Autocrats

This is yet another fantastic episode of the best series on silent films and Hollywood. Like the rest, it's incredibly easy to watch, filled with great interviews and film clips and is stuffed with great information and anecdotes. This particular one focuses on two early autocratic film directors, Erich von Stroheim and Cecil B. DeMille. Both, in my opinion, are highly overrated and both had very different outcomes in their careers. Von Stroheim basically destroyed his career because he was pathologically unable to work with any reasonable constraints. Many examples of his adversarial and excessive behaviors are given and I loved the interviewee who tried to give a psychological perspective on the man--it seemed dead on! As for DeMille, he was not a particularly nice guy (at least to most) and was incredibly dictatorial BUT he delivered successful films. While I would NOT agree he was a true genius (for every wonderful film he made, he made others that were just god-awful-- such as "Sign of the Cross"), he was successful and knew how to market himself. The similarities between them and differences are highlighted. Excellent throughout...