Bet you haven’t heard this name in a while.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has chosen Philip Kaufman as the recipient of this year’s Career Achievement Award. Kaufman, who is now 89 years of age, was this uncompromising filmmaker who is known by less avid moviegoers as the man who co-authored the story for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with George Lucas, but that doesn’t even begin to describe his career.
He was also infamously fired on the set of “The outlaw Josey Wales,” by its actor and producer, Clint Eastwood, who consequently, ended up replacing Kaufman. This led the Directors Guild to establish a new regulation, known as “the Eastwood Rule,” which forbids an actor or producer from dismissing a director and then assuming the directing role themselves.
Kaufman basically inspired the NC-17 rating. A fearless filmmaker who gave us “The Right Stuff” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” Not to mention his classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” remake. Then there was the erotic, and perplexing, biopic “Henry & June,” which he wrote with his wife Rose, and “Quills,” another sexually charged provocation, this time tackling the Marquis de Sade.
Then there’s the curious case of “The Wanderers,” a film that was met with a collective shrug back in 1979, yet has since grown into a cult favorite for its raw portrayal of 1960s Bronx youth culture. Kaufman’s direction and sharp eye for period detail gave the film the lasting impact that audiences only came to appreciate years later.
Kaufman’s last film was released over 20 years ago, that would be 2004’s “Twisted,” starring Ashley Judd and Samuel L. Jackson. That was a career killer. The film infamously earned terrible reviews — 2% on Rotten Tomatoes.
By all accounts, Kaufman, 89, is now retired, but his imprint on cinema endures as that of a trailblazer of intellectually ambitious and sensual filmmaking — just look at “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” starring a then young Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche. Nearly three hours long and sexually provocative, it’s almost mind-boggling that a major studio ever greenlit such a defiantly non–audience-friendly film.
Kaufman has confirmed that he will attend the LAFCA ceremony honoring him. The organizers could have chosen a more well-known name, but kudos to them for shining a light on one of the most unsung filmmakers of the past 50 years of cinema.