{"id":6226,"date":"2013-03-07T16:18:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T21:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6226"},"modified":"2014-02-03T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T19:50:13","slug":"dvd-story-of-film-an-oddyssey-the-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6226","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Story of Film: An Oddyssey, The (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>S<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: Alliance\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: December 18, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre: Documentary \/ Film History<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Epic, highly personal account of the marginalized historical points in film that occurred outside of Hollywood, as chronicled in the director’s eponymous book.<\/p>\n

Special Features: 44-page colour booklet with exhaustive liner notes, diary entries, and complete filmography of works within this 15 hour series.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

A hugely ambitious work, this meaty 15 episode chronicle of film history from Britain’s Channel 4 was originally pitched to broadcasters as a more modest effort to film Mark Cousins\u2019 eponymous book – a reportedly reverent ode to the creative movements and technical innovations that Hollywood adopted, absorbed, and stole from other countries without given creators any credit.<\/p>\n

In the first episode, Cousins, who directed, wrote, filmed, and narrates, uses the term eugenics to describe how Hollywood has imposed its own version of film history, and while it\u2019s a valid point on a corporate monster exploiting the fruits of creative independent thought for its own egotistical and financial gain, use of ‘eugenics’ is a bit rich; as Cousins himself points out in almost every episode, filmmakers have been stealing great ideas for decades, and frankly without a little appropriation and theft, film can\u2019t continue to evolve.<\/p>\n

The value of Cousins\u2019 monster documentary series lies in the myriad international filmmakers who\u2019ve been overlooked or ignored by film historians, largely because their work hasn\u2019t always been widely available outside of certain borders or regions. As a whole, the series unfolds like a scholarly class study whose professor uses familiar language and visual markers to introduce jaded filmgoers to the cinematic innovations which were often picked up by younger, observant filmmakers abroad, and within the U.S.<\/p>\n

Much like a lengthy essay, Story<\/strong> brings up concepts via interviews that are later revisited and revised by Cousins, as he traces the migration of ideas \u2013 visual, editorial, and stylistic \u2013 to more recent movements and usage by contemporary filmmakers, and most viewers willing to sit through the entire series will be compelled to track down some of the unique works by men and women from Africa, India, Iran, and Asia.<\/p>\n

The interview segments sometimes feel a little abrupt, and that\u2019s due to the way the production evolved from a short demo edit of interviews with Egyptian filmmakers to entice funding agencies, and its inevitable expansion to 15 episodes as Cousins\u2019 globe-trotting yielded further interview material. Having booked anywhere from 15-20 minutes max with his subjects, the questions are deliberately strategic, but the downside is some interviews appear almost subliminally; it\u2019s to Cousins\u2019 credit he managed to interview so many actors and directors, but the breadth of the series pretty much disallows for any digressions.<\/p>\n

That does ensure the doc maintains a certain momentum, and it is pretty amazing as to how many international filmmakers are showcased \u2013 many of whom may only have been covered in supplemental features in releases by specialty video labels, such as Criterion. Cousins also has a great knack for simplifying the explanation of an innovation by filming little vignettes, whether its through comparative ratios, discontinuous editing, etc., and applying his own symbolic visual motifs, like a recurring bauble.<\/p>\n

The cinematography is quite lovely, and the DVD includes a fat booklet featuring making-of notes and diary entries which chronicle the series\u2019 genesis as well as Cousins\u2019 own travels and personal observations as he meets his idols. Besides the length \u2013 each episode runs almost an hour \u2013 viewers may also have trouble with Cousins\u2019 own narration: his statements tend to end like the harmonic equivalent of a question mark, and that child-like tone can be grating. It takes about 1-2 episodes to acclimatize oneself to Cousins\u2019 delivery, but the series is a rewarding, expansive yet personal intro to filmmakers whose work rarely enjoys exposure in North America outside of local cinematheques.<\/p>\n

The booklet also includes a full tally of the films excerpted in each episode, making it easy for the curious to track down specific works. One additional caveat, however: Cousins doesn\u2019t hold back on spoilers, so viewers should be vigilant and be ready to jump to the next chapter if need be.<\/p>\n

Cousins’ 2013 follow-up doc – running under two hours – is the more theme-specific A Story of Children and Film<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Official Website<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0S<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ S . Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Good Label: Alliance\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: December 18, 2013 Genre: Documentary \/ Film History Synopsis: Epic, highly personal account of the marginalized historical points in film that occurred outside of Hollywood, as chronicled in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1903,1904,1902,1901],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1Cq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7553,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions\/7553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}