This is the making-of featurette on the DVD of Fahrenheit 451 from 1966, obviously about said film. It consists of interviews with surviving(R.I.P., you talented artists) cast and crew, clips of the movie, behind the scenes photographs(not particularly footage thereof), and has a running time of 44 minutes. They go into just about anything you'd care to know about it. The themes explored(emotions and the suppression thereof, narcissism, totalitarianism, the loss of humanity, etc.) are covered with examples(this is a great aid if you feel like you missed or did not completely understand something in the adaptation itself), we find out about the production process(the trouble of editing it), the situation between Francois Truffaut and Oskar Werner(it worsened as it went along, and got quite bad), the experimentation that they went through, the approach to the science fiction novel(by Ray Bradbury, no less, etc. It is well worth your time. There is disturbing content in this, mostly in what we see of the motion picture itself(which it does spoil, so please do not watch this first). I recommend this to any fan of the subject of this or any of the people involved in putting it up on the silver screen. 7/10
2 Reviews
An interesting and illuminating retrospective documentary
Woodyanders27 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This 44-minute retrospective documentary covers a lot of informative ground on the making of Francois Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451." Truffaut initially wanted to make the film in French and was persuaded by Universal to do the movie in color instead of black and white in order to broaden its appeal. Jane Fonda and Jean Seberg were both considered for a role that ultimately went to Julie Christie. Moreover, Truffaut disagreed with his frequent star Oskar Werner on Werner's stoic portrayal of the lead character, which ultimately led to Werner purposefully cutting his hair towards the end of the shoot in order to create continuity issues. Author Ray Bradbury was disappointed that the mechanical hound in the book was not featured in the movie, but considers the film's ending to be beautiful. Editor Thom Noble talks about having to use jump cuts in order to make the pages of a book open smoothly. Truffaut expert Annette Insdorf discusses the picture's various themes in compelling detail. Filled with choice clips and behind-the-scenes photos, this is well worth a watch for fans of the film.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
