Review: GREAT DIRECTORS

Filmmaker Angela Ismailos decides that the best way to learn about cinema is by interviewing several veteran movie directors. This is the central idea for the new documentary, THE GREAT DIRECTORS. I would say that the film offers an overview of the world’s best filmmakers, but the interview subjects are from North America and Europe. It’s a shame that the Middle East, Asia, India, and Australia are not represented. Perhaps they will be included in a follow-up sequel. The directors included offer some interesting insights into the history of cinema.

A talk with Italian filmmaker, Bernardo Bertolucci who relates a story about a childhood encounter with Pier Paolo Pasolini that sparked an interest in cinema, begins the film. Later he talks about his work including his censor problems over LAST TANGO IN PARIS (some countries banned it for decades). In France we meet Catherine Briellant who also had many battles over sex scenes in her films such as A REAL YOUNG GIRL. Ismailos talks with another French female director, Agnes Varda, about her New Wave film, CLEO 5 TO 7. A jump across the pond takes us to one of the more animated cinema personalities, David Lynch. He talks about his first big film, ERASERHEAD, and how midnight theatre audiences embraced it. He was then brought into the major studio system by Mel Brooks(!) to make a film of the stage hit THE ELEPHANT MAN. Lynch offers a warning to beginning filmmakers by way of his difficulties bringing DUNE to the screen (“Always get final cut!”). This may be the reason that TV versions of DUNE include a director credit to Alan Smithee. Luckily Lynch was given complete freedom with BLUE VELVET and continued on to make many interesting films. In England we meet Ken Loach and Stephen Frears, who both got their start directing films for the BBC until political forces sent them into theatrical feature films. Loach seems content to make the smaller budget dramas and comedies in Britain while Fears has enjoyed diving into the big budget studio films. Back in the USA, Todd Haynes and John Sayles are interviewed. Haynes talks of his admiration for Douglas Sirk and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, while Sayles relates stories of how he balances being a script doctor on big Hollywood films and making more personal small budget films. Italy’s Liliana Cavani tells of the controversy surrounding her most popular film, THE NIGHT PORTER. American Richard Linklater vents his frustration over the response to his first studio film, THE NEWTON BOYS. In all this documentary includes a good variety of different directors.

The style of this film is similar to many other documentaries. Most of the time we get close ups of the directors’ faces as they tell their stories inter-cut with scenes from their films. Unfortunately Ismailos occasionally feels the need to insert a reaction shot of her smiling or nodding at the subject during their interviews. To break things up we get to see her and the directors walking through their homes and neighborhoods similar to a 60 MINUTES piece or a Barbara Walters special. However the film moves along fairly quickly with the subjects edited in at different points so as to not just be featured in one long segment. It would have been nice to hear from some of the more popular box office directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Tarantino, or Lucas, but if you have any interest in the featured filmmakers then it is well worth seeing. Also the many clips of their films offer some great ideas for movie rental nights.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars