GREAT DIRECTORS
Produced & Directed by Angela Ismailos
Written by Nebbou & Cyril Gomez-Mathieu
Released by Anisma Films/Paladin
USA. 86 min. Not Rated  
 

The unfocused but on the whole entertaining Great Directors features a scattering of influential directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnčs Varda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater and, for some reason most fleetingly, John Sayles and the off-the-radar Liliana Cavani. All give self-effacing and insightful interviews.  

I was entertained and engaged, but whether this would be entertaining enough for non-cinephiles is doubtful. Those who feel they already know their stuff will encounter the inevitable sense that some key players have been left out. Here, though, it’s fair to assume that these are the favorites whom filmmaker Angela Ismailos finds of particular significance. All hail exclusively from Europe and North America, which she herself notes.

Ismailos has made no films herself and is not a known critic or academic, so I didn’t find her compelling as an individual. As a result, the manner in which she included shots of herself alone, looking serious in various locations, and her awkward narration were distracting. There seemed to be some confusion as to whether this was a film about her personal voyage of discovery or the selection of interesting tidbits from well-known directors, which it remained in most part. Despite a somewhat meandering direction, the illustrative clips from movies were succinct and well chosen.

It might have been more rewarding if the documentary had solely focused on the differing perspectives of each visionary—what shaped and inspired their personas as filmmakers. Or perhaps just fewer filmmakers in the time frame, allowing more in-depth analysis, but then that’s the expected shortcoming of such a doc: too much and yet not enough.

Overall, Ismailos is to be commended for the relaxed and candid interviews she has elicited from the greats in question. There’s an unpretentious air to all of them (save for Catherine Breillat). The freewheeling style allows a kind of playful train of thought, and the contextualization of the history and politics that formed them as artists is also integrated with a light touch.

Probably the most memorable moments are from an effervescent Lynch, who, it would seem, has had a somewhat charmed existence, counterpointed charmingly with the other filmmakers’ tales of woe and struggle. This is perhaps always the point of such films—to try in some way to express the passion which drives such people to keep creating—and in its breezy way this documentary reveals such fleeting moments. Oliver Irving
July 2, 2010