The effect from ChrisB is incredibly slow on my ATI Radeon 9500 (a shader 2 card).

I believe it could run much faster. I played "Beyond Good and Evil" years ago and they already did depth of field in all cut scenes. This looks very intense.
The cut scenes of F.E.A.R. use this technique as well. I think this is a common style to focus on the story elements (e.g. the characters) while displaying them non-interactively.