Something's Gonna Live

The subtitle to Daniel Raim's documentary—"Six Great Hollywood Cinema Artists on Film Classics"—is no exaggeration. Production designers Robert Boyle, Henry Bumstead, and Albert Nozaki, production designer/storyboard artist Harold Michelson, and cinematographers Conrad Hall and Haskell Wexler were close friends and sometimes collaborators over their long Hollywood careers, who stayed in touch in retirement and semi-retirement. Shot over a period of 10 years, Something's Gonna Live is less of a collective career portrait or conventional Hollywood history than an informal visit with these men as they look back on some of their greatest films, which include The Birds, North By Northwest, To Kill a Mockingbird, and In Cold Blood. It's also a celebration of a particular kind of filmmaking from an earlier era and a reminder of the art's collaborative nature. Each of these artists reflect on their contributions and discuss the creative process and the professional culture in which they worked. These men are a living legacy of the art of cinema in the last half of the 20th century—or rather were, as most died before this profile was finished. A personable, if also sometimes rambling, documentary that would make an interesting addition to any collection of American film classics, DVD extras include additional interviews, deleted scenes, and Raim's Oscar-nominated 2000 short documentary The Man on Lincoln's Nose. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Axmaker)