Documentaries About Directors

[MortSahlFan]

If you have a link, please paste it - it could bring about more discussion, too.

This is on YouTube in full... Antonioni isn't a favorite of mine, I do like some of his movies, but he is an interesting guy
https://youtu.be/_EUZV6fBe44

[chveik]

Chris Marker on Tarkovsky, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35lETmPDypI

[MortSahlFan]

Vittorio D - 10/10
I just saw a perfect example of how a documentary should be... And it's a documentary on my very favorite director - Vittorio De Sica. I was watching this with pride as if I were his son. I've searched for one in the past, but somehow I ran into this while browsing Amazon Prime, which I know many have, and should check out. I never heard De Sica speaking English, so there are limitations on knowing everything you can about the man, but his movies speak on his poetic yet realistic humanity.... I liked how it divided into segment... You had "The Director", "The Actor", "The Man", "The Gambler", "The Father", etc.

You don't see any young "flavor of the month" directors or actors, not because they don't know him, but because whoever produced it made sure he got the best of the best..

Featured in this documentary
-Clint Eastwood
-Woody Allen
-Sophia Loren
-Federic Fellini
-Ken Loach
-Mike Leigh
-Shirley MacLaine
-Ettore Scola (great Italian director)
-Mario Monicello
-Paul Mazursky (who told De Sica that he was stealing "Umberto D" to make (my favorite movie), "Harry and Tonto"
-Dino DeLaurentis (great producer)
and many others, including his family and friends.

[peanutbutter]

Man, I liked Harry and Tonto but I'd've hated it if I went into it comparing it to Umberto D (an all time fave).
Where's the De Sica doc available atm?  Just Amazon Prime? Looks like somehting I'd check out.


Wenders done one Ozu didn't he? and Marker done one on Kurosawa too

[El Unicornio, mang]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UnR9wihUN4

French documentary about Martin Scorsese from 1991. Not your typical docu, they basically just hang out in his offices filming whatever happens so it's more fly-on-the-wall. Michael Powell also makes an appearance (he was married to Thelma Schoonmaker at the time). Fascinating, rare insight.

[MortSahlFan]

Man, I liked Harry and Tonto but I'd've hated it if I went into it comparing it to Umberto D (an all time fave).
Where's the De Sica doc available atm?  Just Amazon Prime? Looks like somehting I'd check out.


Wenders done one Ozu didn't he? and Marker done one on Kurosawa too

Umberto D is one of my favorite movies, a 10/10, but I just love "Harry and Tonto"... The writing, acting, stories. And yeah, I couldn't find it anywhere else, so I just quickly made an account. I HIGHLY recommend it. The 90 minutes went by so fast.

Speaking of Chris Marker, I'm not sure if he did, but his "Joli Mai" documentary was very good, similar to Louis Malle's "Place de la Republique". I also liked Pasolini's "Meetings" where also asks people on the street provocative questions. And speaking of Pasolini, here's an interesting documentary about him I've seen a few times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEOADd9nuKE

[Dropshadow]

Saw "The Ghost of Peter Sellers" on Sunday, about the director Peter Medak and his experiences directing Sellers in the film "Ghost in the Noonday Sun".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Peter_Sellers

I didn't like it at all as it was mostly Medak whining about how awful Sellers was and how it had a negative impact on his life. The grudge he's held for 40-odd years, though, is an amazing thing to witness. The critics seemed to like this; I can't see why.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Saw "The Ghost of Peter Sellers" on Sunday, about the director Peter Medak and his experiences directing Sellers in the film "Ghost in the Noonday Sun".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Peter_Sellers

I didn't like it at all as it was mostly Medak whining about how awful Sellers was and how it had a negative impact on his life. The grudge he's held for 40-odd years, though, is an amazing thing to witness. The critics seemed to like this; I can't see why.

I did quite like it but at the same time I agree with you about Medak being annoying, and wish it had been made by someone with an objective viewpoint. The way he slams Sellers throughout the film but then at the end goes on about how much he loved him and how amazing he thought he was felt ridiculous too, but despite all of that I found the story of the making of the film really interesting, and the footage of the lost movie was really fun. Though on that front I again felt annoyed as I discovered afterwards that it was released in the 80s on video, and then on dvd a couple of years before the documentary was made, so it's not as if it was the only way to see scenes from the movie.

[Enrico Palazzo]

The Altman documentary is on Now TV. It's fairly fawning but still enjoyable if you're a fan.

[MortSahlFan]

Probably my 2nd favorite - Luchino Visconti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4G7b3tpn3Q

[greenman]

Mentioned on here awhile ago but Kubrick's Boxes.

https://vimeo.com/322890808

[sevendaughters]

bit of an odd one but William Greaves' Symbiopsychotaxiplasm is a film, a making of, and a making of the making of in one: all slightly fictionalised, but also really interesting and insightful as I genuinely don't think the crew on the making of were clued in and think he's a total asshole.

[prwc]

I just mentioned it in the American Movie thread but I can't recommend Giuseppe Makes A Movie if you want a look at genuinely DIY filmmaking.

The Sarnos, a life in dirty movies I thought was wonderful too, genuinely moving towards the end.

I haven't gotten around to it but I've just realized the Criterion blu-ray of Ugetsu includes a documentary on Kenji Mizoguchi by Kaneto Shindô. They were both masters so it should be well worth a look.

[Dropshadow]

I did quite like it but at the same time I agree with you about Medak being annoying.....

I've been trying to explain to myself why I reacted so badly to this doc. I think it's because Medak reminds me of Werner Herzog. Same kind of voice/accent, even looks a bit like him. I love Herzog's films, but I loathe his documentaries. The presentation? His interviewing technique? Bad choice of talking heads? It's weird, but I just happened to watch his doc on travel-writing homosexual Bruce Chatwin the weekend before and I couldn't finish it. Nothing to do with Bruce; it's Werner. These things happen.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Sarnos, a life in dirty movies I thought was wonderful too, genuinely moving towards the end.

Just found this on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Zgb_iB_rQ - so that's this afternoon's viewing sorted (Probably a bit obvious, but this is very NSFW).

Edit: And here's my mini-review of it:

The Sarnos - A Life In Dirty Movies (2013) - Documentary about an essentially feminist and quite unusual soft core pornographer (one of his 70's films sees a woman

Spoiler alert

burst in to tears after failing to orgasm while masturbating

[close]

, for instance), whose best work was made in the 60's and 70s. It's a bit disingenuous as it suggests that his career fell apart when hard core porn became popular in the late 70's and 80's, whereas apparently he made about 50 odd hardcore films, but otherwise it's fascinating material, as well as his past work a large chunk of the film looks at the relationship he had with his wife,

Spoiler alert

and his failed attempt at making

[close]

one last film, and despite the subject matter it's often quite sweet and touching. 7.4/10

[RicoMNKN]

Wenders done one Ozu didn't he? and Marker done one on Kurosawa too

I just saw Tokyo-Ga, the Wenders one (it is on the BFI Player's subscription channel).
Enjoyable stuff, but it felt like a wiki rabbit hole that starts as being about Ozu before getting distracted and ends up talking about subjects such as how fake food is made.

[MortSahlFan]

"The Road To Bresson" (I see its online, just not sure if I can include the link).. If you type it on Google, it should come up.

[MortSahlFan]

S is for Stanley Kubrick
https://youtu.be/dIw0suZB_Us

[wosl]

This conventional, solid and nice-looking Japanese-made two hour Ozu documentary from '83, 'I Lived, But...', was/is included as part of Criterion's Tokyo Story set. It dates from '83, when many of those who worked with him were still around to be interviewed for it.

[MortSahlFan]

British documentary on Robert Altman
https://youtu.be/JFiWrBmE7sE

[MortSahlFan]

John Cassavetes: To Risk Everything To Express It All

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqI-XeWttGU&t=733s