Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn lend weight to The Interpreter, a "polished and preposterous" thriller by director Sydney Pollack. Critics were divided over the tricky blend of Hitchcockian twists and political commentary used in telling this story of a UN interpreter who overhears an assassination plot. However, the A-List cast ensured it did well at the box office - although perhaps not quite as well as expected.

The Language Of Film

"It's hard to make a film that's releasable, that's not embarrassing," says Pollack in Concept To Cutting Room. It's a featurette heavy with waffle where Pollack reminisces on his days as an actor and the eventual transition to director. He goes on to use naff analogies like "mining clay" for shooting a film and "sculpting the clay" for editing a film. Apparently it's also like cooking; "You put a little salt in, a little of this, a little of that." Basically the only genuine insight you’ll get into the making of The Interpreter is the (unsurprising) revelation that the script was still being written as the film was being shot. Even more pointless is a five-minute rant by Pollack on the merits of widescreen versus pan-and-scan.

Giving a slightly better idea of the challenges facing the filmmakers is The Ultimate Movie Set featurette. It's widely known that The Interpreter was the first film to be allowed to shoot inside the UN and Pollack reveals that this was the result of tense and lengthy negotiations with Kofi Annan (who apparently had nothing better to do). In amongst snippets of behind-the-scenes footage, cinematographer Darius Khondji explains how he tried to do justice to the building's impressive interior design.

Putting the story into context is a featurette devoted to real-life interpreters, which is interesting in so far as it draws a clear line between interpretation and simple translation. "They don't like to be called translators," warns Pollack. Ooh...

Interpreting Pollack

Three deleted scenes run at just over two minutes long and, with the exception of a brief heart-to-heart between Sylvia (Kidman) and Dot (Catherine Keener), there are no grand revelations. Similarly, an alternative ending isn't very different to what already exists in the film except that it's tackled in a way that's much more emotive (perhaps overly melodramatic). Pollack doesn't offer commentary for this section and spends a lot of time snoozing during his feature commentary. When he is conscious, he points out scenes from the re-shoot and explains why the story needed revising in places. Usually it's because exposition is needed to clarify what he admits is "a complicated and difficult plot".

Disappointingly Kidman makes minimal contribution to this DVD and Sean Penn doesn't bother at all. On top of that, you have to sift through rather a lot of chaff to get any decent grains of behind-the-scenes info, which is fine if you have as much time on your hands as Kofi Annan...

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