Directors: Life Behind The Camera (First Run Features DVD Set)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Compilation: B-
You would
think a double DVD set with interviews featuring some of the most important
directors ever would be a guaranteed great set, but despite the content of Directors: Life Behind The Camera (credited
as 2004) coming from the mouths of 33 directors, including Martin Scorsese,
Robert Altman, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, George Lucas, David
Lynch, William Friedkin and others, this version (yes, we have seen this
material before) is so chopped up over the discs that it plays like a set of
crude, interactive extras DVDs to a better set.
The case
claims that this runs four hours, but it would take a while to add up the content
as each clip is about a minute long for each person interviewed, cut (sometimes
badly) out of longer, better interviews and is choppy, choppy, choppy. Maybe this is good for a quick reference, but
to turn smart serious interviews into soundbytes by cutting tiny pieces out and
putting them under topic/question sections plays as desperate and does not do
justice to any of the filmmakers here.
Seek out the original versions instead and only get this set after
obtaining one of those.
The 1.33
X 1 image was culminated from copies of the NTSC analog video shoots, but this
is too soft even for that. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 is simple stereo at best and can have flaws. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
