The Complete Story of Film (2011-2015) (Music Box Films)

[MifuneFan]

Music Box Films will be releasing Mark Cousins; massive 15-hour British documentary series The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011), as well as his 2.5 hour follow-up film, The Story of Film: A New Generation (2021) in a complete Blu-ray box set. Release date is set for June 6th.

The Complete Story of Film Blu-ray

The Complete Story of Film collects two epic documentaries by Mark Cousins into a stunningly expansive global journey through film history from the birth of cinema to today. The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an inclusive and ground-breaking journey through the history of world cinema and a treat for movie lovers around the globe. Guided by filmmaker and historian Mark Cousins, this wonderfully insightful 15-hour love letter to the movies begins with the invention of motion pictures at the end of the 19th century, continuing through the entire 20th century of moviemaking and concluding with the globalized digital industry of the 21st. In The Story of Film: A New Generation, Cousins picks up where Odyssey left off, returning with a new epic and hopeful tale of modern cinematic innovation in the new millennium, exploring how movies and moviegoing have evolved and will continue to transform to our collective joy and wonder.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)

The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an unprecedented cinematic event, an epic journey through the history of world cinema that is a treat for movie lovers around the globe. Guided by film historian Mark Cousins, this bold 15-part love letter to the movies begins with the invention of motion pictures at the end of the 19th century and concludes with the multi-billion dollar globalized digital industry of the 21st.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey Trailer - YouTube

The Story of Film: A New Generation (2021)

Mark Cousins offers hope and optimism while he explores different movies and talks about how technology is changing the course of cinema in a new century and how Covid continues the process.

THE STORY OF FILM: A NEW GENERATION | Official Trailer | Opens In Select Theaters September 9 - YouTube

[bonehica]

I've watched this doc twice already, but haven't seen the new 2.5 hour addition. If this is priced nice I will grab it. It has certainly introduced me to numerous films from around the globe and I enjoy Cousins slow, deliberate narration. I particularly like the way he says "Lubitsch"

[Gacivory]

Oh f*ck Y*ah!

[The Crimson King]

Originally Posted by bonehica

I've watched this doc twice already, but haven't seen the new 2.5 hour addition. If this is priced nice I will grab it. It has certainly introduced me to numerous films from around the globe and I enjoy Cousins slow, deliberate narration. I particularly like the way he says "Lubitsch"

I for one hated his narration, it left me unable to watch more than an hour of the doc. I know it is an irrational response and my problem, but I can't help it. I guess it is partly his accent, but also just the way he talks. I bought his book of The Story of Film - it's ok, but I feel it, and the hour of the doc I watched, is very surface level, even as a comprehensive history of film, just overall very random in what he covers. His narrative style is just unfortunately nails on a chalkboard for me.

[bonehica]

Originally Posted by The Crimson King

I for one hated his narration, it left me unable to watch more than an hour of the doc. I know it is an irrational response and my problem, but I can't help it. I guess it is partly his accent, but also just the way he talks. I bought his book of The Story of Film - it's ok, but I feel it, and the hour of the doc I watched, is very surface level, even as a comprehensive history of film, just overall very random in what he covers. His narrative style is just unfortunately nails on a chalkboard for me.

I totally understand that. From what I have gathered, the documentary as whole is polarizing, either when referring to his narration or the actual content.

[bigshot]

I'm another that couldn't stand the narration. I've got a big collection of film documentaries, but this one was tough to watch.

[HillSprinter]

Can’t stand the Northern Ireland accent eh? Bigots!

[MifuneFan]

Cover art



Amazon page (not live ye): https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Stor...v%2C145&sr=1-1

[Deciazulado]

live now

The Complete Story of Film Blu-ray

[Egbert Souse]

Never expected this on Blu! I actually love Cousins' narration, it's sort of soothing, but I'm half Irish myself.

[HillSprinter]

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Never expected this on Blu! I actually love Cousins' narration, it's sort of soothing, but I'm half Irish myself.

It’s a nice upgrade in picture quality. Especially for the film clips that are remastered in HD.

[Shogun MacArthur]

Originally Posted by The Crimson King

I for one hated his narration, it left me unable to watch more than an hour of the doc. I know it is an irrational response and my problem, but I can't help it. I guess it is partly his accent, but also just the way he talks. I bought his book of The Story of Film - it's ok, but I feel it, and the hour of the doc I watched, is very surface level, even as a comprehensive history of film, just overall very random in what he covers. His narrative style is just unfortunately nails on a chalkboard for me.

About it being surface level, the original Story of Film series was basically my textbook for a film community college class, and when I commented that I thought doing "a comprehensive history of film" was a fool's errand and that the documentary itself wasn't very good in an assignment my professor's grade comments mentioned how successful Mark Cousins is and basically I should keep my comments to myself.

I heavily disliked the doc not just because of it being surface level, which it could've been but still enjoyable/informative, but because of how pretentious Cousins can be and his personal biases that cloud it. His disdainful remarks towards Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and William Friedkin stuck out to me as a big fan of both.

[CRASHLANDING]

Originally Posted by Shogun MacArthur

About it being surface level, the original Story of Film series was basically my textbook for a film community college class, and when I commented that I thought doing "a comprehensive history of film" was a fool's errand and that the documentary itself wasn't very good in an assignment my professor's grade comments mentioned how successful Mark Cousins is and basically I should keep my comments to myself.

I heavily disliked the doc not just because of it being surface level, which it could've been but still enjoyable/informative, but because of how pretentious Cousins can be and his personal biases that cloud it. His disdainful remarks towards Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and William Friedkin stuck out to me as a big fan of both.

Anyone that watches The Story of Film: An Odyssey expecting a dispassionate overview of the history of cinema will probably be disappointed, because that was not Cousins' goal. Rather, he traces the story of film as part of a larger narrative, showing how movies evolved alongside and within the cultures in which they originated. He tries to show how films imperfectly reflected the world in which they were created, sometimes foreshadowing changes in society, while at other times lagging behind. He also spends a lot of time on one of his core theses: that too much focus has been directed to US and European cinema at the expense of other brilliant filmmakers around the world.

While I don't agree with all his opinions, I appreciate the series as something more ambitious than a simple retrospective. I think approaching it with that expectation is helpful, and it still includes a lot of great history as well.

[bigshot]

My impression was that it was less about film than it was about his view of broad societal issues. Unfortunately, I'm more interested in film than his views. But I understand that this kind of approach is common among academics today.

[HillSprinter]

It’s nearly impossible to be dispassionate and unbiased in presenting the history of anything. I don’t know who initiated this project to begin with, whether Mark pitched it to, or Film4 commissioned it, but it was always going to be a singular viewpoint, and to me that’s preferable anyway. The history of film could be made by any filmmaker from their own personal perspective. Scorsese did his series on history of American cinema, Bertrand Tavernier did his personal journey through French cinema. Mark Cousins was probably not a big enough name to call it ‘Mark Cousins Journey Through the History of Film’. It’s his odyssey, take it or leave it.

[bigshot]

I'm really not interested so much in sociology with artistic mediums. I'm more interested in learning about the intent and opinions of the person who created the work than the audience's reaction to it. Maybe the contemporary reaction is interesting in how that affected the creator and his career, but modern day reinterpretations don't interest me. But I know that since Warhol, artistic intent has been subordinated to the solipsist reaction of the individual viewer. The problem there is that the viewer sometimes has opinions that reflect more on who he is more than what the art is.

[koberulz]

Maybe math is a field that would better suit you.

[Ernest Rister]

Do they cover the animated medium in The Complete History of Film? Scorsese didn't say a word about it in his series, but I gave him a pass because his was "A Personal Journey Through Film", so cinema animation must not be a part of that journey he wanted to comment on.

[amputd]

This looks interesting, and from the clips I’ve seen I like the editing. But his narration does bother me a bit. Im not sure whether I would acclimate to it over time, but I’m from the UK and like Irish accents, so I’m not sure what my issue is. I’m also fine with analyzing films sociologically, but I don’t think being ignorant of foreign films automatically implies racism. All cultures are ethnocentric to some degree. Discovering foreign films should be an organic process of discovery, not something done out of guilt or to address sone perceived cultural bias.

[Trekkie313]

Originally Posted by HillSprinter

Can’t stand the Northern Ireland accent eh? Bigots!

He's so slow and stilted, it's not the accent it's the delivery.