The Story of Film: An Odyssey

If what you want is an obvious western view of the history of film narrated by, say, Patrik Stewart, don't watch this.

Cousins Ulster brogue requires a little getting used to and much of this is his (well informed) personal opinion, but if you can stick with the low budget, stylised camera work and editing it is a joy. The descriptions of various styles of cinematography and editing as opposed to film text and meaning is inventive and informative, very different to the often imposed micro analysis you get from film studies text. I loved hearing cousins say things like "...deep space, shallow focus...single take, no fast cutting..." I soon found myself looking at films thinking Cousin-like about what I Was seeing on screen.

I learnt about how different directors and cinematographers influenced each other, how styles emerged, faded, and reemerged. How new directors from different countries, influenced by Hollywood, reshaped those ideas and created new personal films reflecting the psyche of their own nations. Cousin's odyssey is like a poem, his narration is often abstract yet personal. But it is exciting and informative, a different take on a subject history that all to often is written in stone. Refreshing and far from obvious this deserves far more respect than some people give it.

Well let me admit I bought out of this one after three hours, at the point where the word "Sound" comes up in big letters.

Here are all the familiar titles and talents being trotted forth once more, this time in murky dupes spaced by some quite nice travel shots, that they thrash for no particular reason other than to get the running time up or justify the plane tickets. Poor Stanley Donen figures at intervals without saying anything notable - probably because he wasn't asked to.

We get to the end of the silent section without seeing a cowboy. Florence Lawrence has a (not bad) section. Bronco Billy Anderson doesn't. The writer-director-pundit ticks off the eight (count 'em) national industries that provide the qualities he can't find in Hollywood and, once again, we never set foot in the Balkans or the Hispanic nations. Ruan Lingyu stands in for Shanghai, three of the thirty "Expressionist" films for six hundred German titles.

You sit there waiting for the kind of "Hey, that makes sense!" moments that you got in the US CINEMA BBC series or the breath catching quality of the images in Enno Patalas' METROPOLIS documentary.

I don't know which is more depressing, this series or the much touted critics poll that an English magazine called Sight & Sound just ran again. Suspect achievements are lauded. Making notable talents invisible is endorsed.

It was first presented on BBC, as were a lot of superb series. The episode covering the 1910s is as good as anything similar and much better than most.

Someone complained about the narration, spoken and written by the Irish Mark Cousins. I found it utterly charming and extremely perceptive.

Cousins has spoken close to the microphone so his voice doesn't sound loud as he casually reels off his observations. And it's true. The terminal contours of every utterance curl upward, as they do in parts of the American South, so that they sound like a series of questions. "The source light is on the screen? A gap opens in the curtains like a Vermeer painting?" I was enthralled. The writing is dispassionate but full of insights and is sometimes quite funny. Harold Lloyd was turned from a Chaplin imitator into a nerd with black-rimmed glasses, but "a ballsy nerd." The emphasis is on directors that most Americans haven't paid much attention to, although film critics have. I'd seen Carl Theodore Dreyer's "Joan of Arc" before, two times, but Cousins was able to point out one or two of the reasons I found it so impressive.

The clips he's chosen to show from the silent movies of the era are longer than we usually see them, and they're picked to illustrate a specific point that Cousins is trying to make.

It's different from any other "film histories" that I've seen -- different in the sense of more involving, more informative, less repetitive, more original in its editing and narration.

At least in this episode, he hasn't much to say about modern Hollywood products. I understand why.

This may be the most brilliant documentary on film ever, but I don't care. After sitting through 10 minutes of this guy's "uptalking", I could not stand to watch any longer, (and I spent the 1980's living in the San Fernando Valley when the whole "Valley Girl" thing started.) I swear to God, he up-talks not only at the END of every sentence, but DURING.

EXAMPLE: "Thomas Edison? invented film? in New Jersey? And he soon found that light? was of utmost importance?" I'm not exaggerating even slightly, that's how this guy talks 100% of the time. Hire a new narrator, then re-release it. Geez....

I don't think the reviews I have read on this site have been particularly fair or helpful. This is very much a personal odyssey but it is none the poorer for that. Cousins is a passionate cineaste and enthusiastic guide. Some reviewers seem to object to his lilting Northern-Irish tones. Get over it! What we have here is a fascinating series, tracing the history of film from its sideshow beginnings through to the global entertainment industry and modern art form we know today. I particularly like the way Cousins chooses to analysise the films he features in the series. This analysis is always in-depth, enlightening and very well illustrated by his choice of clips. The series is a must-see for anyone studying film or who is serious about film.