Great Directors

Great Directors (2009)

*** (out of 4)

Angela Ismailos' documentary has her traveling around the world interviewing ten different directors who all bring something different to filmmaking. Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Ken Loach, David Lynch, John Sayles and Agnes Varda are the ten directors interviewed for the film. Ismailos starts the film off with a brief description of what she was wanting to do and while I'm sure people could debate these ten directors being the greatest living it's really not a big deal because the documentary is really a lot of fun and I think film buffs should really enjoy the conversations. We deal with all sorts of subjects including how the directors fell in love with cinema, their influences, certain mistakes in their careers and their opinions on doing something personal compared to working with Hollywood. Some of the most interesting stories come from Lynch who is pretty open about things and tells some nice stories including how Mel Brooks had to see ERASERHEAD before allowing him to direct THE ELEPHANT MAN. Lynch also talks about his time on DUNE and his feelings on BLUE VELVET and LOST HIGHWAY. Frears is also an interesting subject as he talks about why he had success in America but decided to come back to Britain to make films. The controversial Breillat is another nice subject as she talks about the struggles of making the movies that she does as well as being a female doing it. Fans of these filmmakers will certainly enjoy listening to them go over their careers and there are certainly a lot of interesting ideas discussed.