Great Directors Review
By David Kempler
Great Directors, Except for The One Behind This
Someone thought it would be a great idea to interview ten "great" directors. That someone would be Angelina Ismailos, an aspiring great director, who wrote and directed this for-the-most-part pointless film. What is impressive is that she did get some of them to agree to sit down and be interviewed by her. Then again, a director asked to appear in a film called "Great Directors" would have to be at least somewhat flattered to be asked. Or, maybe Ms. Ismailos had dirt on them and they had no choice but to be a part of the party. In the end, we are left with a documentary that tells us almost nothing of value or of very much interest.
To be clear, there are some very talented directors being interviewed here, including Todd Haynes, David Lynch, Bernardo Bertolucci and Catherine Breillat. But as interesting as these people might be, Ms. Ismailos makes sure that we will never find out if that is the case. Her "probing" questions are dull and as un-provoking as a sleeping drunk at your local tavern. Supporting footage is added to the mix, but at times doesn't add a whit to what we are watching. It almost seems to be spliced in at random, as if an editor dropped the pieces on the floor and then placed them in the film at points where they don't clearly belong.
Agnès Varda may be the only exception here. Her interview portrays as her as being both sweet and thoughtful. The others interviewed have the occasional non-boring moments, but it's hard to believe that, with so much talent and creativity available to Ms. Ismailos, she couldn't extract more than she has in this gabfest. I couldn't help but think that if anyone took a video camera and interviewed any ten people at random that they wouldn't have come up with something far more interesting than this.
