Great Directors

United States

2009

90 Min

Color

English

Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
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CAST Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Todd Haynes, Angela Ismailos, Richard Linklater, Ken Loach, David Lynch, John Sayles, Agnès Varda

ED Christina Burchard, Sabine Hoffmann

Great Directors, directed by Angela Ismailos, features original, in-depth conversations with nine of the world’s greatest living directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles. The film documents Ismailos’ voyage of discovering the creative personalities behind the camera. She explores the filmmakers’ artistic evolution and personal identity, the role of politics and history on their work, and the agony and dilemmas in the creative process. It also examines the challenges of being an artist in an age of commercialism and globalization. The film traces the influence of cinematic movements and iconic directors on these directors’ work-from the role of Neo-Realism in Bertolucci’s evolution to the influence of Federico Fellini on David Lynch, Ingmar Bergman on Catherine Breillat and Rainer Werner Fassbinder on Todd Haynes. –IMDb

Director

Angela Ismailos

Angela Ismailos – director, actor, writer – directed and produced Great Directors, a film that captures—through archival material and in-depth interviews—the essence and independent spirit of ten of the world’s legendary living directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Ken Loach, David Lynch, John Sayles, and Agnes Varda. Ismailos studied law and earned her master’s degree in political science. She began directing plays at a very early age and has professionally studied opera all of her adult life. Her diverse educational background inspired her to pursue the art of cinema. Ismailos continues to live and work in New York. She is currently preparing her next feature film, The City of A Dead Woman. ––Wikipedia

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Andre Rehal

9Apr12

It was ok, would have benefitted from being a television series as we would have had more time with each director featured in the film.

jordaan mason

2Feb12

not the best documentary formally, but the dvd has a ton of extra footage with each director that is well worth watching if you are a fan of any of these people. there was 50 extra minutes of interviews with todd haynes, for example, that really go into the depths of his career (he even recounts some of his films he made as a teenager), and david lynch's amazing hand gestures are always a great watch.

Mitch Fillion and ramosbarajas like this

Cynthia

29Jan12

i found this interesting & appreciated all the interviews and what all the directors had to say. although i agree the doc itself could have been structured better i don't think it deserves the amount of slack it seems to be getting. i enjoyed it.

Michael Harbour

19Jan12

Some interesting comments by a variety of interesting directors but the whole thing seems kind of random and arbitrary. I suppose if I had the money to do so (as Angela Ismailos apparently does) making a film like this would be a good excuse to spend some time with people I admire.