B'Twixt Now and Sunrise - new cut of Coppola film?

Submitted by TheRealProtozoid t3_10pu1r7 in movies

So... I dunno how this slipped by. I can't find a single mention of it on Reddit and hardly anything at all on the internet at large.

Apparently Francis Ford Coppola restored and re-edited his film Twixt. The new title is "B'Twixt Now and Sunrise". There is a Blu-Ray coming out next month that adds the subtitle "The Authentic Cut". It apparently played in theaters back in September.

...and that's it. I can't find any other information. Even reports about the running time seem to be conflicting.

How is there no more information available about this? It's a freaking Francis Ford Coppola movie! Did anyone watch it back in September? Is there some information about this new cut hiding away in some obscure corner of the internet that I haven't found? How did its theatrical release come and go without a single mention on Reddit?!

This is one of my least-favorite Coppola films, but it's still an interesting film, and the other recuts he has released in recent years (Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, The Cotton Club Encore, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone) are all thoughtful, crafty, and imho, definitive. I'm very curious what he has done with this new version of Twixt.

Does anyone know anything? I'm dying here.

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AlanMorlock t1_j6mihym wrote

Was this the film thst he experimented with lived editing, like a performance, played at comicon that time?

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TheRealProtozoid OP t1_j6pd6wg wrote

That's the one. I think he even went on tour (or at least wanted to) with composer Dan Deacon, who did the score live along with a live-edit of the movie. And Coppola would sometimes just press a button to randomize scenes. Something like that. Truly a unique presentation in film history and something people don't talk about enough. Some people felt like Coppola's powers kind of declined a bit towards the end, but I dare them to find a director who was that sharp and that innovative at Coppola's age. Aside from maybe Godard, I don't think that director exists.

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Technical_Drawing838 t1_j6m8yfr wrote

I'm a huge fan of Coppola and I didn't know anything about this either. Thanks for informing me. I'm going to go read the articles on it now.

I always thought he should've went with his original title of Twixt Now and Sunrise. This new title isn't quite that but it's close enough.

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TheRealProtozoid OP t1_j6m9z5n wrote

If you find any details, please let me know!

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Technical_Drawing838 t1_j6mbb3l wrote

I didn't find many details. I read about six articles and they all said pretty much the same things.

It's 9 minutes shorter than the original which at first sounds disappointing but it doesn't mean that there aren't new scenes added or that there isn't a drastic rearranging of scenes.

There's a quote from Coppola saying this version is more personal to him so this suggests that it's very different from the original.

One thing I found disappointing is that the cover art is basically the same as the original, just with the new title added. I wish they had taken this opportunity to come up with some striking new cover art.

There's a mildly amusing tagline: A new twist on the film Twixt.

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TheRealProtozoid OP t1_j6mc9lx wrote

Thanks, but yeah, that's all I found, too.

My impression was that the Coppola quote about the film being personal was in regards to the original cut, but I may be mistaken.

And I've seen various running times listed in different articles. Blu-Ray.com says it's 95 minutes. Amazon says 2 hours 19 minutes. Most articles say 79 minutes but I think I saw ones that said 88 or 89, which is about the same as the first cut (88 minutes).

I saw one article mention a revised ending. That's the only specific thing I've heard about what has changed.

If it's 79 minutes and has a revised ending, I'm hoping the entire movie has been tinkered with. Tightened up, maybe some rough edges sanded down, maybe some improvements in editing here and there, maybe new color grade.

The more changes, the better. I find recuts by auteur directors fascinating.

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Technical_Drawing838 t1_j6mk0h7 wrote

Yeah, Coppola's quote about the film being personal probably was about the original cut; but I know what scene he's referring to when he says the film's personal and maybe he added to that scene in this new cut.

I didn't know there were a whole bunch of different runtimes listed. All the ones I saw were 79 minutes and that's probably what it is which is disappointing because I'd definitely like it if the film were longer.

I also find recuts by auteur directors fascinating. I have almost every cut Oliver Stone made of Alexander (just need to get the theatrical version) and I plan on finally watching all the different cuts of Blade Runner. And of course I'll eventually be getting all of Coppola's new cuts of his films. I already have The Cotton Club- Encore.

Another disappointing thing about this new version of Twixt is that there won't be new special features released with it.

But I'm very glad it exists and I'll be buying it as soon as I can.

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TheRealProtozoid OP t1_j6pf1r2 wrote

The different cuts of Alexander are fascinating. I know some people thought it was ridiculous, but each new cut was making millions of dollars in profit in the home video market of that era. It was the perfect scenario for Oliver Stone to use trial-and-error to find the best cut. And honestly, a film of that size probably needed to be edited for ten years.

It's similar with Apocalypse Now, which was such a huge editing job that Coppola had to try out at least four different cuts (Cannes, theatrical, Redux, Final) before he felt like he had addressed all of the challenges. And Final Cut really feels like he finally found the right balance and smoothed everything out. I think there was an awkward jump cut at one point in every edit until Final Cut, where he finally, decades later, figured out how to fix it.

Maybe most impressive to me is The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, because it's the most extensively revised. It's a complete overhaul of the movie, a complete re-think of the structure and focus of the movie. It doesn't feel as perfectly-honed as Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, but it feels like it works a lot better than the previous cuts. With more skill and more distance, he really addressed the core issues in an editorially insightful way.

Coppola is a very clever editor. So is Stone. Their recuts are fascinating.

With Blade Runner, I think I slightly prefer the work print to the theatrical/international cut, but generally, you can see each cut improving over the last. Final Cut > Director's Cut > Workprint > Theatrical/International. I'm a little surprised that there is any controversy about the Final Cut being the best one. That seems obvious to me. Same with the Final Cut of Apocalypse Now.

Too bad there isn't a bigger market for recuts like in the golden age of DVD. I wish there was more support and incentive for filmmakers to recut their movies if they want to. As long as the original version is available, I say keep remixing and refining all day long.

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