Inner Views: Filmmakers in Conversation

Breskin's interesting new volume presents fuller versions of seven interviews with noted filmmakers that previously appeared in Rolling Stone . Breskin's interviews are raw and often hard-hitting (in graphic language, Oliver Stone talks about the bitter lessons he learned while incarcerated on marijuana smuggling charges) and informative (Francis Coppola's take on his experience as a ``director for hire'' after the collapse of his Zoetrope studio). Yet frequently these conversations are rambling and unfocused. Ranging from veteran filmmakers Robert Altman and Coppola to younger directors such as Spike Lee and Tim Burton, this motley collection seems to be united only by Breskin's sense that each is an aut e ur . This judgment is not enough to pull the volume together. The filmographies provided for each director are also haphazard and list some but not all the television work of those profiled. Breskin provides good introductions to each interview, though some of his critical judgments are questionable. (Nov.)