Philip Kaufmann

Kaufman is a serious man, with a handful of films as a director that leave no one indifferent. Not that they are masterpieces, but they all have a rare intensity, often with tormented characters living in extreme situations. Added to this is a certain morbid perspective, for which Kaufman feels a clear inclination and which means that his films are not usually suitable for minors. As a screenwriter, however, he began delivering ideas with enormous impact for the general public, in fact few people remember that he and George Lucas were the ones who invented the world of Raiders of the Lost Ark .

Philip Kaufman was born on October 23, 1936 in Chicago (Illinois). He attended the University of Chicago and later transferred to Harvard, where he studied law. At just 22 years old, he married actress and screenwriter Rose Kaufman , with whom he was together until her death in 2009. Peter Kaufman was born as a result of the marriage, later producer of several films of her father. Philip Kaufman worked various jobs, including postman, before turning to movies, even backpacking through Europe. It was in 1964, at the age of 28, when he made his debut as a director and screenwriter with a strange independent film, Goldstein , which nevertheless dazzled at the Cannes Film Festival and won the critics’ award. The film, in which Kaufman shared credits withBenjamin Manaster , is a very peculiar comedy about a man who seems to be the prophet Elijah and who swarms through the city of Chicago meeting crowds of people. Three years later he would not have the same success or recognition with Fearless Frank , a kind of comedy about the initiation of a superhero. The film meant at least Jon Voight ‘s film debut .

Things were much better for him in the 70s . Hopeless or Lawless is a quite estimable western, where Kaufman shows a twilight and cynical vision of the western world, with the character of the bandit Jesse James as the protagonist. The great cast of this film showed that Kaufman was beginning to be a man with prestige. Also a notable film is The White Dawn , which adapts a novel by James Houston .. The story is very much in the style of Kaufman, where deviant behaviors are offered that show little complacency with the human being. It narrates the bad influence of Western man on the Eskimo tribes, which will gradually get to know the corrupt blackness of civilized hearts. Two years after Kaufman writes the story of the outlaw Jesse Wales, there would be room for the film The Outlaw . At first it was going to be directed by Kaufman himself, but finally it was the protagonist Clint Eastwood who would also get behind the cameras. He would return as a director in 1978 with The Invasion of the Ultra-Corpses , a remake of the Don Siegel film.of 1956, about the arrival of some aliens who make replicas of human bodies. In that film, for the first and only time, the director’s wife, Rose Kaufman , appeared accredited as an actress . It was precisely with her that Kaufman wrote the script for her next film in 1979. It is The Wanderers: The Bronx Gangs , adaptation of a Richard Price novel . The film is emblematic of that time, where the atmosphere of youth gangs was shown, with violence, sex and rock & roll as protagonists.

The 1980s got off to a good start for Kaufman. Together with George Lucas , he created the universe and the characters of Raiders of the Lost Ark , which became a classic shortly after and has been copied over and over again ever since. He also had a memorable success in 1983 ‘s The One for Glory , in which Kaufman adapted for the screen Tom Wolfe ‘s book recounting the beginnings of the space age in the United States. The film had an all-star cast, with Sam Shepard , Scott Glenn , Dennis Quaid , Barbara HersheyAnd a long etcetera. The film had eight Oscar nominations and finally won 4 technical statuettes: best editing, soundtrack, sound and sound editing. The hangover from this success lasted for a long time for the filmmaker, since he would not return until five years later, with The Unbearable Lightness of Being , a film that adapted the nihilistic novel by Milan Kundera . Kaufman showed here his lowest tendencies due to the morbidity and the discomfort due to the lack of meaning in life. That reductionist vision of the human being reached its culmination when in 1990 he brought Henry & June to the screen . The film, which collected the sexual experiences of Anaïs Nin, responded to a long-awaited wish, since Kaufman had met the controversial French writer on his youthful trip to Europe.

From the last decade of the 20th century, Kaufman took his career more calmly. After a stint in the thriller with Rising Sun , starring Sean Connery , he only drew attention again in 2000 with Quills , a genuinely Kaufmanian film in its approach to the perversions of the Marquis de Sade. The film, well made and with an attractive script, was nominated for 3 Oscars. And while four years later he brought the bar down a notch by directing the despicable thriller Unexpected Twist , the director has come back with a bang with Hemingway & Gellhorn , the boxset TV movie with Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen .as protagonists, and who has won two Emmy Awards and has been nominated for two Golden Globes.