... how can you make such documentary, interview sven nyquist, yet show no frame of his work? i am sure that many people find many people missing, yet sven is really admired as one of the very best ever and i have immediately tons of frames of his work in mind, more than from any other DOP ...nevertheless it is a great piece and does not become unnecessary detailed in technical issues. i am not entirely sure about the selection of material they presented. but this is necessarily highly subjective. yet i would have wished to see more of Japanese and European cinema. the more i think about it the more i feel that i find it great that they produced this tribute to cinematographers, but i am more and more unhappy by the way they did it. leaves with the taste of a too clean feature film. too little risk. so i change my vote from initially 9 to 6.

No reason really to give the film a typical rating as its not really a typical movie. It's compilation of many, many film clips that illustrate the power of cinema, as corny as it might sound, over the past century or so. It gives almost all of the key times of- at least American- film, and it gives the main players in as much director-wise and cinematography as can be. The big editing techniques are established as well, stretching across from the early silents to modern times (as far as 1992 anyway). As an introductory lesson you could do a lot worse I'm sure, though it pales in comparison to, for example, the Scorsese documentaries on American and Italian cinema. It runs through the basics pretty clearly, gives some very excellent clips (one or two perhaps unexpected, and maybe a few never seen), and then leaves in its relatively short running time. For film professors (the one I had the first time at any rate), this is a keeper as one of the films to show, I suppose. It gives the students and other casual film viewers its due, though it could've been more.

Documentary on the art of cinematography, with a handful of revered directors of photography reflecting on their heroes and mentors, on films which inspired them and (selected) projects they've worked on. Despite a lot of smart talk and amusing anecdotes, this project is colorful and entertaining without being especially enlightening (for instance, only Gordon Willis cites a regret--a sequence from "The Godfather Part II"). Some incredible (and Oscar-winning) DP's like Geoffrey Unsworth, Harry Stradling and Peter Bizou are not even invited to the fore, which is disappointing, and the film clips are certainly on the lean side (hardly anything from the 1950s), but what is here is enjoyable, if not intriguing. Financed by the American Film Institute for PBS and Japanese equivalent NHK. **1/2 from ****

I was a film student in college, but my primary interest was in the story/writing end. While I wasn't totally into the directing and cinematography aspects, I did have a lot of exposure to it, being that the University of Utah film program forces you to have a well-rounded background in all the basics of film-making.I was also a teacher's assistant in college to a great film professor, who made it a habit of showing this documentary to his classes to introduce them to the field they were getting into. After the three times I was "forced" to watch this piece, I can truly say I gained a treasured respect and appreciation for the mechanics of film. Yes it's story..yes it's acting...but really, the story is conveyed through images--and best conveyed through images captured by those who know what they're doing. There is so much thought that goes into being a good DP--being aware of your surroundings, lighting, being innovative enough to solve problems (because they come up a lot), and how to make an actor look good or how to get the best shot of something. Rather than explaining like a text book "how to be a good DP," the film is composed of a series of documentary type interviews and clips from influential films over the years--films like "Sunrise" from the silent era, to modern films like "Days of Heaven," "Raging Bull," and "The Godfather." They give a good summary of the best examples of DP work, as well as highlighting why a particular cinematographer was viewed as a master in his field.This is a well put -together piece, and I'd definitely recommend it.