The Story of Film: A New Generation

Watched a little while before the eyelids became heavy, it's not the content, but the monotonous drone of a voice...explains things as if he should be heard, the expert, but when the life-force is that of a deadweight glutton after a Christmas meal, the best thing you can do is switch off the film and go for a sleep. Worst narration I've heard, despite the obvious knowledge it holds. Maybe he's listened to too many voiceovers by Morgan freeman and assumed he could emulate. Freeman's voice wouldn't do it justice either. Maybe Mark Kermode could have been approached, or someone with a bit of life and doesn't need a de-esser to eliminate more hisses than the snake from disneys Robin Hood.

I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. It had a dream-like quality to it. Musing on films which have changed the way we look at movies. The presentation was beautifully executed and interspersed with some thougtful imagery. It has given me a long list of films to watch and reminded me of some to rewatch. I am a little puzzled by the other reviews of this as I really enjoyed the narration.

The material presented in this marathon documentary is good enough, but it takes herculean effort and patience to endure narrator Cousin's astonishingly and consistently annoying manner of speaking, hour after hour.

Each sentence of narration is delivered the same monotonous way: lifelessly and sleepily, with every last syllable of every sentence ending with an identical upward inflection, giving a sense of questioning uncertainty like a helpless dying whimper.

A charming Irish lilt is one thing, but there is nothing charming about Cousins' style of narration. Any director with any sense at all would have chosen a different narrator to make this a far more compelling documentary.

This film is really an essay by Mark Cousins, on the films he has watched in the last 20 years and what he thinks about them. There is little in the way of actual insight. I found it useful to find new films which look interesting, films that either passed me by or I did not hear of. In that way I am grateful to be introduced to The Kidnappers, Cemetery of Splendour, Theorem, November, It Follows, Norte, An Elephant Sitting Still, About Leila and The Pearl Button.

For an analysis of 21st Century films released this essay was very wanting. There was no rhyme or rhythm to the structure. Many times it was a case of Cousins saying "look at this", "look at that", "isn't that smart". That kind of investigation can only go so far until you realise it is just a collage of film snippets that look great.

For a better analysis of film, I recommend the BritBox exclusive Reel Britannia which looks into British films by decade between the 1960s and 1990s. That is a clever concept as the stop gaps are the decade themselves and the TV show elaborately picks a subject or genre and discusses with more depth than this film.

A lot of people have criticised Cousins dry delivery in his narration. Personally, I did not mind it, although it does put into mind it is not so much what he says, which is actually not that interesting, but the way he says it. Some people may confuse slow delivery with deftness. I came away with the impression this film is limited by what Cousins saw and he has not seen.

It is really a love note to himself.

This is a documentary that taught me next to nothing.

I found this documentary interesting, BUT as others have said it's touted as " a new generation 21 century " but he spends far too much time relating stuff back 50-60 years ago.

Also this guy's narration and style would put even a Crystal meth doper to sleep.

It's a constant droll monotone with no punctuation, no gap, pause , breath nothing.

I watched 30 minutes or so and turned it off.

I think he was trying to be too clever or art for arts sake.

Just film a documentary and get Mark Kermode to narrate ! At leader he has some enthusiasm.

This was read with a style as weak as dish water . 5/5 for program 1/5 for narration and that for turning up zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!