John August wants you to see his new movie, The Nines… twice.

At his blog, he’s posted a downloadable commentary track which you can listen to on your iPod as the movie unspools. (It’s too distracting to do on your first viewing, he says.)

He writes:

One of my favorite moments of the Sundance premiere was listening as progressive waves of audience members realized that a story Hope Davis begins telling in Part One is, in fact, not a story at all. Hearing the little gasps, those who hadn’t yet caught on became more vigilant, wondering what they were missing.

It was a reminder that we make movies for an audience, not merely a consumer.

Yet there are some things a movie theater can’t provide, aspects which only work on DVD. The pause button, for example. Subtitles. Audio commentary.

But in the age of iPods, there’s really no reason why audio commentary has to be relegated to DVD.

(Hat tip, CinemaTech.)