Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt was inspired by a nightmare and edited in real-time
In short: Born from a dream, Francis Ford Coppola’s 2011 horror film Twixt blurs the line between reality and the subconscious. Starring Val Kilmer as a struggling novelist, the film explores a murder mystery through both waking life and surreal dreamscapes, even featuring live re-edits during its initial festival tour.
The origins of Twixt lie in a nightmare Francis Ford Coppola experienced, which he recorded on his phone immediately upon waking. He envisioned a gothic romance that could be produced near his home base in Napa County, California, rather than requiring a distant location. The film was shot using Sony HDW-F900 and Red digital cameras, with additional filming occurring in Lake County, including Clearlake, Kelseyville, and Nice. The narrative follows Hall Baltimore, a writer who becomes entangled in a small-town murder mystery involving a local sheriff and a spectral figure named V. As Hall navigates these events, he encounters a dream-version of the town guided by Edgar Allan Poe, eventually confronting his own repressed guilt over his daughter's death.
A unique aspect of the film's production was its experimental distribution. During its 2011 festival run, including the American Film Market, Coppola occasionally re-edited the film live, adjusting the sequence of scenes based on audience reactions. This fluid approach to storytelling mirrored the film's central theme of navigating between two worlds: the waking world and the dream world. The project also marked an on-screen reunion for former spouses Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley, with a score composed by musician Dan Deacon.
Critical reception of Twixt was notably polarized. While some reviewers dismissed the film as flimsy or unwatchable, and The Hollywood Reporter criticized the dream sequences as tepid, other outlets offered high praise. Variety described it as a disarmingly cheeky trifle, and the French magazine Cahiers du cinéma ranked it as the third-best film of 2012. Following its initial limited international release, the film saw a resurgence in 2022 with the theatrical debut of a re-edited director's cut titled B'Twixt Now and Sunrise, which was subsequently released on digital and Blu-ray in early 2023.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Twixt (film)
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