The third annual hodgepodge that is Boorman and Donohue's film-talk-fest is an even more mixed and motley collection than its two previous volumes. All the usual features are present and correct, but with highly variable results.

The main journal is given over to Francis Ford Coppola, following the filmmaker from 1989 and his messy third Godfather picture, through to the post-Bram Stoker's Dracula glory of 1993. The introduction informs us that the words are intensely personal and not written for publication. In reading them you tend to wish they had remained just that. Better to find a copy of Eleanor Coppola's fascinating Apocalypse Now diaries in place of her husband's whining rambling.

Coppola's contribution is unfortunate when two other diary submissions are far more enlightening. Sally Potter takes us around the world as she endures the promotional trail for Orlando; a fascinating, dizzying blur of interviews, awards and poor quality prints of her cherished film. And Richard Stanley logs the day-to-day drama and crisis of his Dust Devil: a terrifying round of midnight car chases, theft, serious accidents, bizarre mysticism, and the director almost beheaded on a train. Even if Stanley is exercising his full artistic licence on just half of it, it is still an extraordinary journey. But then again, Dust Devil is a much better picture than Coppola's Gothic epic.

This year's script is (again) from US independent Hal Hartley. (His Surviving Desire appeared in the first volume.) Flirt is another charming, surprisingly violent tale of Generation X trial and tribulation. And the big interview is given over to Lawrence Kasdan. It has its moments (notably his confusion as to how an old script for The Bodyguard was revived with such success by Jackson/Costner) but Kasdan is altogether too Hollywood to score many points. He skirts over his best film, Body Heat, too quickly, and we learn nothing of his forthcoming Western epic Wyatt Earp.

Similarly, Sydney Pollack on ‘Directing Actors’ is filler, and the interview with Chen Kaige has all the feel of paying lip service to the new Chinese cinema, much as the final piece by a young Croatian director smells of topicality more than anything substantial. Far better are Michael Tolkin on the vagaries of Hollywood scriptwriting, Hal Willner on the elaborate scoring of Altman's marvellous Short Cuts, and the new wunderkind Quentin Tarantino on Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and the forthcoming Natural Born Killers and Pulp Fiction. Michael Almeryda's essay on the joys of the Pixelvision camera (originally a kids toy) is a particular delight.

Projections is, of course, rather like the BFI's own Sight & Sound magazine between thicker covers. A few too many pieces end referring the reader to the books from which they are extracted, and it's a shame that the editors didn't see Stanley's magic realism as sufficiently forceful to carry the day over Coppola's confused babble. But for all that, this third instalment has more than enough pearls to make the tour worthwhile.