Francis Ford Coppola and 50 Years of American Zoetrope

Starting March 5, 2020

Fifty years after the founding of American Zoetrope, we celebrate the studio and its co-creator, Francis Ford Coppola. Along with Coppola’s works, the series features films by George Lucas, Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, and more.

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  • The Conversation

  • The Godfather

  • THX 1138

  • One from the Heart

  • Kagemusha

  • Koyaanisqatsi

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • The Godfather

    Francis Ford Coppola
    United States, 1972

    4K Digital Restoration
    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Thursday, March 5 7 PM

    A chronicle of the life and times of an Italian American mafia family becomes a shadow history of the American dream in Coppola’s masterpiece, widely acclaimed as one of the best American films ever made. “Overflowing with life” (Los Angeles Times).

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  • THX 1138

    George Lucas
    United States, 1971
    Saturday, March 7 8 PM

    George Lucas’s debut film is more 1984 than Star Wars. Robert Duvall stars as a rebel in a dystopian future where sex is illegal, robots are everywhere, and TV monitors keep the populace both sedated and monitored.

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  • The Rain People

    Francis Ford Coppola
    United States, 1969

    4K Digital Restoration 

    Sunday, March 8 7 PM
    Introduction by James Mockoski

    A disaffected Long Island housewife ditches her man, hits the road, and never stops heading west in Coppola’s striking early work, described as a female Easy Rider and overflowing with a loose energy that recalls the French New Wave.

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  • CANCELED: Dementia 13

    Francis Ford Coppola
    United States, 1963

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been cancelled through March 29. Learn more

    Saturday, March 14 8:15 PM
    Introduction by James Mockoski

    An unwelcome visitor finds herself in the dank manse of a family haunted by its secrets in Coppola’s atmospheric tale of terror, produced and financed by exploitation guru Roger Corman.

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  • CANCELED: The Conversation

    Francis Ford Coppola
    United States, 1974

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    New 35mm Print!

    Friday, March 20 7:30 PM
    Introduction by James Mockoski

    Gene Hackman plays a crack wiretapper in over his head in Coppola’s formalist exercise in paranoia, set in a 1970s San Francisco where—much like today—privacy is elusive and technology can work both for you and against you. Winner, Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival.

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  • CANCELED: Every Man for Himself

    Jean-Luc Godard
    France, Switzerland, 1980

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    Wednesday, March 25 7 PM

    This achingly lyrical film about the selling of the self revolves around three characters: a filmmaker, his estranged partner, and a prostitute. “A stunning, original work” (NY Times). With Isabelle Huppert and Nathalie Baye.

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  • CANCELED: One from the Heart

    Francis Ford Coppola
    United States, 1982

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    Restored 35mm Print

    Saturday, March 28 7 PM

    Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, and Nastassia Kinski float through an even more artificial version of Las Vegas in Coppola’s lavishly surreal, giddily romantic valentine to a cinema of pure attractions. “A playful, delightfully unfathomable piece of magic” (Washington Post).

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  • CANCELED: Passion

    Jean-Luc Godard
    France, 1982

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    BAMPFA Collection

    Saturday, April 4 8 PM
    Introduction by Tom Luddy

    Two directors create a film based on tableaux vivants of famous paintings, but find the true stories beyond the frames, in Godard’s essay on labor, love, and capital. Isabelle Huppert, Michel Piccoli, and Hanna Schygulla star.

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  • CANCELED: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

    Paul Schrader
    United States, 1985

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    New Digital Restoration

    Friday, May 1 8 PM
    Introduction by Tom Luddy

    Paul Schrader’s riveting docu-fiction retells the life and death of Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, supported by Philip Glass’s compelling score, Eiko Ishioka’s remarkable set designs, and a riveting Ken Ogata performance. “One of the most gorgeous and sophisticated portraits of an artist ever put on film” (New Yorker).

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  • CANCELED: Kagemusha

    Akira Kurosawa
    Japan, 1980

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Wednesday, May 13 7 PM

    George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola helped produce Kurosawa’s big-budget return to epic filmmaking, involving a lord and his double (both played by Tatsuya Nakadai) trying to hold a kingdom together. “Probably the director’s most elaborate, awesome film . . . majestic, stately, cool, almost abstract” (New York Times).

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  • CANCELED: Koyaanisqatsi

    Godfrey Reggio
    United States, 1982

    All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

    Digital Restoration

    Sunday, May 17 4:30 PM

    Koyaanisqatsi (a Hopi word for “life out of balance”) is one of the most successful avant-garde films of all time, a spectacular montage of images of American landscapes, industrial sites, cities, and people propelled by Philip Glass’s classic score.

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