5 out of 5

covers season 1

You could call it a less indulgent seeming Inside the Actors Studio, or a retrospective film commentary, or however you wanted to pitch it; the idea is simple – to have a director sit down and chat with another director – but the outcome is undeniably fascinating to anyone even moderately interested in film, regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the director sitting down and chatting.  The key to this is the director sitting in the other chair – Robert Rodriguez – who, having established himself as a respected one-man act in indie Hollywood, capable of making critical and financial hits while still churning out projects that he clearly finds fun, comes across as so sincere with his interest in those he interviews, while obviously being able to offer his own insights based on their responses.  This was the concept for the show, as Rodriguez repeats in various episodes: to open up the discussion in a different way to normal interviews by having two people familiar with the business discuss it.  And it absolutely works: while it seems RR has an off-screen rapport with some of these guys, there also just seems to be a mutual respect, and the directors look incredibly at ease answering the questions, not thinking about how to “sell” something, or maybe dress the story up for a more general audience.  Even though it’s easy to sort of dismiss the overall selection process for the Chair as just being people Rodriguez wants to interview, or already knows, since the outcome is still so great, it hardly ends up mattering.  And inevitably your favorite film might not get discussed, and / or the TV episode runtime edits out a larger answer you might’ve wanted to hear; it’s also frustrating but understandable that the “questions from other directors” segment gets dropped halfway through the season.  Regardless, I could watch hundreds of these, as long as Rodriguez remains the interviewer.

And of course, one of the best things to come out of stuff like this is a renewed interest to get into a director’s work, even if it’s a name you feel like you’re already familiar with, like Michael Mann, or Robert Zemeckis.  …Because I certainly have plenty of time to watch the 20 more classic films it’ll add to my queue…