wide variety of people from all walks of life in order to find out the truth about sex practices in America. When he published Sexual Behavior and the Human Male in 1948, his findings were wildly controversial, indicating that most men had a wider variety of sexual experiences than most people imagined, including a number of practices commonly thought to be dangerous or perverted (including pre-marital sex, same-sex contacts, and masturbation). An even greater outcry greeted Kinsey's next volume, Sexual Behavior and the Human Female, which contradicted common notions than most women went into marriage sexually inexperienced. Kinsey is a film biography written and directed by Bill Condon which examines Kinsey's life and work from his strict childhood until his death in 1956. Liam Neeson plays Alfred Kinsey, and Laura Linney co-stars as Kinsey's wife and colleague Clara. John Lithgow highlights the supporting cast as Kinsey's repressed and moralistic father, while Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, and Timothy Hutton play members of Kinsey's research team and Tim Curry appears as an IU faculty member at odds with Kinsey's teachings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Liam NeesonLaura Linney, (more)
2004 
 
AddThe 4400: Season 01to QueueAddThe 4400: Season 01to top of Queue
The first season of USA Network's sci-fi thriller The 4400 begins (pardon the cliché) with a bang, as a huge, glowing object falls from the sky and lands near Highland Beach, Washington. The comet-like object then disgorges some 4400 human beings, all of whom had vanished from the earth over the past 58 years! After a brief quarantine, the "4400" leave for various parts of the world--and then several returns, exhibiting such paranormal abilities as telekinesis, mind control, supersensitve hearing, and even, in the case of Shawn Farrell (Patrick Flueger), the power to revive the dead. Another of the 4400, Lily Moore, is pregnant with the child of Richard Tyler (Mahershalahashbaz Ali) Acutely aware that the returnees' otherworldly powers can be used for evil as well as good, Dennis Ryland (Peter Coyote), head of the National Threat Assessment Command division of Homeland Security, dispatches agents Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) to locate the rest of the 4400 to make certain that nothing terrible happens. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done, as witness the serial killer who has the power to make others do his dirty work. Also, whatever has caused the 4400 to develop these skills also has a profound effect on the two NTAC agents--to say nothing of Tom's son Kyle (Chad Faust), whose erratic behavior turns is a harbinger of things to come. Meanwhile, another of the 4400, the mysterious Jordan Collier (Bill Campbell), offers protection and shelter to his fellow retunees at Arcadia Estates--an outward act of altrusim that may be a cover up for a sinister hidden agenda. The five-episode first season ends after several of the 4400 are assassinated once their identities are made public--and after the startling secret behind the 4400 is revealed (we won't give too much away here: suffice to say that, though the 4400 were definitely abduction victims, their abductors were NOT aliens from another planet!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Peter CoyoteJoel Gretsch, (more)
2004 
 
Over the course of 50 years, fourty-four hundred people seemingly vanish under mysterious circumstances -- and just as mysteriously re-emerge one day, all at once. Not only have all these people returned not looking a day older than when they left, many have developed remarkable physical and psychic powers while they were gone. So what happened, and what does it mean for those who have to live with the returned? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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2003 
 
Created by John Ridley and Sofia Coppola (whose father Francis Ford Coppola was among the producers), the weekly UPN series Platinum could be described as Dynasty for the hip-hop generation. At the center of the intrigue was a black-oriented record company called Sweetback, owned and operated by the Rhames brothers, Jackson (Jason George) and Grady (Sticky Fingaz). Though they had supped full of success, the brothers' label was in dire financial straits, forcing them to take drastic measures (some funny, some violent) to remain players in a cutthroat business. During the first few episodes, the Rhameses' biggest headache was their top artist, a pugnacious white rapper named VersIs (played by real-life rap artist Vishiss), who in addition to making enemies left and right was also romancing Jackson and Grady's kid sister Monica (Davetta Sherwood). On top of everything else, the white-dominated media despised the Rhameses, and were waiting baited breath to see them crash and burn. Others in the cast included Steven Pasquale as the brothers' long-suffering financial adviser, and N'Bushe Wright as a barracuda-like rival producer. Originally titled Empire, Platinum premiered April 14, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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2003 
 
AddA Decade Under the Influenceto QueueAddA Decade Under the Influenceto top of Queue
In the late '60s, American culture experienced a period of change as the youth movement challenged conventional attitudes about politics, sex, drugs, and gender issues, while the advancement of the Vietnam War found many citizens questioning the actions and wisdom of their government for the first time. As American attitudes continued to evolve, so did the American film industry; as costly big-budget blockbusters nearly brought the major studios to the brink of collapse, smaller and more personal films such as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Five Easy Pieces demonstrated there was a ready audience for bold and challenging entertainment. As the '60s faded into the 1970s, American cinema moved into an exciting period of creativity and stylistic innovation, which led to such landmark films as The Godfather, MASH, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver, and new freedom for directors and screenwriters. Ironically, however, it was another pair of big-budget blockbusters directed by students of the new wave of filmmaking -- Jaws and Star Wars -- which brought the studios back to power and put an end to Hollywood's flirtation with offbeat creativity. A Decade Under the Influence is a documentary which explores the rise and fall of new American filmmaking in the 1970s, and features interviews with many of the key directors, screenwriters, and actors whose work typified the movement, including Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Roger Corman, Dennis Hopper, Jon Voight, and Julie Christie. A Decade Under the Influence received its world premier at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and an expanded version of the film was later shown on the premium cable outlet The Independent Film Channel; the documentary was the final work of co-director Ted Demme, who died shortly before the film was completed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Martin ScorseseFrancis Ford Coppola, (more)
2003 
AddLost in Translationto QueueAddLost in Translationto top of Queue
After making a striking directorial debut with her screen adaptation of The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola offers a story of love and friendship blooming under unlikely circumstances in this comedy drama. Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a well-known American actor whose career has gone into a tailspin; needing work, he takes a very large fee to appear in a commercial for Japanese whiskey to be shot in Tokyo. Feeling no small degree of culture shock in Japan, Bob spends most of his non-working hours at his hotel, where he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) at the bar. Twentysomething Charlotte is married to John (Giovanni Ribisi), a successful photographer who is in Tokyo on an assignment, leaving her to while away her time while he works. Beyond their shared bemusement and confusion with the sights and sounds of contemporary Tokyo, Bob and Charlotte share a similar dissatisfaction with their lives; the spark has gone out of Bob's marriage, and he's become disillusioned with his career. Meanwhile, Charlotte is puzzled with how much John has changed in their two years of marriage, while she's been unable to launch a creative career of her own. Bob and Charlotte become fast friends, and as they explore Tokyo, they begin to wonder if their sudden friendship might be growing into something more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Bill MurrayScarlett Johansson, (more)
2003 
AddJeepers Creepers 2to QueueAddJeepers Creepers 2to top of Queue
The Creeper is back, and he's brought his appetite with him in director Victor Salva's sequel to his popular 2001 sleeper. Stranded on the dreaded East 9 Highway while returning home from winning the championship game, a group of basketball players, cheerleaders, and coaches quickly realize that there's more to fear than a broken down bus when The Creeper descends mercilessly upon them. As his 23-day feeding frenzy draws to a close, The Creeper needs the sort of nourishment only a vital group of young athletes can provide, and to survive the night, the terrified teens will have to fight to their dying breaths. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Ray WiseJonathan Breck, (more)
2002 
AddPumpkinto QueueAddPumpkinto top of Queue
Adam Larson and Tony R. Abrams' directorial debut Pumpkin is an unconventional love story. College senior Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci) agrees to coach handicapped athletes from a local town in order to help her sorority win an award. She and her sorority sister Jeanine (Dominique Swain) are put off by the activity. Carolyn's discomfort begins to dissipate after meeting Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris), a young man in a wheelchair who has dreams of competing in the shot put. Slowly, Carolyn falls in love with Pumpkin, sending her into conflict with her boyfriend Kent (Sam Ball), her sisters, and Pumpkin's mother (Brenda Blethyn). This film was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Christina RicciHank Harris, (more)
2002 
AddAssassination Tangoto QueueAddAssassination Tangoto top of Queue
Leading man Robert Duvall writes and directs his third feature, the romantic thriller Assassination Tango. John J. (Duvall) is an aging hit man who has settled down into family life in New York with teacher Maggie (Kathy Baker). After he is offered a good sum of money, he accepts a job to kill an Argentinean General in Buenos Aires. When he gets there, he finds out he has to wait three months to finish the job, so he stays in Argentina and studies the tango. He meets young dancer Manuela (real-life girlfriend Luciana Pedraza making her film debut) and the two become dance partners and lovers. It's not long before his newfound love affair conflicts with his original job duties. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Robert DuvallRubén Blades, (more)
2002 
AddThe Legend of Suriyothaito QueueAddThe Legend of Suriyothaito top of Queue
A fabled moment in the history of Thailand sets the stage for this lavishly mounted historical epic. In 1528, Thailand's leadership is in chaos, as the Northern and Southern factions of the nation declare their own kings; in the midst of this confusion, young Suriyothai (M.L. Piyapas Bhirombhhakdi) is forced to marry Prince Tien (Sarunyoo Wongkrachang) and leave behind her true love, Piren (Chatchai Plengpanich). In time, Prince Tien becomes the nation's sole ruler, but King Tabinshweti (Suphakit Tangthatswasd), the ruler of nearby Burma, declares his designs upon Thailand; and as the two countries go to war in 1548, Tien is lost in battle. As Thailand's independence hangs in the balance, Suriyothai stands as her nation's new champion; she rallies the Thai forces, and, traveling by elephant, leads a brave and determined campaign against the invading Burmese troops. Suriyothai originally opened in Thailand in the summer of 2001, screening in a sprawling 185-minute version, and became one of the country's biggest box-office hits. Two years later, director Chatrichalerm Yukol, a member of Thai royalty, reshaped the film for international release with the help of his friend Francis Ford Coppola; the film was shortened to 142 minutes and retitled The Legend of Suriyothai. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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2001 
AddJeepers Creepersto QueueAddJeepers Creepersto top of Queue
Writer/director Victor Salva returns to his horror roots with this teen-slasher genre flick, one of several 2001 films produced by Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope studio. Gina Philips and Justin Long are siblings Trish and Darry, road tripping home from college across the U.S. and bickering all the way. Menaced by a truck on the highway, the travelers encounter the same vehicle later, and what they believe is a man dumping a human body into a drainage pipe. Investigating, Darry and Trish become the intended prey of an indestructible, supernatural creature hell-bent on eating them, a murderous local myth that is proving to be all too real. As they attempt to escape their bloodthirsty pursuer, the pair discovers that even the local police station is no refuge; they also receive some advice from a knowledgeable psychic (Patricia Belcher). Jeepers Creepers co-stars Eileen Brennan. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Gina PhilipsJustin Long, (more)
2001 
AddNo Such Thingto QueueAddNo Such Thingto top of Queue
Beauty meets the Beast, and neither is sure just what to make of the other, in a modern-dress comic variation on the ancient folk tale, written and directed by the eternally offbeat Hal Hartley. Beatrice (Sarah Polley) works with the office staff of a sleazy tabloid TV news show, run by a harridan producer (Helen Mirren) eager for something other than the usual spate of violent crimes and natural disasters that are her show's bread and butter. The producer sends her camera crew to Iceland in search of something new and unusual, and they certainly find it when they run across a village that has its own monster (Robert John Burke), a large part-mammal and part-lizard with a short temper and habit of killing people who get on his nerves. The show's camera crew (including Beatrice's boyfriend) doesn't survive their first encounter with the monster, and Beatrice is sent to find out what happened to them. En route to Iceland, Beatrice's plane crashes into the waters off the coast, and while she survives the accident, a group of unsympathetic locals decide (after a few drinks too many) to take her to the monster's lair, where a grim fate doubtless awaits her. Except that the monster is a bit depressed and Beatrice isn't in the mood to take any guff from anyone; after the monster wonders aloud why folks aren't as frightened of him as they once were, he asks Beatrice to help him find Dr. Artaud (Baltasar Kormakur), a mad scientist who might be able to cure him of the curse of eternal life. No Such Thing received its world premiere at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Un Certain Regard series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Sarah PolleyRobert Burke, (more)
2001 
AddApocalypse Now Reduxto QueueAddApocalypse Now Reduxto top of Queue
Francis Coppola had more than his share of production difficulties while shooting his epic-scale Vietnam War drama Apocalypse Now, including disastrous weather conditions, problems with his leading men (Harvey Keitel was fired after less than two weeks on the project and was replaced by Martin Sheen, who suffered a heart attack midway through production), and a schedule and budget that quickly spiraled out of control (originally budgeted at $10 million, the film's final cost was over $30 million). But Coppola's troubles didn't end when he got his footage into the editing room, and he tinkered with a number of different structures and endings before settling on the film's 153-minute final cut in time for its initial theatrical release in 1979. Twenty-two years later, Francis Coppola returned to the material, and created Apocalypse Now Redux, an expanded and re-edited version of the film that adds 53 minutes of footage excised from the film's original release. In addition to adding a number of smaller moments that even out the film's rhythms, Apocalypse Now Redux restores two much-discussed sequences that Coppola chose not to include in his original edition of the film -- an encounter in the jungle between Willard (Martin Sheen), his crewmates Chief (Albert Hall), Clean (Larry Fishburne), Chef (Frederic Forrest), and Lance (Sam Bottoms) and a trio of stranded Playboy models on a U.S.O. tour, as well as a stopover at a plantation operated by French colonists De Marais (Christian Marquand) and Roxanne (Aurore Clement). Apocalypse Now Redux received a limited theatrical release in August of 2001 after a well-received screening at the Cannes Film Festival -- the same month that the film finally reached theaters in 1979, after a rough cut received a Golden Palm award at the Cannes Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Martin SheenMarlon Brando, (more)
2001 
AddCQto QueueAddCQto top of Queue
The feature debut of Roman Coppola (son of Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola) centers around an international film crew making a low-budget, Barbarella-like feature in Paris in 1969. The film is called Dragonfly and is being directed by Andrzej (Gérard Depardieu), who wishes to make a revolutionary work rather than the tacky fluff it is becoming. He is soon fired by the film's Italian producer Enzo (Giancarlo Giannini) when he can't produce a satisfactory climactic scene. After briefly replacing Andrzej with an American horrormeister named Felix DeMarco (Jason Schwartzman), the film's editor and second-unit director, the job is finally handed to Paul (Jeremy Davies). Paul is pleased with the offer, but more devoted to his 16 mm filming of his diary of daily life. He eventually begins to fall for the leading lady (Angela Lindvall), but must retrieve footage of the feature stolen by Andrezej and try to keep the troubled production together. CQ features Billy Zane, Massimo Ghini, and Dean Stockwell in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Jeremy DaviesÉlodie Bouchez, (more)

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