“This is the end / My only friend / The end.” Francis Ford Coppola’s famous Apocalypse Now starts with this song by The Doors and the sounds of bombs falling on the jungles of Vietnam. Inspired as much by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as by the stories of Vietnam veterans, it became a legendary film right away and is considered one of the most important works or even, according to many, the best work in the history of cinema. Coppola finished the 1979 version of the film in a hurry in order to make it to the Cannes Festival, where he received his second Palme d’Or (following The Conversation from five years earlier). Years later, he decided to complete and refine the film; as a result, we will see the director’s cut of Apocalypse Now in Wrocław on the 40th anniversary of the film’s premiere. The screening will give viewers a chance not only to see several new elements that were previously left on the cutting-room floor but, above all, we’ll have a chance to admire Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz on the big screen.
Cannes IFF 1979 – Golden Palm, FIPRESCI Prize; Academy Awards 1980 – Best Cinematography, Sound; Golden Globes 1980 – Best Director, Actor in Supporting Role, Original Score; BAFTA Awards 1980 – Best Direction, Supporting Actor
Born in Detroit in 1939, Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most important directors in American cinema, the winner of six Oscars and two Palmes d’Or in Cannes. The director of such films as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Cotton Club began his career in the 1960s, when, together with Scorsese, Bogdanovich, and Lucas, he created a movement called New Hollywood, which in the next decade changed the face of the American Dream Factory. He is the head of the Coppola film clan, which includes his daughter Sofia and granddaughter Gia, as well as nephews Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman.
1972 Ojciec chrzestny / The Godfather
1974 Rozmowa / The Conversation
1979 Czas Apokalipsy / Apocalypse Now
1986 Peggy Sue wyszła za mąż / Peggy Sue Got Married
1992 Dracula
2009 Tetro