Escapes: The Life of Actor and Screenwriter, Hampton Fancher
Grasshopper Film
•
1h 29m
Directed by Michael Almereyda • Documentary • With Hampton Fancher • 2017 • 89 minutes
Directed by Michael Almereyda (Experimenter) and executive produced by Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Escapes blazes a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. (Fancher also penned the story for its sequel, Blade Runner 2049.) A consummate raconteur, Fancher recounts episodes from his remarkable life — romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship — matched with a parallel world of film and TV footage wherein Fancher plays cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape a medium’s future.
"Thoroughly charming... Part of the pleasure of Escapes is how Mr. Almereyda, drawing deeply from the American pop archives... connects the original Blade Runner to Mr. Fancher’s life with its movie love, romanticism, beautiful women and mad, circuitous rides. Critic's Pick!" — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Up Next in Grasshopper Film
-
Fengming, a Chinese Memoir
Directed by Wang Bing • Documentary • 2017 • 184 minutes
Often cited as one of the great documentary achievements, Wang Bing’s dazzling tour-de-force — a gripping monologue recounting five decades in the life of a once-ardent socialist in the new China — is a testament to the power of oral histo...
-
From What Is Before (Lav Diaz)
Directed by Lav Diaz • Drama • With Perry Dizon, Roeder Camanag, Hazel Orencio • 2014 • 338 minutes
Winner of five prizes at the Locarno Film Festival, including the Golden Leopard for Best Film, Lav Diaz’s follow up to his acclaimed Norte, The End of History is an extraordinary five-and-a-half-...
-
Light Years: Lucrecia Martel and the ...
Directed by Manuel Abramovich • Documentary • With Lucrecia Martel • 2017 • 75 minutes
An illustration of filmmaking’s many stages — mysterious, delirious, playful, frustrated — and complex artistic collaboration with its subject, Manuel Abramovich’s new film concerns Lucrecia Martel during the ...
