THE COTTON CLUB 'ENCORE' - On Blu-Ray 12/10

[AndyDursin]

See 38 minute mark of this Youtube video:

[Paul MacLean]

I've always liked The Cotton Club, and I consider it very underrated. Will be interesting to see whether this added footage improves the film (though I didn't think Apocalypse Now Redux was an improvement on the original).

But what I'd much rather see is an expanded CD of John Barry's score!

[AndyDursin]

Unlike REDUX -- and I definitely agree with you Paul -- I think it probably will help, because I felt there was a bit "missing" in THE COTTON CLUB. It's perfectly watchable but feels "hollow".

Too bad this documentary isn't around anymore...I can't find anything about it other than a few news articles from 1999-2000 like this one:

Francis Ford Coppola may need to put cotton in his ears. One of Coppola's most colossal screen failures, "The Cotton Club," is coming back to haunt the legendary director 15 years after the film's original release.

Next month, "Cotton Club" producer Lorenzo Doumani will release "Apocalypse Always: Tales From 'The Cotton Club,'" a 90-minute video documentary that rakes Coppola over the coals. The documentary blames the entire fiasco on the legendary director and also includes never-before-seen footage of the movie, which was released in 1984. In case you've forgotten this film's tortured history, it starred Richard Gere, Gregory Hines and Diane Lane and centered on the famed Harlem nightspot during the Prohibition era.

The movie's original $25 million budget ballooned to $58 million during production, making it the most expensive feature of its time. Battles for control of "The Cotton Club" back then were openly waged between Coppola and his producers, Doumani and Robert Evans, resulting in lawsuits everywhere. Then, in 1983, the insanity around "The Cotton Club" was raised to almost mythic proportions when Evans' business partner, Roy Radin, was murdered. Evans' former lover, Karen Greenberger, later was found guilty, along with two others, of having had Radin killed. She remains in prison to this day, serving a life sentence.

The video outlines the "the problems we had with Francis," said Doumani. "Francis was $30 million over budget when he literally stole the film and held it hostage, trying to renegotiate his contract with me," said Doumani. "Had his deal been with a major studio, he never could have gotten away with it. But he took advantage of me because I was a first-time producer.

" Doumani, who estimated that he lost $20 million on the project, said the movie's failure "was Francis' failure. "He failed the same way he's failed in most of his efforts since 'The Godfather,'" said Doumani. "He put style over substance, and he never adequately developed the characters. He threw the plot out the window to go for a visual style. What he wound up with was a lot of everything and enough of nothing.

" Doumani, who has owned "The Cotton Club" ever since its original distributor, Orion Pictures, went bankrupt in 1991, has included scenes in "Apocalypse Always" that Coppola left out. Mostly, they are musical numbers, including such songs as "Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"; "Stormy Weather," sung by Lonette McKee, and "Tall Tan and Terrific," by Hines. Another scene, between Gere and Lane, has also been added, Doumani said, "because it helps explain their relationship.

" Since Coppola's movie often appears on cable, Doumani saw no reason to recut it and then rerelease it as a feature. "There's really no theatrical interest in this movie," he said. "If it has any value, it's in a form that can address all the controversies and answer what might have been.

" Doumani characterized his present relationship with Coppola as "civil, but not friendly. "We notified him to seek his participation in the video," Doumani said, "but he declined.

" Coppola declined to comment for this article.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gos ... e-1.847101

[John Johnson]

I've always liked The Cotton Club, and I consider it very underrated. Will be interesting to see whether this added footage improves the film (though I didn't think Apocalypse Now Redux was an improvement on the original).

But what I'd much rather see is an expanded CD of John Barry's score!

An interesting thread on the score.

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6605

[Paul MacLean]

It often seems like the story behind the making of Coppola's films is even more dramatic than the films themselves.

Too bad Barry's score is MIA. (Then again so were a lot of other scores a few years ago.)

[AndyDursin]

Bumping this up, finally, as Coppola has been showing this new cut in festivals to strong reception. Apparently he removed 13 minutes, but added 25 minutes of previously discarded footage back in -- so the running time may only be about 10 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, but the film itself is allegedly much better "fleshed out" in terms of character development and edited quite differently.

Oh, before I forget, there was a great New Yorker piece on the troubled production of the film, way back when it was first released -- and someone uploaded it here. It's a brutally honest assessment of how the production spiraled out of control:

https://cinefiles.bampfa.berkeley.edu/c ... ocId=26744

Here's a Q&A from last October where someone asks Coppola when MGM will let us see the new version on home video -- there were stories MGM was blocking it, and he doesn't get to that answer until the very end. Apparently they've moved past that, and now it sounds like he's haggling with MGM over getting the money he put into it back (he paid for the restoration himself):



In the meantime, for those interested in the theatrical version, Umbrella's Aussie release has a really nice transfer that I can recommend (choose the 3rd party sellers who have it for $18, one via Prime):

[Paul MacLean]

Sounds encouraging, though he was not quite clear -- is he saying he had to draw on BetaMax tapes to restore the lost footage?

[AndyDursin]

Finally -- December 10th on home video!

Sounds like they found the lost footage from sources other than a Betamax tape -- guess we'll find out soon enough.

SANTA MONICA, CA (September 12, 2019) – A brand-new and timely cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s critically acclaimed 1930s period film The Cotton Club Encore will screen at this year’s New York Film Festival on October 5, release in select theaters on October 11, and will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on December 10 featuring exclusive new bonus material from Lionsgate.

A new iteration of the 1984 release, the film features an all-star cast including Golden Globe® winner Richard Gere (2003, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, Chicago), Tony Award® winner Gregory Hines (1992, Best Actor in a Musical, Jelly’s Last Jam), Academy Award® nominee Diane Lane (2003, Best Actress, Unfaithful), NAACP Image Award® nominee Lonette McKee (1999, Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series, “As the World Turns”), Golden Globe® nominee Bob Hoskins (2006, Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, Mrs Henderson Presents), James Remar (TV’s “Dexter,” “Sex and the City”), Tony Award® nominee Maurice Hines (1986, Best Actor in a Musical, Uptown... It's Hot!), Academy Award® nominee Laurence Fishburne (1994, Best Actor, What's Love Got to Do with It), Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage (1996, Best Actor, Leaving Las Vegas), Golden Globe® nominee Jennifer Grey (1988, Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Dirty Dancing), Grammy Award® winner Tom Waits (2000, Best Contemporary Folk Album, “Mule Variations”), and more.

In this lavish, 1930s-era drama, Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide. Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s extraordinary film is brought to vivid new life in The Cotton Club Encore. Featuring never-before-seen scenes and musical sequences that deepen and enrich the storylines, this remastered and beautifully restored version represents Coppola’s fully realized vision of the film.

Though the public’s understanding of the film is an American crime drama centered around Richard Gere, Coppola meant for it to be a story of two main characters, one white and one black, navigating life in and around the Cotton Club with their families. However, back in 1984 during post-production, the film was condemned as too long, and according to some stakeholders as having "too many black people," and "too much tap dancing," Coppola was pressured to minimize Gregory Hines’ character and lose many musical numbers, thus eroding the historical portrayal of what the performances at the Cotton Club shows were really like.

Along with his team at American Zoetrope, Coppola set out to create an updated version that would more closely resemble the original intentions of the film. This new version of the film, shown only three times previously during the 2017 Telluride Film Festival, features additional scenes such as an extended Gregory Hines and Maurice Hines tap performance, Lonette McKee’s brilliant rendition of Ethel Waters’ “Stormy Weather,” Coppola’s originally envisioned ending, and more.

“I and my company American Zoetrope set about the daunting task to find the more than thirty minutes of lost negative, in some cases restoring it from old print material, and to restore, remix and allow this film to re-emerge in a new and worthy edition,” says Coppola. “This is THE COTTON CLUB ENCORE, the film the world should have seen despite the countless court cases, murder trial proceedings, and warring producers.”

[AndyDursin]

7/10

Released at Christmas ’84, Francis Ford Coppola’s THE COTTON CLUB (138 mins., R; Lionsgate) was the subject of much controversy: the big-budget mix of character drama and mob thriller, bolstered by song & dance numbers and ample period detail, made more news off the set than on the screen. Feuds between Coppola and producer Robert Evans, budget issues, squabbles over the film’s editing and, finally, mixed critical notices sank the picture even before it hit theaters. When it did, the movie sputtered and quickly exited the multiplex, relegated to just a few home video releases – and very little discussion – since.

Coppola clearly hopes to change the film’s perception with the release of THE COTTON CLUB “ENCORE” – a new cut of the film that also marks its high-definition debut. This version, running roughly 11 minutes longer than the theatrical edit but with both new footage inserted (reportedly upwards of a half-hour) and some theatrical-version material deleted (over 10 minutes), still retains the main weaknesses of Coppola’s original cut, though it’s at least a more watchable, streamlined effort.

Coppola’s script, written with William Kennedy and Mario Puzo, intercuts two main stories: one involving a cornet player/aspiring actor (Richard Gere) and his involvement with warring gangsters Dutch Schultz (James Remar) and Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins); and another featuring a Black hoofer (Gregory Hines) trying to make it at the Cotton Club, the exclusive Harlem establishment where talents like Cab Calloway got their start. In between them are a myriad of peripheral players, from Gere’s brother (Nicolas Cage), who gravitates towards a life of crime, to Hines’ sibling (real-life brother Maurice Hines) and a half-black songstress (Lonette McKee) who hopes to break free of the black-only clubs she’s performed in and one day find success in the “white entertainment” world of Broadway. Diane Lane, meanwhile, plays Gere’s love interest – a young woman who eventually becomes Dutch’s moll.

The main issue with “The Cotton Club” was always the lack of cohesion between its different narrative threads. Coppola peppers the movie with some wonderful moments along the way (particularly one scene between Hoskins and Fred Gwynne, playing his recently-kidnapped second-in-command), but there are times it seems Gere and his involvement with the mob is in a different movie altogether than Hines and his character’s stage aspirations. Sequences are broken up with a bit of song here, a dance there, but the often mumbled dialogue, uneven performances (Remar most especially) and serious lack of structure are issues the movie can never overcome.

Coppola’s “Encore” recut helps, to a degree: while the movie’s pacing is still awkward, this new version tries to smooth over the transitional issues. More songs and dance routines are incorporated – mostly notably a lovely rendition of “Stormy Weather” by McKee – while a bit of fat has been removed (i.e. Diane Venora popping up as Gloria Swanson). It results in a movie where it’s now easier to see what Coppola was aiming for, even if the end result still doesn’t quite succeed.

The “Encore” version was first presented at assorted festivals in 2017, albeit with some material incorporated from video tape sources. For this long-gestating home video release, Coppola was able to find film elements for the newly added sequences, even if there is a major discrepancy in the quality and color of these elements compared to the rest of the picture.

Lionsgate has brought the “Encore” cut to both Blu-Ray and 4K streaming (on Itunes, Vudu and other outlets), and the transfer is generally excellent – marked by lots of natural grain, albeit something the Blu-Ray tends to replicate better than the 4K streaming version. Again, it’s easy to spot the added sequences, which lack the richness and texture as the rest of the footage, but they’ve been seamlessly integrated otherwise. It’s notable that some new musical material was required for this cut, with Laura Karpman credited with the arrangement of “Stormy Weather.”

Extras are limited to a brief Coppola introduction and a Tribeca Q&A from last year with Coppola joined by Maurice Hines. The Dolby TrueHD audio is superb and both a DVD and Digital HD copy are housed inside the Blu-Ray combo pack.