The Story of Film

[Liam]

The Story of Film: An Odyssey is a documentary film about the history of film, presented on television in 15 one-hour chapters with a total length of 900 minutes. It was directed and narrated by Mark Cousins, a film critic from Northern Ireland, based on his 2004 book The Story of Film.^[1]

The film was broadcast in September 2011 on More4, the digital television service of UK broadcaster Channel 4. The film was also featured in its entirety at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival,^[2] and it was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in February 2012.^[1]

The Telegraph headlined the film's initial broadcast as a television series in September 2011 as the "cinematic event of the year", describing it as "visually ensnaring and intellectually lithe, it’s at once a love letter to cinema, an unmissable masterclass, and a radical rewriting of movie history."^[3]An Irish Times writer called the program a "landmark" (albeit a "bizarrely underpromoted" one).^[4]

In February 2012, A. O. Scott of The New York Times contrasted the project with its "important precursor (and also, perhaps, an implicit interlocutor)", Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma. In contrast to the Godard project, which Scott called "personal, polemical and sometimes cryptic", Scott described Cousins' film as "a semester-long film studies survey course compressed into 15 brisk, sometimes contentious hours" that "stands as an invigorated compendium of conventional wisdom." He also commended its "refusal to be nostalgic".^[1]

I bought this fairly recently. My degree is in English Language with Media, and I spent my 2nd year doing Film Studies, which really opened my eyes to other types of cinema, and foreign language cinema.

Did anyone see this series? A really good one so far, looking at the past of cinema through different stages.

I'm currently moving on to Episode 4, which involves the introduction of sound to cinema. They've already covered the Hollywood system, followed by the rebels who branched away from that system pretty quickly. Some focus on Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin was interesting - made me want to check out some more Keaton at least.

I thought, as much as it could be an area to discuss the TV series, it might be a good place to discuss films from bygone eras, foreign films, and films that changed the course of history.

For example, I'd recommend watching 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (you'll find it on archive.org) - great German expressionism.

[GA!]

I've watched three episodes to date. I find Mark Cousins a bit hard to get along with. It's fantastic he is introducing films you'll never hear about otherwise but his dismissal of all 'romantic' American films and how we're culturally racist for not watching Senegalese cinema troubling. He often puts over his own intellect than his love of cinema, which is a really annoying trait of most film critics.

Plus why does he end every sentence as though he's asking a question?

[Jimmy]

I've watched three episodes to date. I find Mark Cousins a bit hard to get along with. It's fantastic he is introducing films you'll never hear about otherwise but his dismissal of all 'romantic' American films and how we're culturally racist for not watching Senegalese cinema troubling. He often puts over his own intellect than his love of cinema, which is a really annoying trait of most film critics.

Plus why does he end every sentence as though he's asking a question?

Oh my God, this. I've thought about trying to watch this plenty of times, but the way he talks drives me nuts.

[Liam]

Yeah, when I looked at the reviews, people were very put off by his speaking style. I don't mind it, but it isn't exactly a selling point of the series.

[TroutMaskReplica]

The series is great if you can stand Cousins' voice. Being a film and screenwriting student at university and being a film student at college while it was first being aired made essays alot easier, even if the lectures were pointless. It's a great reference point and he goes into significant detail for some essential aspects. Worth a rewatch I think.

[Liam]

I find it interesting to see how ahead of their times some of the early actors/directors were - even if it is only using stuff that is now common-place - to have the balls to use it at the time when things could be quite formulaic is pretty impressive.