Errol Morris: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by Livia Bloom (Editor)

Errol Interviews is an irreverent and humorous collection of conversations with the acclaimed documentary filmmaker. Morris (b. 1948) has created some of America's most innovative, lasting cinematic works. Generations of filmmakers, scholars, cinephiles, and film fans turn again and again to such works as The Thin Blue Line; Fast, Cheap and Out of Control ; Academy Award-winner The Fog of War ; and Standard Operating Procedure .

Throughout his career--which has included stints as a private eye, film programmer, and commercial director--Morris has honed a unique formal and technical cinematic approach. A Morris film is characterized by intense personal interviews; dramatic re-creations; a haunting, modernist musical atmosphere; and a keen sense of complexity, irony, and black humor. With each new film, Morris challenges and redefines what a documentary can be. This volume features startling interviews from throughout his career, as well as intimate, never-before-published discussions.

Genres: Film

286 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2009

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy is just so smart. I was all his movies up until that point in high school in a retrospective at the DFT leading up to the release of "Mr. Death" and had to revisit all of them after diving into this. I always kind of pictured him as more a David Simon type genius, but in these pages it's clear that he's much more of an eccentric weirdo, which just makes it a joy to read. This easily one of the best volumes in the "Conversations With Filmmakers" series.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dejected Berkeley philosophy student holes up at the Pacific Film Archives, sneaks in every time, requires defense by the director of the program, gets involved in programming in order to see free movies, has a deep love for film noir, sees everything by Herzog and Wim Wenders, gets hired as an assistant to Herzog, gets challenged to make Gates of Heaven by Herzog, Herzog offering to eat his shoe if he finally commits to this direction in life, forgets that challenge, makes the film after firing three veteran cameramen offering free work, interviews subjects for hours and edits a masterpiece, his film premiers opposite Herzogs shoe eating spectacle, makes another film, gives up and works as a PI for a few years, makes Thin Blue Line off of an ironical government grant proposal and it's another masterpiece, this time employing both dogged investigation skills and film not chops in a dazzling display of skill.
Inadvertently criticizes the hypocrisy of justice system, makes films with growing pertinence to US government horrors.

Several films are available on the major streaming providers.

Wormwood
The Unknown Known (why is Donald Rumsfeld smiling?)
Standard Operating Procedure

B-Side

Gates of Heaven and Thin Blue Line will be long lived classics.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Redundant after a certain point, but Morris is delightful. The best part is this collection of short thoughts/hilarious musings:
http://www.errolmorris.com/content/gr...