Quote:
Originally Posted by Gillianren
What do other people think about commentary tracks? I think Rob Reiner shouldn't be allowed to do one on his own--he never seems to know what to say--and that Roger Ebert should be allowed to do as many as he likes. I actually put Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on my Netflix queue for the express purpose of listening to his commentary. I didn't actually watch the movie without it.
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From my small collection of DVDs, the best commentary tracks I have heard are ones by John Frankenheimer:
The Manchurian Candidate,
Seven Days In May,
The Train and
Ronin (too bad they never got a commentary track for
Grand Prix done, before he passed away).
David Cronenberg:
The Fly,
Dead Ringers and
A History Of Violence.
Frankenheimer's are great for the techniques used in film making. Example, from the
Ronin commentary track, he discusses cut-shots while giving the nod to Hitchcock as the master of the technique. The use of natural lighting, during daytime shots during fall/winter in Europe. Car chase scenes, how he learned so much while filming
Grand Prix, that many of those techniques used then, still applied present day. Facial expressions of the actors were genuine, as they were in car, at speed, with stunt drivers.
Cronenberg's are much the same, he discuss techniques used and are informative in general (IMHO).
toejam: I meant to tape
Bleu,
Blanc and
Rouge last year, but forgot. CBC aired the three of them on consecutive late nights. I'll keep an eye out for re-airings.