The Story of Film: An Odyssey

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....

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.

An excellent education in the history of cinema. It is of course just the view of one person, Mark Cousins, other people might have a different opinion as to the most significant films in the history of cinema. But that doesn't invalidate Mark's view with his wide breadth of knowledge. See the connections between previously unrelated films and film-makers.

This series concentrates on the films and film-makers that have shown a passion for the medium and which advance new techniques. There aren't many run-of-the-mill films included in this series and when they are included it's just by way of comparison with the real subject of that particular lesson.

The series also takes a truly global view, looking at films and film-makers from around the world. It doesn't just focus on American and European films and film-makers like so many other series do.

I understand that Cousins Northern Irish accent takes some getting used to. However, trashing his work because of the narration is too harsh a judgment. I actually watched the whole thing. Twice. I was fascinated by a documentary that tries the impossible: a history of world cinema. The first two episodes alone deal with the era of silent movies. Try to find something else that goes so much into detail! It requires concentration and attention but I kept watching because I learnt something.

The Story of Film is a very personal take on the subject. Cousins often uses phrases such as "perhaps the greatest film ever made" or "perhaps the most innovative film..." And often such phrases refer to a Japanese or Iranian movie that I have never heard of. I am sure a lot of people would disagree. I don't have a problem with it. In the opening sequence of every episode, he says that he follows the Odyssey of film makers who are not driven by box office success. If you want to see the history of Hollywood Blockbusters, "The Story of Film" is the wrong program. If you want to know what kind of films were made in the 1980s behind the iron curtain in Eastern Europe, now you are in the right theatre.

Leaving all criticism on Cousins narration, possible inaccuracies or highly subjective opinions aside, here is a man talking who has probably more forgotten about movies than most people ever knew about the subject.

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.