Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

[Dylan]

Hearts of Darkness: French plantation scene

Coppola's a great character to watch (love his directing of the "whisps of smoke" and the wine glasses). I had forgotten how wonderful a documentary this was - I'll absolutely pick this up when it's released.

[Svevan]

No denying that Coppola's gone batshit recently, but I think Hickenlooper's overreacting about the "Eleanor Coppola's Follow-Up Documentary" line. The box should have Hickenlooper and Bahr's names on it, sure, but Eleanor's name is at the bottom of the case, and the text on the back of the box states that Eleanor only shot some of the footage. Most Paramount boxes have the credits listed on the back, and I'm sure his name is there. Also, the side of the box-art says fullscreen, which gives us hope for the correct ratio.

Hickenlooper's more outraged about not being involved with the DVD, and that's justified. Based on history, it's not guaranteed that Coppola hasn't re-edited the thing to bits. I still think Hickenlooper should be spending his time criticizing Coppola's treatment of him in regards to his film, rather than Zoetrope's treatment of the DVD box, which is inconsequential in the long run.

[Romat]

I thought the story was, he liked them but realized the plantation scene and the helicopter monsoon scenes just slowed things down too much, later.....he wasn't worried about things being too long, or too weird. So he added them back in

You clearly have not seen HEARTS OF DARKNESS, and are buying into the Coppola river of uh... gook.
REDUX made a very very good load between exhibition and dvd, which is the point. Not just exhibition, but to represent it again to the world-- television sales, rights to all regions for a new REDUX disc, then with a REDUX/Original Cut (dossier) planned for thereafter.

I haven't watched it in a year, but I do own a bootleg dvd of "HEARTS OF DARKNESS". I was mainly trying to remember what I read in Peter Cowie's "Apocalypse Now Book" and "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls". I'm willing to admit I buy into his bullshit somewhat. But I think the end result was good (the Redux) so why should I question his "agenda".
He admitted when he finished the original Apocalypse Now, he couldn't even tell if it was good or not, so his honest opinion of things can change.

What about his follow up re-release? "One from the Heart" (recut w/a fully loaded 2dvd set in 2003) Another cash-in no doubt!

[Jeff]

Discussion of the merits of the original version of Apocalypse Now versus the "redux" cut has been moved here.

Hickenlooper shares his woes with The New York Observer.

[rwaits]

Beaver has it up. Hmm....

[Belmondo]

Beaver has it up. Hmm....

Some tough verbal shots in the Beaver comments:

... the true value of Hearts of Darkness lies in its demystification of Coppola. Clearly, he's no “great manâ€

[rwaits]

Am I alone here?

Maybe

[domino harvey]

Anywhere else you might be completely alone, but this forum always has someone to defend even the weakest mutt in the film pound.

[Jeff]

And furthermore! I love ONE FROM THE HEART. It is a failure, but such an audacious failure that it worked for me. Am I alone here?

I feel the exact same way.

EDIT: Hey, Domino, you were right!

[Dylan]

I love ONE FROM THE HEART. It is a failure, but such an audacious failure that it worked for me. Am I alone here?

The casting of the two leads is the only serious flaw of the film, in my opinion, although the script could've been better, too (especially the ending). On the other hand, Nastassia Kinski is perfect and I love Vittorio Storaro's photography and the Tom Waits soundtrack.

[Svevan]

I think it's great that Francis's demonic packaging of the film has fooled Mr. Tooze (or Mr. Feng) into believing that Mrs. Francis co-directed the movie.

[Polybius]

Baloney.

Indeed. I'm at a bit of a loss to know who exactly is heavily invested in the image of Francis as a "great man", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. All I really ask of directors is that they do good work and don't kill anybody while making their films.

So... fuck John Landis.

[flyonthewall2983]

fuck John Landis

I think fate and/or the Hollywood machine has done that for us.

[domino harvey]

John Landis's career was already saved twelve years ago when he made the the Stupids.

[MichaelB]

Baloney. Could you have discerned the genius of Hitchcock if you watched him on the set saying very little except "Cut. Next set-up"?

The only bona fide auteur I've observed working at first hand is Aki Kaurismäki - his crew and the first AD turned up an hour earlier to set up the camera and lights, then Kaurismäki and the actors arrived, they did a couple of rehearsals, shot the scene in one take, and that was it: it was over in about ten minutes, if that.

And Kaurismäki barely said a word aside from "Rehearsal!", "Action!" and "Cut!" - if you didn't know better you'd assume he was a hack trying to get through the shoot as quickly as possible.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Baloney. Could you have discerned the genius of Hitchcock if you watched him on the set saying very little except "Cut. Next set-up"?

The only bone fide auteur I've observed working at first hand is Aki Kaurismäki - his crew and the first AD turned up an hour earlier to set up the camera and lights, then Kaurismäki and the actors arrived, they did a couple of rehearsals, shot the scene in one take, and that was it: it was over in about ten minutes, if that.

And Kaurismäki barely said a word aside from "Rehearsal!", "Action!" and "Cut!" - if you didn't know better you'd assume he was a hack trying to get through the shoot as quickly as possible.

This reminds me of a story I was told by one of the actors on 'La Vie Boheme'. Shot in french, a language that no-one to a man understood, Kaurismaki pasted phonetic versions of the dialogue onto his forehead and stood by the camera like a human autocue. When he noticed the eyelines shifting as they read down the lines he ammended his system by starting bent at the knees and gradually rising up until teetering on tiptoe.

[patrick]

Has it been confirmed yet if this is uncut? I had a copy in hand earlier but I don't know when I'll have time to do a comparison.