Twixt (Francis Ford Coppola, 2012)

[domino harvey]

Coppola's new ghost story starring Elle Fanning and Val Kilmer had a bizarre presentation of footage today at Comic Con, wherein Coppola "live remixed" the footage and audio in front of the crowd with an iPad. Apparently he plans a 30 city tour of the film with live recutting and accompaniment from Dan Deacon.

Full recap here

EDIT: Even more in-depth report here

[knives]

At least he's being creative. I saw that on set photo that's been flying around and if that means anything we'll be getting something interesting if not necessarily good.

[John Cope]

I'm most intrigued by the prospect of Kilmer reunited with Whalley for the first time, I think, since Kill Me Again, John Dahl's excellent debut and one of the very finest of the neo-noirs. Still, for sheer spectacle value this screen reunion likely won't match the dissipated allure of seeing Mickey Rourke and Carre Otis back together in Exit in Red, six years and a million miles from that initial ecstatic immersion in Wild Orchid's frothy surf.

[Finch]

Thanks for the links, dom, which have made me all the more excited about the film. Bring it on, Francis

[Roger Ryan]

I've been very impressed by the risks Coppola has been taking in the past few years. Lucas made some noise about a decade back where he said he would invest some of his money into doing small experimental films like he wanted to make in his film school days. So far this has not come to pass whereas Coppola has taken up the challenge grandly (interesting that APOCALYPSE NOW originated as a Lucas film that Coppola ultimately took over).

I thought YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH was close to brilliant and, while I found TETRO to be somewhat less impressive, I cannot commend Coppola enough for walking away from the large studio projects and following his fancy. This multi-city tour sounds crazy in a very good way and I'm curious if an eventual Blu-ray release will reflect a similar randomness to how the film is presented.

[Jeff]

Teaser posters, creepy Elle Fanning, the always creepy Val Kilmer, the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe and more pics courtesty of The Playlist here and here.

[knives]

I'm surprised with this name and the whole remix thing we haven't had this joke yet.

[cocaine socialist]

[kaujot]

Trailer

[Jeff]

Yikes. I'm not sure if it was Kilmer's acting or FFC's writing that seemed so awkward there. Whatever it was, combined with the filmschoolesque production design and CG backgrounds made it look like Under a Killing Moon, Phantasmagoria, or similar mid-nineties interactive adventure games. I'm intrigued enough to give it a shot though.

Best part of the trailer is the use of the retro American Zoetrope logo.

[Oedipax]

I'm baffled as to why this looks so terrible from a cinematography standpoint. Why not just shoot on the same setup he used for Tetro?

[Giap]

Tom Waits doing the trailer voice is a pretty fun idea!

[Dylan]

Twixt opened last week in France to rave reviews. There's also a new trailer up at the film's official website, and the official Facebook page has been posting reviews and links about the film.

Unlike most people here, I adored Tetro to no end (exemplary b&w on a visual standpoint, but I also think it's one of the greatest films of the last decade & my personal favorite work of Coppola's) & while Twixt doesn't look quite as good it does look fascinating.

[domino harvey]

Sweet, maybe we'll get a home video release somewhere soon, since it seems like this doesn't even have US distro

[Dylan]

Sweet, maybe we'll get a home video release somewhere soon, since it seems like this doesn't even have US distro

Coppola has mentioned that he will distribute the film himself, at least theatrically. If the release has any resemblance to that of Tetro, this probably means Twixt will have a festival round (I'm hoping it will plat at SIFF) followed by a very limited theatrical release, and maybe late this year or next year a DVD (Lionsgate picked up Tetro for DVD and released it a year after I saw it theatrically). What I'm really curious about is if he's making a straight theatrical cut without the "remix" and 3-D scene gimmicks.

[domino harvey]

I don't know what ever happened to this stateside but it's getting a Blu-ray release in France this December

[Forrest Taft]

It's been out on blu-ray in Norway since august. This is a pretty good one. Coppola is on a roll.

[knives]

How have the DVDs been incorporating his DJing if at all?

[Forrest Taft]

Did he ever actually do that? There is only one cut on my disc. I assume this is a cut that was completed before he started editing it live (if that ever happened).

[knives]

I'm sure there was a master cut, but I believe with all of the theatrical screenings (he was able to attend) he did the live editing.

[domino harvey]

Any idea where to purchase the Nordic Blu?

[domino harvey]

A: SubDVD had it for ~$27 US shipped!

[domino harvey]

I can report that the aforementioned Nordic Blu-ray is region free with removable subs and arrived with no issues (and a hand-written note of thanks) from SubDVD!

Fear not those who cringed at the trailer, the film is perfectly competent and even makes moments of pure Val Kilmer nonsensical improv ("Now I'm a gay basketball player from the sixties" &c) feel organic to the pic. Indeed, this wonderful film exceeded my expectations-- whatever those were to begin with! Here Val Kilmer's wandering hack horror writer stops off in a small town and uncovers details of a mass murder with the help of ghostly figures Elle Fanning and Ben Chaplin (as Poe). This is the second year in a row that Fanning has starred in a fitting throwback to another era, as with a little editing of the excessive gore this could pass for one of the most feverish of cable TV staples from the '80s thanks to its inventive execution and willingness to pursue big ideas with lackadaisical follow-through. Coppola's idea here is to contrast the "daytime" off-kilter comedy routines of Kilmer and Bruce Dern (both a riot) with the "nighttime" bizarro mishmash of Rumble Fish and Sin City. The rampant tonal shifts, the sure stylistic assaults, the measured lunacy…. Coppola has delivered his strangest film yet, and one of his best.

[antnield]

French and German Blu-rays emerged a couple of weeks ago. The Digital Fix reviews the latter.

[zedz]

It's been out on blu-ray in Norway since august. This is a pretty good one. Coppola is on a roll.

Any idea where to purchase the Nordic Blu?

You had the opportunity to make a "buying a Norwegian Blu" joke and passed it up? That's some fierce self-control.