Multimedia Review

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues—A Musical Journey. Includes seven feature-length films: Feel Like Going Home (Martin Scorsese, director); The Soul of a Man (Wim Wenders, director); The Road to Memphis (Richard Pearce, director); Warming by the Devil’s Fire (Charles Burnett, director); Godfathers and Sons (Marc Levin, director); Red, White & Blues (Mike Figgis, director); Piano Blues (Clint Eastwood, director). Available on VHS and DVD. 7–DVD boxed set includes additional audio commentary, interviews, and live performances. 2003. Sony Music Entertainment (780 minutes; Picture Format 1.85:1; Sound Dolby Digital 5.1; Region 1).

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues—A Musical Journey is a series of seven films, each by a different director, and each reflecting that director’s cinematic style, documentary method, and relationship with the blues. Questions are posed, memories are relived, and lives are explored throughout these films, which utilize a wide palette of techniques and approaches. Some are purely documentary in nature, while others blend narrative with quasi-ethnographic distance. Still others experiment with form, cutting between vignettes devoted to personal histories, musical performances, and artistic re-imaginings of the music. The list of directors contributing to this project reads like a Who’s Who of “serious” filmmakers. In addition to Scorsese, the series features the work of Wim Wenders, Richard Pearce, Charles Burnett, Marc Levin, Mike Figgis, and Clint Eastwood.