Is That All There Is?

A self-portrait of British film director Lindsay Anderson, IS THAT ALL THERE IS? provides a fascinating insight into this feisty, cantankerous old man's life and views, but disappointingly little analysis of the director's films.

The film opens with the 1956 Free Cinema Manifesto in which Anderson was a prime mover: "Perfection is not an aim." It then moves into a cinema verite style, following the everyday life of Anderson as he wakes up in his north London flat, with a copy of Brecht by his bed. Muddling around the flat before taking a bath, he contemplates the posters of his films on the bathroom walls. Anderson then goes on a series of errands--to the dry cl...