Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (4K Restoration)
- Mon, Jul 28
- Tue, Jul 29
Director: Eleanor Coppola, Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper Run Time: 96 min. Format: 4K DCP Release Year: 1991
Starring: Eleanor Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, John Milius, Sam Bottoms
In the late 1970s, celebrated director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Conversation) and his cast, crew, and family ventured into the dense jungles of the Philippines to begin work on what would eventually become his masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. But the journey from page to screen soon spiraled into a hellish, life-threatening nightmare that echoed the film’s narrative. Plagued with adversity, one of the most influential films ever made had one of the most notorious shoots in cinema history that few survived unscathed.
Meticulously documented at the time by Eleanor Coppola (Paris Can Wait), Fax Bahr (In Living Color), and George Hickenlooper (Dogtown) revisited the footage in 1991 and filmed new interviews with the cast and crew, resulting in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, a groundbreaking and intimate portrait of what went into making one of the best films ever made. Hearts of Darkness is the ultimate feature-length documentary, capturing the explosive events that led to Apocalypse Now becoming a worldwide classic film and a constant favorite with film critics.
“There have been few sharper portraits of the film maker as alchemist than Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, in which Francis Ford Coppola is seen struggling with hellish logistical problems, wild-card actors, freak accidents and other unseen demons, then ultimately pulling a miracle out of his hat.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“RANKS AMONG THE MOST HARROWING PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST AS AN AMERICAN MEGALOMANIAC” – Village Voice
“THE MAKING OF A FILM HAS NEVER BEEN DOCUMENTED WITH MORE PENETRATION AND TRUTH” – Roger Ebert
ABOUT THE RESTORATION
“In 1976, Eleanor Coppola shot behind-the-scenes footage of Apocalypse Now on 16mm. For the first time, we decided to return to all original sources and scan elements in 4K for this new release. What everyone has seen over the last 30 years has been three to four generations removed from the source elements. Additionally, we utilized the 2019 4K restoration of Apocalypse Now for this release, incorporating those elements into the documentary. For any clips pulled from Apocalypse Now and used in the documentary, we maintained the original aspect ratio of 2.40 instead of letterboxing it in a 4×3 frame. Lastly, we remastered the soundtrack and created a new 5.1 mix. The film was restored at American Zoetrope and graded at Roundabout Entertainment in Burbank, California. The director, Fax Bahr, approved the grade.”
– James T. Mockoski, Film Archivist/Restoration Supervisor for American Zoetrope