A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)

A British documentary directed by Martin Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson.
The famous film director, Martin Scorsese narrates his perspective on the history of American films.
This seemed very professional and cohesive. I just wish he had included the period of his career and his contemporaries in the timeline. Clocking in somewhere between 3 and 4 hours, it's engineered for those with a deep interest in movies and filmmaking.The information density was just about right. He spoke on each topic and showed clips for enough time that the viewer could digest the information without getting tired of it. There was the main interview with Scorsese himself and this was supplemented by possibly second hand footage of interviews with other directors who further illustrate the points that Scorsese is making. The whole "documentaries about movies" genre interests me a great deal. The interviewees on this type of film are talking about their job, but there's a meta level at which they are speaking about what is happening right then and what they are currently a part of, like standing between 2 mirrors or like Russian dolls. The camera-work for the main interview was as dull as it gets. He was always in the center of the frame, looking at the unmoving camera on a tripod. There was some zoom or cropping used, but that was all. Showing clips from the films that he spoke of was the best part. It illustrated his point while adding interest. I thought the audio all sounded right. Even switching between the main interview, secondary interviews and film clips, there were not noticeable volume differences. IMDb has an 8.6/10 rating listed and Rotten Tomatoes lists 100% Tomatometer with 96% Audience Score for an average of 94%. That's one of the best scores I've seen on any consensus average. I thought it was a fine documentary and very professionally made, but a solid A grade seems a little high to me. I rate this adequate. I'll be keeping it with the rest of my "films about films" and would recommend it to anyone who is interested enough in the subject to watch something over 3 hours long.