TSPDT

Key Production Countries: USA, Germany
Key Genres: Drama, Biography, Romance, Period Drama, History, Adventure
Key Collaborators: Douglas Stewart (Editor), Michael Chapman (Cinematographer), Donald Moffat (Character Actor), Fred Ward (Leading Actor), Rose Kaufman (Screenwriter), Martin Ransohoff (Producer), Peter Kaufman (Producer), Vivien Hillgrove (Editor), Veronica Cartwright (Leading Character Actress), Mark Adler (Composer), Robert Duvall (Character Actor), Bruce Myers (Character Actor)

"Gifted, iconoclastic filmmaker whose work includes thrillers, Westerns, and adaptations of seemingly unadaptable books. His first film, Goldstein (1965), was made on a shoestring budget and won the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique award at the Cannes Film Festival... This individualistic writer-director also wrote the mainstream Western The Outiaw Josey Wales (1976, which he was originally supposed to direct), and the story for the hugely popular, mass-appeal Saturday-matinee homage Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)." - Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, 1995

"His credentials equal those of any working American director, but Philip Kaufman is rarely mentioned in the same breath as fellow iconoclasts Robert Altman or Martin Scorsese… As a director, his studio projects continue to edge into more idiosyncratic territory, introducing a European sensibility to mainstream American genre films. After beginning his career with a pair of underrated period pieces, 1972's The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid and 1974's The White Dawn, Kaufman hit his stride with 1978's Invasion of The Body Snatchers, a powerful humanist rethinking of Don Siegel's often-imitated classic." - Scott Tobias (A.V. Club, 2001)

"While it is difficult to argue for the existence of any thematic of stylistic consistency in the films of Philip Kaufman, his very eclecticism makes him one of the more intriguing American film-makers of recent years. His originality stems from the unusually adult nature of his projects and his oblique approach to genre… In treating serious social and political themes through the medium of popular entertainment, he has proved to be a film-maker of intelligence, integrity and imagination." - Geoff Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989)

"Much has been written about this American director who tends to make films about outsiders bucking the system — rebels, pioneers, outlaws and refugees — although his output, if more sporadic than most, is as much up and down in quality as most Hollywood directors of his time. He does make very long films, though strangely the two longest of all have been the best. His early career was a struggle. His first two films, both satires of no great quality, were much delayed (and cut) in release." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Illustrated Guide to Film Directors, 1999)

"Philip Kaufman has not set any records for productivity, but the few films he has made have been intelligently and independently done. His choice of topics has been eclectic. He has adapted novels as far removed as Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun. He adapted Tom Wolfe’s journalistic epic about the space program, The Right Stuff, brilliantly; he also adapted the personal writings of Anais Nin in Henry & June… The style of his later films seems vaguely European, but his values, stressing individualism and integrity, are clearly American." - James M. Welsh (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 2000)

"I want to do things that interest me or amuse me, and to work with people who stimulate me as a director. I take a lot of time in casting, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with wonderful actors. When I come to the set in the morning, I feel the director’s job is not just to stimulate the actors or boss them around but to be stimulated by them, so that by the end of the day, I feel I’ve been greatly amused and interested…. This is our life, and this is what we do, and we’re lucky to be doing it. I’ve been very fortunate somehow, despite many commercial failures, to keep going." - Philip Kaufman, 1993