{"id":7549,"date":"2014-02-03T20:01:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T01:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7549"},"modified":"2014-02-04T14:24:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T19:24:20","slug":"film-story-of-children-and-film-a-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7549","title":{"rendered":"Film: Story of Children and Film, A (2012)"},"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: \u00a0n\/a \/ DVD Extras: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label: n\/a\u00a0\/ Region: n\/a\u00a0\/\u00a0Released: n\/a<\/p>\n

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

Synopsis: Examination of how children have been portrayed in movies by international filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Special Features: n\/a<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

\u201cMovies are like kids. Kids are like movies.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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For those who managed the long haul of Mark Cousins\u2019 excellent The Story of Film: An Odyssey<\/a><\/strong> (2011) mini-series, the good news is his related doc does not run 15 hours, but it is a similarly structured visual essay in which the author and filmmaker examines how children have appeared in film, and more importantly, how their behaviour has been captured by filmmakers.<\/p>\n

With an eye again towards the neglected, the marginalized, and the wholly unknown (to Western audiences, anyways), Cousins steers his focus towards international films from the silents to the late nineties, gliding between Czechoslovakia, Iran, Africa\u2019s Gold Coast, Albania, Britain, Denmark, Soviet Russia, Japan, and Korea (to cite a few of the represented nations).<\/p>\n

There are several American films that pop up \u2013 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial<\/strong> (1982), Meet Me in St. Louis<\/strong> (1944), and Shirley Temple in\u00a0Curly Top<\/strong> (1934) \u2013 and they symbolize the progression of children as performers towards somewhat naturalistic characters during a 60 year period in the U.S., while the rest of the world seemed to be more comfortable in building whole stories around alienation, loneliness, loss of family, social class, children assuming the role of adults in fragmented families, and sometimes taking care of brutalized parents.<\/p>\n

Cousins\u2019 framing device is footage of his niece and nephew playing with a toy set in his living room As they become acclimatized to the camera, their natural behaviour \u2013 the classic schizophrenic swerving from wariness to amusement, bickering to stagy silliness \u2013 unfolds within a locked shot, and Cousins applies these personal extracts as contrast material for his thesis of children in film. It works, but some viewers may feel this production, which lacks the globe-trotting (and more expensive) footage of his epic series (not to mention interviews) is a more economical work.<\/p>\n

It may be, but one suspects the doc\u2019s concept stemmed from an idea as it happened during a family visit, and Cousins\u2019 encyclopedic mind quickly jotted down further targets prior to research, and mapping out the film’s structure. He\u2019s extremely adept in translating analytical prose to film, and distilling observations to simplified yet complimentary narration, and using affecting visual examples that allow viewers to follow his arguments as he flips back and forth through a multitude of film clips.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also got an expert eye and knows when his visual essay needs to break free from clips and his static apartment to the stunning Scottish Highlands. It\u2019s not a frivolous or contrived trek to the mountains \u2013 every shot in Cousins\u2019 narrative has a purpose \u2013 but for casual film fans, his subject matter may seem a little too niche, and measured in pacing. There\u2019s about two points where it appears the doc seems to be winding down but continues for an other 10-20 minutes, but those familiar with his work, mining international film as a means to rescue fine works from western ignorance, will be delighted by new finds in an age when some video labels have applied premium pricing on their home video offerings, and fears of physical media\u2019s slow demise have isolated many of these works to domestic releases in Europe and Asia alone.<\/p>\n

Being rare films, it\u2019s also a treat to see clips on the big screen \u2013 their impact is closer to their makers\u2019 intention than compressed on a TV screen \u2013 and viewers are advised to bring along a pad & pen to jot down those titles they\u2019ll invariably want to seek out.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the nations most represented within Cousins essay are Iran, Japan, and Soviet Russia, and with a closing dedication to Iran\u2019s Jafar Panahi, it\u2019s no surprise he has a deep affinity for the filmmaker\u2019s gift for extracting natural performances and crafting unpretentious characters.<\/p>\n

Hopefully when A Story of Children and Film<\/strong> materializes on home video in North America, it\u2019ll come with some supplements \u2013 ideally, personal thoughts by Cousins on the doc\u2019s genesis, and his regard for a few of the excerpted films.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s an outright optimist when it comes to film, genuinely believing we\u2019re in an age of great filmmaking <\/em>\u2013 a surprising statement when it\u2019s easy for critics to spin off another column or industry report about film being in the crapper as technology and the industry veer towards shallowness for purely financial gain.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2014 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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Vendor Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"—New movie releases on iTunes<\/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: \u00a0n\/a \/ DVD Extras: n\/a Label: n\/a\u00a0\/ Region: n\/a\u00a0\/\u00a0Released: n\/a Genre: Documentary \/ Film History Synopsis: Examination of how children have been portrayed in movies by international filmmakers. Special Features: n\/a . . Review: \u201cMovies are like kids. Kids […]<\/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":[1904,1902,2495],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1XL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549"}],"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=7549"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7557,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions\/7557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}