Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is an American
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning more than six decades. He has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast,"
[ notable for his versatility and independence. He is considered an "auteur" whose films have always expressed his personal vision.][
Kaufman's works have included genres such as realism, horror, fantasy, erotica, Westerns, underworld crime, and inner city gangs. His choice of topics has been eclectic and sometimes controversial, having adapted novels with diverse themes and stories. Examples are ]Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himsel ...
's '' The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' (1988), Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...
's '' Rising Sun'' (1993), a remake of ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (1978), and the erotic writings of Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
's '' Henry & June'' (1990). His film '' The Wanderers'' (1979) has achieved cult status. His greatest success was Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
's true-life '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), which received eight Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nominations, including Best Picture.
According to film historian Annette Insdorf, "no other living American director has so consistently and successfully made movies for adults, tackling sensuality, artistic creation, and manipulation by authorities."[ Other critics note that Kaufman's films are "strong on mood and atmosphere," with powerful cinematography and a "lyrical, poetic style" to portray different historic periods.][ His later films have a somewhat European style, but the stories always "stress individualism and integrity, and are clearly American."][
]
Early life
Kaufman was born in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
in 1936, the only son of Elizabeth (Brandau), a housewife, and Nathan Kaufman, a produce businessman. He was the grandson of German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
immigrants.[Simon, Alex]
"Kaufman/Sade"
''Venice Magazine'', December 2000/January 2001 One of his grammar and high school friends was William Friedkin
William "Billy" Friedkin (born August 29, 1935)Biskind, p. 200. is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the " New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in ...
, who also became a director.[ He developed an early love of movies and during his youth he would often go to ]double feature
The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.
Opera use
Opera h ...
s.[Insdorf, Annette. ''Philip Kaufman'', Univ. of Illinois Press (2012)]
He attended the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
where he received a degree in history, and then enrolled at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each c ...
where he spent a year. He returned to Chicago for a postgraduate degree, hoping to become a professor of history.[Allon, Yoram; Cullen, Del; and Patterson, Hannah, editors. ''Contemporary North American Film Directors'', Wallflower Press (2000) p. 292]
Before graduating Kaufman became involved in the counterculture movement
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...
and in 1960 moved to San Francisco. He took various jobs there, including postal worker, and befriended a number of influential people, such as writer Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi- autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical re ...
.[ He and his wife then decided to travel and live in Europe for a while where he would teach.][Hillstrom, Laurie, and Welsh, James M., editors. ''International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers-2: Directors'', 3rd edition, St. James Press (1997) pp. 512-13] After spending time working on a kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
in Israel, he taught English and math for two years in Greece and Italy.[ During his travels he also met author ]Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
, whose relationship with her lover, Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi- autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical re ...
, later became the inspiration and subject for Kaufman's film '' Henry and June'' (1990).[
He met ]Saugus, Massachusetts
Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America.
History
Native Americans ...
-born Rose Fisher in 1957, when he was 21 and she was 18, and both were undergraduates at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. A year later, in 1958, they married. They had one son, Peter. Rose Kaufman was also a screenwriter and had bit roles in two of her husband's films.[ After backpacking in Europe with his wife and their young son, they returned to the United States. His time in Europe heavily influenced Kaufman's decision to become a filmmaker, when he and his wife would wander into small movie theaters showcasing the works of experimental new filmmakers such as ]John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and direc ...
and Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke (née Brimberg; October 2, 1919 – September 23, 1997) was an American filmmaker.
Life
Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, she was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother w ...
, among others.[ He recalls the effect of being exposed to those filmmakers as the "start of something new" which would later inspire the European flavor of many of his films: "I could feel the cry of America, the sense of jazz ... So I came back to Chicago in 1962 and set about trying to learn as much as I could, seeing every foreign movie I could."][
]
Career
;''Goldstein'' (1964)
Kaufman returned to Chicago, ready to make his first feature film. He went around town looking for funding for his directorial debut, '' Goldstein'' (1964), co-written and co-directed with Benjamin Manaster. Kaufman initially conceived of the story in an unfinished novel, but at the urging of Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
he then made it into a "mystical comedy" film.[ It was inspired by a story from ]Martin Buber
Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 –
June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...
's '' Tales of the Hasidim'', and was filmed on location in Chicago with a cast composed of local actors from The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...
comedy troupe.[
The film won the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique (New Critics Prize) at the 1964 ]Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
,[ with French director ]Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films '' ...
calling it the best American film he had seen in 20 years.[ ]François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more th ...
, another leading French director, was visiting Chicago when the film premiered and he came to the opening. Kaufman recalled that Truffaut "leaped to his feet" in the middle of the screening and began applauding.[
;''Fearless Frank'' (1967)
Two years later, Kaufman went on to direct '' Fearless Frank'' (1967), a comic book/counterculture fable, which he wrote, produced, and directed. It costarred ]Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...
in his film debut. Kaufman spent four years trying to find a distributor, but the film was a box-office failure when it finally played. While the movie didn't gain as much attention as ''Goldstein'', it did help Kaufman land a contract in Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
' Young Directors Program in 1969.[Philip Kaufman]
''Film Reference''; accessed January 20, 2019.
;''The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid'' (1972)
In 1972, Kaufman wrote and directed ''The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
''The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid'' is a 1972 American Western film about the James-Younger Gang distributed by Universal Pictures. It was written and directed by Philip Kaufman in a cinéma vérité style and starring Cliff Robertson. The ...
'' starring Robert Duvall as Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained st ...
, in what was his first commercial film after the previous two independent ones. He spent a lot of time researching the real life characters when writing the screenplay, although the film took some liberties portraying some of the factual details.[ The ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that "Kaufman is not an angry revisionist, but seems to be trying to tell it like it must have been, with an amused detachment, which sees the events as something close to an absurd spectacle."][Boggs, Johnny D. ''Jesse James and the Movies'', McFarland (2011) p. 200]
;''The White Dawn'' (1974)
Kaufman directed ''The White Dawn
''The White Dawn'' is a 1974 Canadian-American drama film directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, and Louis Gossett Jr. It portrays the conflict between aboriginal peoples' traditional way of life and Europeans' e ...
'' in 1974, a drama based on the novel of the same name by James Houston. Shot in documentary style, a story about whalers, played by Warren Oates
Warren Mercer Oates (July 5, 1928 – April 3, 1982) was an American actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah, including ''The Wild Bunch'' (1969) and ''Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia'' (1974). A ...
, Louis Gossett Jr., and Timothy Bottoms
Timothy James Bottoms (born August 30, 1951) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing the lead in ''Johnny Got His Gun'' (1971); Sonny Crawford in ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971), where he and his fellow co-stars, Cy ...
, stranded in the Arctic at the turn of the century. To survive they battle polar bears and take advantage of the Eskimos who had originally saved them.[
;''The Outlaw Josey Wales'' (1976)
Kaufman wrote and began directing '' The Outlaw Josey Wales'' (1976) but was fired as director after disagreements with its star ]Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...
who then directed the film himself. Before filming began, Eastwood felt the screenplay needed more suspense and hired Kaufman to polish the story. He also thought Kaufman would be a good choice to direct, after being impressed by the realism he created in ''White Dawn''.[Schickel, Richard. ''Clint Eastwood: A Biography'', Knopf Doubleday (1996) pp. 325-26] Critic David Thomson explains that Eastwood was later bothered by the number of takes Kaufman wanted, which Eastwood considered a waste of time and expense.[
;''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (1978)
Kaufman directed the science fiction thriller, '']Invasion of the Body Snatchers
''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film ...
'' in 1978, which became his first box office hit. It was a remake of the 1956 version. In this version, Kaufman moved the setting to San Francisco and recreated the alien threat as more a horror film than science fiction, and in a way that was disturbing, humorous, and believable.[ Critic ]Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
said "It may be the best movie of its kind ever made."
;''The Wanderers'' (1979)
In 1979, he directed '' The Wanderers'', based on comic novel by Richard Price. The direction of the film illustrated Kaufman's mastery of genre quite different from his previous films. It's the story of a benign Italian gang of teenagers in the Bronx of 1963, with Ken Wahl
Ken Wahl (born October 31, 1957) is a retired American film and television actor, popular in the 1980s and 1990s, best known for the CBS television crime drama '' Wiseguy''.
Early life and career
Wahl, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, Note: ...
and Karen Allen
Karen Jane Allen (born October 5, 1951) is an American film and stage actress. After making her film debut in ''Animal House'' (1978), she portrayed Marion Ravenwood opposite Harrison Ford in '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), a role she la ...
.[ It was Wahl's debut film, and Allen's second role, and the film has become a cult favorite.
;''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981) co-writer
In 1981, Kaufman became involved with the first ]Indiana Jones
''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...
film, ''Raiders of the Lost Ark
''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ro ...
'', for which he received story credit. The character of Indiana Jones was created by George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...
and Kaufman came up with the story about the pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an ...
.[
;''The Right Stuff'' (1983)
In 1983, Kaufman directed and wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film, '' The Right Stuff'', an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by ]Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
. The story is based on the events and lives of the original test pilots who were selected to become the first U.S. astronauts. The film helped launch or boost the careers of numerous little-known actors, including Ed Harris
Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), '' Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award ...
, Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26) is an American actor. His roles have included Pfc Glenn Kelly in ''Nashville'' (1975), Wes Hightower in '' Urban Cowboy'' (1980), astronaut Alan Shepard in '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), Emmett in '' Silverado ...
, Fred Ward and Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...
.
Kaufman hired William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...
to write the screenplay, but after a number of disputes about the focus of the story, Goldman quit and Kaufman wrote the screenplay himself. Goldman wanted the story to portray patriotism and center mostly on the astronauts, whereas Kaufman wanted much of the story to focus on Chuck Yeager
Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the ...
(played by Sam Shepard
Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any write ...
), whom Goldman's script left out completely. Goldman writes in his memoirs, "Phil's heart was with Yeager." And Shepard's biographer, Don Shewey, explains that "though its chief subject is the astronauts, Yeager is the apple of Kaufman's heroic eye."[Shewey, Don. ''Sam Shepard'', Da Capo Press (1997) pp. 165-166] Critic David Thomson agrees:
Historian Michael Barson considers it one of the more ambitious pictures of the 1980s.[Barson, Michael. ''Hollywood Directors'', Noonday Press (1995) pp. 222-23] Roger Ebert said the film was "impressive," noting that the way Kaufman had organized the material into one of the "best recent American movies, is astonishing."[Ebert, Roger. ''Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert'', Univ. of Chicago Press (2006) p. 160] The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and won four, yet failed at the box office.[ Kaufman earned the Writers Guild and Directors Guild nomination for his satiric adaptation of the astronaut program.][ "It may be the last movie of the heroic 1970s," writes Thomson.][Thomson, David. ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'', Knopf (2002) pp. 454-56.]
;''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' (1988)
'' The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' was directed and co-written by Kaufman in 1988. The film is based on the novel by Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himsel ...
which takes place during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...
in 1968. Kaufman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay Film adaptation, adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include st ...
.[video]
Scene compilation from ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being''
/ref>
;''Henry & June'' (1990)
In 1990, he wrote and directed '' Henry & June'', a re-creation of the affairs among and between Henry Miller, June Miller, and Anais Nin in 1931 Paris. The film created some controversy when it was released.[ It was the first film to be given an ]NC-17
The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures ...
rating by the MPAA.
;''Rising Sun'' (1993)
Kaufman directed '' Rising Sun'' in 1993, an adaptation of Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...
's thriller which takes place in Los Angeles. The film starred Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
and Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. His prominent film roles include '' Major League'' (1989), ''New Jack City'' (1991), '' White Men Can't Jump'' (1992), '' Passenger 57'' (1992), '' ...
. Crichton angrily withdrew early on as a result of Kaufman softening the book's more anti-Japan posturing.[
In 1995, Kaufman narrated ''China: The Wild East'' a documentary directed by his son, Peter Kaufman.
;''Quills'' (2000)
In 2000, Kaufman directed '' Quills'', a satirical thriller film about the increasingly desperate efforts of the Marquis de Sade's jailers to censor his licentious works, starring ]Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Emm ...
, Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...
, Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and for her portrayals of headstrong and complicated women, she has received numerous accolades, inc ...
and Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
.
;''Twisted'' (2004)
In 2003, he directed '' Twisted'', a thriller about a young policewoman whose casual sex partners are murdered while she herself suffers alcoholic blackouts. It starred Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia.
;''Hemingway & Gellhorn'' (2012)
In 2012, eight years after his previous film, Kaufman directed an HBO biopic about Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn entitled ''Hemingway & Gellhorn
''Hemingway & Gellhorn'' is a 2012 television film directed by Philip Kaufman about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and aired on HBO on May ...
''. It starred Clive Owen
Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series ''Chancer'' from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film '' Close ...
and Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
. The film had been planned for many years, but languished as a project so he could care for Rose, who was fighting a cancer which would prove terminal.[ Kidman read the script and told him, "I want to do it ... no matter how long it takes. I'm in."][ The film was nominated for 15 ]Primetime Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
, including one for Kaufman for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
Personal life
Kaufman lives in San Francisco, where he also runs his production company, Walrus and Associates. Kaufman's wife Rose Kaufman (March 30, 1939 – December 7, 2009), who made appearances in bit roles in '' Henry & June'' and ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers
''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film ...
'', died in San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, aged 70, from cancer.[ She co-wrote the screenplays of '' The Wanderers'' and '' Henry & June''. Their son Peter Kaufman was the producer of '' Henry & June'', '' Rising Sun'', '' Quills'', '' Twisted'', and '']Hemingway & Gellhorn
''Hemingway & Gellhorn'' is a 2012 television film directed by Philip Kaufman about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and aired on HBO on May ...
''. Peter Kaufman is married to Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
's daughter Christine Pelosi
Christine Paule Pelosi (born May 5, 1966) is an American Democratic Party political strategist from California. She is the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and businessman Paul Pelosi and sis ...
.
Filmography
As director
Other film work
Also credited with ''characters created by" in the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise.
Appearances
References
External links
*
*
* video
Philip Kaufman on Charlie Rose
talking about ''Hemingway and Gelhorn''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufman, Philip
1936 births
Living people
American film directors
American film producers
American male screenwriters
American people of German-Jewish descent
Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
Harvard Law School alumni
Hugo Award-winning writers
Jewish American writers
University of Chicago alumni
21st-century American Jews