The Sweetest Sound

Rating:
Summary: highly recommended
Review: I was lucky to be able to attend a showing of Alan Berliner's new 'The Sweetest Sound' last night for free with a following Q&A by the director.

The Sweetest Sound is about the director's obsession with his own name, and his selfishness of wanting to be the only one to have that name. He goes through a process of interviewing friends, studying old footage, and eventually having a dinner party with the 12 other Alan Berliners of the world (which he obsessively tracks down). A very fun experience, well written by Berliner.

The only gripe is that it dragged in parts as the subject matter never veers.

The director's father is the greatest interviewee, and it's sad to hear that he passed away a month and a half ago. There is however a movie that Berliner completed on his father a few years back which is even better entitled Nobody's Business.

Berliner has been touring the country showing this fine piece of work off, and all his movies can also be seen on PBS. He was very genial, and even stopped in the middle of answering questions to say 'Bless You' to those who sneezed or 'Thanks for coming' to people who left.

The one thing that didn't ring true with me however was Berliner's claims to not be a documentarian, as this clearly fits in with such other notables in insight as Ross McElwee and Errol Morris. I guess he's not willing to succumb to genres, but this movie is very reminscent in style of a light-hearted Thin Blue Line. It still comes highly recommended.

And in case you're wondering, this movie floors all of Alain Berliner's combined.

Rating:
Summary: highly recommended
Review: I was lucky to be able to attend a showing of Alan Berliner's new 'The Sweetest Sound' last night for free with a following Q&A by the director.

The Sweetest Sound is about the director's obsession with his own name, and his selfishness of wanting to be the only one to have that name. He goes through a process of interviewing friends, studying old footage, and eventually having a dinner party with the 12 other Alan Berliners of the world (which he obsessively tracks down). A very fun experience, well written by Berliner.

The only gripe is that it dragged in parts as the subject matter never veers.

The director's father is the greatest interviewee, and it's sad to hear that he passed away a month and a half ago. There is however a movie that Berliner completed on his father a few years back which is even better entitled Nobody's Business.

Berliner has been touring the country showing this fine piece of work off, and all his movies can also be seen on PBS. He was very genial, and even stopped in the middle of answering questions to say 'Bless You' to those who sneezed or 'Thanks for coming' to people who left.

The one thing that didn't ring true with me however was Berliner's claims to not be a documentarian, as this clearly fits in with such other notables in insight as Ross McElwee and Errol Morris. I guess he's not willing to succumb to genres, but this movie is very reminscent in style of a light-hearted Thin Blue Line. It still comes highly recommended.

And in case you're wondering, this movie floors all of Alain Berliner's combined.