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Apocalypse Now: Final Cut Forty years after it almost killed him, Francis Ford Coppola returns to the jungle one last time. Both a complete restoration and a new cut, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut represents his fully realised vision, trimming back some of the restored scenes from 2001’s Apocalypse Now Redux and returning to the original negatives and sound masters. Even if you’ve seen his legendary, phantasmagoric journey into the heart of darkness, you’ve never seen it like this. — Doug Dillaman “The troubled production of Coppola’s psychedelic Vietnam war epic has already calcified into the stuff of industry myth: leading man Martin Sheen was nearly felled by a heart attack, second lead Marlon Brando showed up to set too overweight to believably portray a Green Beret, a monsoon seemingly sent by God destroyed thousands of dollars in equipment... The just-right Final Cut splits the difference between the creative concessions of the original and the unwieldy sprawl of the Redux, a massive feat of film craft reined in to the general neighborhood of perfection… Coppola has at last gotten everything right where he wants it, which testifies to the real evolution of this project, as an insane risk that
Retro Director/Producer: Francis Ford Coppola USA 1979–2019 | 183 mins Screenplay: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola Photography: Vittorio Storaro Editor: Richard Marks Music: Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola With: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn Festivals: Tribeca 2019 CinemaScope | Censors rating tbc
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gradually vindicated everyone crazy enough to have believed in it.” — Charles Bramesco, The Guardian “Final Cut… demands to be seen [in the cinema], both by longtime admirers and by young viewers lucky enough to have their first viewing be in a theater. This is an overwhelming sensory experience, with deep colors and nuanced sound amplifying the film’s hypnotic effect.” — John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
“Apocalypse Now is the best Vietnam film, one of the greatest of all films, because it pushes beyond the others, into the dark places of the soul.” — Roger Ebert
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Koyaanisqatsi Oft-imitated, never surpassed, Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi – a Hopi word roughly translating to ‘life in turmoil’ – opened in cinemas in 1983 after a six-year filming process and the endorsement of Francis Ford Coppola, only to be met by equal measures of grudging admiration and bewilderment from critics. (Vincent Canby called it “a frequently hypnotic ‘folly’,” while Ebert admitted it was “an impressive visual and listening experience” but called it “simplistic.”) Devoid of story, dialogue or voiceover, and leaning on the beautiful time-lapse images of Ron Fricke (who would later direct Baraka and Samsara) and the otherworldly music of Philip Glass (working at the height of his powers), Koyaanisqatsi presents an uncomfortably alluring and undeniably epic globe-trotting portrait of a world overrun by technology. While critics scratched their heads, youth audiences made it a cult hit and MTV and Madison Avenue recognised its power and quickly pillaged its stylebook. But despite being imitated by Madonna and Watchmen and parodied by The Simpsons, its unique voice remains undimmed. In the climate emergency era, Koyaanisqatsi’s global vision has
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Retro Director/Producer: Godfrey Reggio USA 1982 | 86 mins Screenplay: Ron Fricke, Michael Hoenig, Godfrey Reggio, Alton Walpole Photography: Ron Fricke Editors: Alton Walpole, Ron Fricke Music: Philip Glass Festivals: New York 1982; Berlin 1983
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fresh potency and demands a giant canvas we’re only too happy to provide. Don’t miss the biggest big-screen experience of the festival. — Doug Dillaman “It’s meant to offer an experience, rather than an idea. For some people, it’s an environmental film. For some, it’s an ode to technology. For some people, it’s a piece of shit. Or it moves people deeply... It is the journey that is the objective.” — Godfrey Reggio
“Among the more remarkable debut films in American cinema history… it was and is engaging and often awe-inspiring.” — Scott McDonald, The Criterion Collection
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