Great Directors: Journalist Fawns, David Lynch Smiles Politely

Anisma Films

Bertolucci gets a softball grilling.

Details

Runs at Varsity, Fri., Aug. 6–Thurs., Aug. 12. Not rated. 86 minutes.

Related Content

• David Lynch's Coffee Poured Exclusively at Fremont's Naos Lounge
  May 17, 2012
• Wild at Heart
  January 11, 2012
• Eraserhead
  January 11, 2012
• The Straight Story
  January 11, 2012
• The Iron Lady: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher
  January 11, 2012

More About

• Ken Loach
• Angela Ismailos
• Todd Haynes
• David Lynch
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Ten interviews with ten "name" American and European directors—including Todd Haynes, David Lynch, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Catherine Breillat—diced into a documentary as asinine and fawning as its title suggests. The first measure of Greatness is agreeing to be interviewed by director Angela Ismailos, whose qualification seems to be her faint resemblance to the late actress Melina Mercouri. Leftist leanings are another evident step, so we hear from John Sayles and Ken Loach—who lets slip one of the film's only candid moments, cautiously noting that his interview is being filmed on a set, not in his actual rolling country garden. Talking to TV vets Loach and Stephen Frears prompts the funniest of Ismailos' unmotivated cutaways to herself, as she poses with serious-face outside BBC headquarters following stock footage of Margaret Thatcher. Interviews are extended with excerpts from films, superficially tied to anything being said and sufficing to remind us of the Great Films these Great Directors oh-so-Greatly made. It's interesting to briefly see Liliana Cavani, but her career is boiled down to The Night Porter; other subjects can be found saying these same things elsewhere (especially annoying Aunt-of-the-New Wave Agnès Varda, an ardent autobiographer). Received ideas, creative-class cheerleading, and outright schmoozing bore—but the yacht party after the Cannes screening sounds awesome!