By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   “Imagine today’s Society as a branch of civilization about to reach a dead end.” You want to defend and explain Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS just as much as narrator Laurence Fishburne, who tries to make the case during the movie that this oddball gorgeous landscape of mildly psychotic imagery is historic. You want to love Adam Driver and his maniacal urban hive-builder genius as someone amazing and heretofore...

Parveen Babi, A Life--by Karishma Upadhyay: Break-ups and break-downs Appearing out of nowhere, Parveen Babi made her screen debut with the film Charitra, acting opposite cricketer Salim Durani, in 1973. That was not the first film she had signed, which credit goes to Dhuen Ki Lakeer, released the following year. Her career really took off with Majboor (1974, co-starring Amitabh Bachchan) and she was seen in some 58 films totally, the last one releasing in 1991, years after she had given up a...

R. Lee Ermey: Off to the last frontier Ronald Lee Ermey, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, passed away on 15 April aged 74. Listed as R. Lee Emery in his film and TV appearances, his pet name was Gunny. Gunny’s roar, "What is your major malfunction, numbnut?"remains an iconic line, 30 years later. The performance made him a Globe Best Supporting Actor nominee, and Boston Society of Film Critics Award Winner, for Best Supporting Actor. B...

War for the Planet of the Apes, Review: Ape-o-calypse now Apes riding horses, wielding rifles, and their leader being an English speaking specimen called Caesar is not enough for the makers of this third instalment of the series—they keep stretching your suspension of disbelief every minute, till they lead you to an apocalypse of a climax, perhaps believing that the word ‘war’ in the title has to be taken very, very seriously. Along the way, the War for the Planet of the Ape...

By Liza Foreman   Marrakech - We live in interesting times. And no where has that been more apparent than at this week's Marrakech International Film Festival where a star studded line up of international filmmakers gathered to talk film and politics.   Given the recent tragic events from Paris to California, there was much to talk about with Jury head Francis Ford Coppola reciting the Koran and Bill Murray talking about his love of Morocco and Muslim friends.   At the n...

By Quendrith Johnson   Sometimes you forget how intricate filmmaking is based on how easy it all appears on screen. And along comes someone like Oscar winning editor/sound-pioneer Walter Murch who throws light on every aspect that makes cinema loved worldwide. On the nuances of sound design, Murch off-handedly lays down the fundamentals of an art he actually helped shape.  “My mantra is: ‘clarity and density.’ If something in a film is too dense (too rich or intr...

  So, the tipsiest we'll get this season may be from a documentary about wine. From its opening pan of a cellar synced to "I Put A Spell on You," Red Obsession hints that we're about to be possessed by something pretty heady. The wine trade already has. Directors Warwick Ross and David Roach begin their beguiling film in the Bordeaux region of western France. As we learn from narrator Russell Crowe, nature and two millennia of experience in fermenting grapes h...

by Marla Lewin Francis Ford Coppola at Torino Film Festival photo by Marc Halperin     Another in our series on the Future of Cinema.   We were attending the Torino Film Lab and I had the opportunity to interview Francis Ford Coppola. I mentioned we are working on a series about the Future of Cinema, and Francis said he has his own theory, but it would take some time to explain and would use up all of our time. He doesn’t think ...

Forty years ago Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Carroll Ballard, and Walter Murch moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, and founded the film company American Zoetrope.  Three years later Coppola made ‘The Godfather.’ Accompanied by their wives, last night the men sat around on stage at the world-renowned Castro Theatre, telling the story of how it all began.   Zoetrope was $30,000 in dept before Coppola did ‘The Godfather.’  Worried about the debt and knowing that C...

  Robert Redford will be honored in San Francisco tomorrow night as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.   Redford will be receiving the Peter J. Owens award, named for the longtime San Francisco benefactor of arts and charitable organizations Peter J. Owens (1936-91), this award honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity. The San Francisco Film Society notes about Redford... Such intention of purpose and unwave...

The San Francisco Film Society has announced a special program as part of the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival scheduled for next Friday, May 1. An Evening with Francis Ford Coppola & Friends, to be held at the historic Castro Theater, will honor the brilliant career of one of the seminal figures in American film. The event will take the form of a free-ranging onstage conversation between Coppola and his longtime colleagues and collaborators George Lucas, editor Walter...

 Sunday, October 21--------The excitement on the Red Carpet last evening was not for a big time movie star or even a local Italian celebrity, but for a film giant, with decidedly Italian roots. Francis Ford Coppola, the iconic director of such classics as THE GODFATHER trilogy, THE CONVERSATION and APOCALYPSE NOW, is being honored here with the greatest respect and awe. His newest film YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH had its World Premiere last evening at the Festival’s Sala Santa Cecilia, the largest of...

 Saturday, October 20--------On only the third day of the Festival, the star power on the Rome Red Carpet is truly impressive. As the Festival gets into high gear, it will premiere a number of important films in all its various sections and welcome the international elite of the film world to the Eternal City. The movie stars, film autuers and cinema mavericks include:Francis Ford Coppola, Director, screening his new film YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTHTim Roth, Actor, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH Alexandra Maria...