Room 666

Herzog's response is great. Fassbinder's response is pleasant and extremely brief. Most everyone else I can take or leave, either because they were indulgent, meandering, or apathetic. Spielberg's response was astute, yet it's sad to see him claim the problems within the film industry revolve around people with money wanting grand slams that please everyone when that is quite literally the definition of his career. I got a kick out of the "Cinema will surely be dead soon" responses.

Despite the low score the start of Herzog's section was awesome.

There's only one word for this kind of film. Indulgent. I mean, I guess another word would be masturbation. Two more might be self-gratification. This type of introspection is incredibly pretentious, and doesn't really add anything useful to the cultural conversation. Everybody seems to speak with authority, but they're also utterly clueless. Nobody knows. The only people who are going to get their kicks from this movie are people who already share its worldview. Where's the fun in that?

Interesting time capsule, nicely tied together by Wenders.

Antonioni has some prescient commentary, and the final piece touches on important information. Suture Self has said the rest. Herzog's segment made me think of the pencil scene with Will Smith in MiB. It's kind of astonishing that you could get all of these people in a room (alone) and still end up with a mostly wasted 40 minute piece.

In some ways its disappointing how short this is, both with the entire film and some of the directors' segments, and yet there is enough in this to show a mirror to the period and still raise relevant issues about cinema now. Even the very brief segments provoke ideas, although it is Hellman, Godard, Herzog (who is the only person who turns off the TV strategically placed within camera frame), Antonioni, Morrissey and Spielberg who intrigued the most with their views.

Not as engrossing as I thought it would be -- most interviews are just too brief or the filmmaker is not interested in talking at all --, but there are some gems here, like Antonioni's optimism, Godard's mysterious, kinda sinister way to say what he thinks and Herzog turning off the television and taking off his shoes before his contribution.

Fassbinder died a month after this was made. He never got to see the future he predicted