Philip Kaufman Filmography

Born:: October 23, 1936 in Chicago, IL
Occupation:: Director, Producer, Screen Story, Screenwriter
Biography:: Born in Chicago, IL, writer/director Philip Kaufman makes accessible American art films and stays out of the Los Angeles area, preferring the home base of San Francisco, working with his wife, Rose, and his son Peter. After studying at the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School, he taught...Read More

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Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco

Actors: Chris Columbus, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Saul Zaentz

Synopsis: While Los Angeles has been the capital of major studio filmmaking in America since the early ears of the 20th Century, in the northern part of California, San Francisco has become home to a different breed of filmmaker -- artists who treasure their independence and carefully guard their creative Read More

2007
Twisted

Crew: Co-producer, Director

Actors: Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia, David Strathairn, Russell Wong

Synopsis: Philip Kaufman directs the detective thriller Twisted (originally to be titled The Blackout Murders), with a script by up-and-coming filmmaker Sarah Thorp. Ashley Judd plays troubled police detective Jessica Shepard, who works under the jurisdiction of the man who raised her as his daughter Read More

2/27/04
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, Angela Rodriguez, Michael Bales

Synopsis: Plenty of folks have a favorite movie they'll watch over and over again, but Jayson Lamb, Chris Strompolos, and Eric Zala enjoyed Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' freewheeling action picture Raiders of the Lost Ark a bit more than the average fan. The three friends were between the ages of 11 Read More

2004
Quills

Crew: Director

Actors: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: The Marquis de Sade was a man who liked to stir up trouble, at a time when his native France was in a state of tremendous political turmoil, and this historical drama examines how much controversy he could cause even under repressive circumstances. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Read More

11/22/00
China: The Wild East

Crew: Cinematographer, Producer

Synopsis: This documentary offers a sweeping look at China's recent past and its future as the great country prepares to enter the 21st century. The filmmaker Peter Kauffman explains that the reason he made the film was due to an excited phone call from Xiozhen Jiang, his longtime friend and daughter of Read More

1995
Rising Sun

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson

Synopsis: When Michael Crichton wrote his best-selling thriller Rising Sun, he wrote the character of hero John Connor with Sean Connery in mind. For Philip Kaufman's film version of the novel, Sean Connery, needless to say, fits seamlessly into the role of a legendary police detective who is an expert in Read More

1993
Henry & June

Crew: Director, Musical Direction/Supervision, Screenwriter

Actors: Maria de Medeiros, Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, Richard E. Grant, Kevin Spacey

Synopsis: The real-life relationship between two of the most controversial literary figures of the 20th century forms the basis for this drama. Anaïs Nin (Maria de Medeiros) is a struggling author trying to finish her first book, a study of the work of D.H. Lawrence. She also has a keen sexual curiosity Read More

10/5/90
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Derek de Lint, Erland Josephson

Synopsis: In Philip Kaufman's surprisingly successful film adaptation of Czech author Milan Kundera's demanding 1984 bestseller, Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, an overly amorous Prague surgeon, while Juliette Binoche plays Tereza, the waiflike beauty whom he marries. Even though he's supposedly committed Read More

2/5/88
The Right Stuff

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward

Synopsis: Covering some 15 years, The Right Stuff recounts the formation of America's space program, concentrating on the original Mercury astronauts. Scott Glenn plays Alan Shepard, the first American in space; Fred Ward is Gus Grissom, the benighted astronaut for whom nothing works out as planned; and Ed Harris Read More

1983
Raiders of the Lost Ark

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Denholm Elliott, Paul Freeman, Wolf Kahler

Synopsis: Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French Read More

1981
The Wanderers

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen, Linda Manz, Toni Kalem

Synopsis: The year 1979 saw an epidemic of American street-gang films, including Phil Kaufman's hit period drama The Wanderers. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film concerns the titular gang of Italian-American teens and their ongoing power struggle with the rival "Fordham Baldies." Richard Price, upon whose Read More

1979
Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Crew: Director

Actors: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum

Synopsis: This remake of the 1956 horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers moves the action from small-town USA to 1970s San Francisco and replaces at least part of the original's psychological horror with special effects. Spores rain forth, unseen, from outer space, and soon strange flowers begin Read More

1978
The Outlaw Josey Wales

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood's fifth film as a director and eighth Western as a star (ninth if you count Paint Your Wagon), The Outlaw Josey Wales chronicles the hero's violent journey westward after the Civil War. With fresh memoris of his family's slaughter by Red Leg soldier Terrill (Bill McKinney) Read More

1976
The White Dawn

Crew: Director

Actors: Akshooyooliak, Namonai Ashoona, Atcheelak, Higa Ipeelie, Oolipika Joamie, Meetook Mallee, Neelak, Seemee Nookiguak, Jacob Partridge, Sagiaktok, Aupalotak Simonee, Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, Louis Gossett, Jr., Simonie Kopapik, Joanasie Salomonie

Synopsis: Director Philip Kaufman took his production of Eskimo life to actual locations in the Arctic Circle, making it only the third film in history (after Nanook of the North and Eskimo) to shoot there. Kaufman also employs authentic Eskimo dialect in the film, which adds a heightened bit of realism. Read More

1974
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Bill Callaway, Cliff Robertson, Robert Duvall, Luke Askew, R.G. Armstrong, Dana Elcar

Synopsis: The oft-told story of the rise and fall of the James Younger gang is given the Dragnet treatment in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid. With meticulous attention to detail, the film recreates the outlaw gang's most infamous escapade: the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank west of Read More

1972
Howzer

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ed VanNordic, Steven Vaughan

Synopsis: In this rites-of-passage drama, two suburban children, one 12-years old, and the other 14, run away and head for L.A. En route they meet a hunter and his retarded son. They later meet and become friends with a pair of dope smoking hippies who operate a tavern. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1972
Fearless Frank

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jon Voight, Monique Van Vooren, Joan Darling, Severn Darden, Lou Gilbert

Synopsis: In this eccentric independent comedy filmed in Chicago, Frank (Jon Voight) is a hayseed who heads north to the big city of Chicago, only to run afoul of gangsters and wind up murdered. Frank soon finds himself resurrected as a virtuous superhero, Fearless Frank, but a mad scientist (Severn Darden) Read More

1967
Goldstein

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Lou Gilbert, Thomas Erhart, Ben Carruthers

Synopsis: The Hebrew prophet Elijah (played by Lou Gilbert) comes from Lake Michigan--rather than Gilead of Biblical legend--into the city of Chicago in the appearance of an elderly tramp. He proceeds to wander about, coming into contact with various characters and their assorted problems. Among those who Read More

1964