Good movie commentaries?

ilikechinesefood

ilikechinesefood

New member
What are some good movie commentaries that will give me insight and knowledge about the technical aspects of film making?

What are some other commentaries that are just fun to listen to?

Thanks
 
Some of my favorite informative commentary tracks (in no particular order):

Richard Linklater on Slacker (and also, his commentary for his first super 8mm feature film, It's Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books)

Wes Anderson on The Royal Tenenbaums

Francis Ford Coppola on The Godfather films and Apocalypse Now

Every Scorsese commentary

Any Robert Rodriguez commentary, particularly El Mariachi (I often find his commentaries are better than the movies themselves)

and a personal favorite:

P.T. Anderson's manic Boogie Nights commentary

And the most fun commentaries to listen to:

Any Kevin Smith commentary track.
 
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Bryan Singer and Chris McQuarrie are pretty entertaining on The Usual Suspect. It seems like they don't like each other but have a grudging admiration for their work on the film.
 
my favorites are Sam Mendes on Road to Perdition and American Beauty. He talks about things like why he put the camera there, why he moved it, why he moved it in that direction. Very cool.

Clooney's commentaries on Good Night and Good Luck and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind are pretty funny. He likes to make fun of himself.
 
I enjoy listening to Garry Marshall's commentaries (e.g., PRETTY WOMAN and RUNAWAY BRIDE--his love for his cast and crew and his love of filmmaking really come through).

Anthony Minghella (whose untimely death is a great loss to all of us) had a fantastic commentary on THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.

I am halfway through listening to Sydney Pollack (alas, another unfortunate loss) on THE WAY WE WERE, and am enjoying it immensely.

Most of these seem to focus more on the "story" aspects of filmmaking, such as plot construction and editing, but they are very instructive.
 
One of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned would be Soderbergh.

He directed, shot, and edited many of his films so he talks about the entire filmmaking process.
 
I agree about Steven Soderbergh commentaries. The commentary for his movie Schizopolis in particular is really funny.

He also did a really great commentary of the film Catch-22 with Mike Nichols which is really insightful.
 
Robert Rodriguez all the way! I've even taken all of his "Film Schools" and put together a single "Film School" DVD. Planet Terror is my favorite, but El Mariachi is great too. That's where I got my name.
 
cannibal the musical while not a very good movie, has one of the funniest commentary tracks around. brought to you by the boys who make southpark.
thanks
-k-
 
FUN = "300"

Zak Snyder talks about how most of the film was shot on a single set piece, and then jokes about everything being CGI.
 
+1 on American Beauty and Fight Club...and I'd also add Se7en to the list. It's partially Fincher himself, but I think it's his influence on the commentary's structure and content that's superior to his own spoken words. Darius Khondji freaks out about Kino Flos and gets super-detailed. Fincher goes off on art direction and represents production design very well. Sound designer Ren Klyce and composer Howard Shore tag team on the sound, with whole chunks of the movie remixed to just foley, just ambiences, just score.

Maybe not entertaining in a riotous sense, but more filmmaking insights per minute than I've seen anywhere. Less about techniques, but a lot more about decisionmaking and process.
 
Without a doubt, the best, most educational and inspirational commentary track I have ever heard for an indie filmmaker is on The Brothers McMullen.
 
Hi,
This is my first post here, I've been reading many posts here, amazing forum, that's all I want to say.

I am really searching for commentaries, but here in my country, it's not possible to get those special edition dvds, is there any transcripts for commentaries? :(
 
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