Self-destructive journalist Pierre Peders (Steve Buscemi) finds himself assigned the ponderous and extremely uninteresting task of interviewing pop diva, television personality and movie star Katya (Sienna Miller) for his paper. Their night starts badly, but do to an unforeseen chain of events their brief little interview suddenly transforms into an all night chat covering the gamut of fame, celebrity, politics, sex, humanity and passionate intimacy.

CRITIQUE

Interview is one of the best films I saw in 2007. Unfortunately for the picture, 2007 just happened to be one of the most magnificent years on cinematic record (at least during my tenure as a critic) and in the end I wasn’t able to highlight this little independent gem as much as I would have liked.

But my original July 13 opinion on the picture has not changed. This remake of the late Theo van Gogh original is the best thing Buscemi has ever made as a director, this small-scale stunner one of the more refreshing and inventive surprises I had the pleasure of discovering in all of last year.

Between my interview with the filmmaker at last year’s Seattle International Film Festival to my own review of the picture during its theatrical release, Interview is an engagingly intelligent joy impossible to resist and there is little else for me to say about it I already haven't written. Miller has never been better, while Buscemi is so directorially light on his feet it goes without saying he should probably make more films in the same spirit as this one. I loved it, and those looking for something with a bit more zest and a lot more panache than the usual overblown Hollywood spectacle will certainly find exactly what they were looking for here.

THE VIDEO

Interview is presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 Widescreen, the digital transfer as crisp and as clear as it was when I saw it in the theater.

THE AUDIO

Interview is presented in its original English (Dolby Digital 5.1) audio with optional English or Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

The special features on Sony Pictures Classics’ DVD of Interview are good-not-great. The behind-the-scenes interview piece is nothing more than the usual fluff filler, while the requisite listing of many of the studio’s trailers aren’t exactly invigorating.

The lone featurette, Triple Theo: Take One, is actually quite good, however, detailing the facts behind van Gogh’s tragic murder and the producers’ intent to remake three of his pictures here in the United States. While this short didn’t cover any ground I didn’t already know, I still found watching it an immensely pleasurable experience.

Rounding things out is an audio commentary from co-writer, actor and director Buscemi which, unfortunately, is a tad underwhelming. Maybe I was spoiled from my talk with the filmmaker last summer, but listening to him here was actually something of a slight bore. I expected a bit more insight, a bit more into his directorial process, and while there are moments of this here and there overall the man didn’t really say anything I could get all that excited about.

FINAL THOUGHTS