The Story of Film: An Odyssey 'Birth of the Cinema' (2011)
*** (out of 4)
The first of fifteen films in Mark Cousins documentary starts off by taking a look at the various pioneers who put their stamp on the format. This includes those who invented the cameras, invented film, who realized what light could do to project an image as well as those men and women who started to film things and change their style. We see how one director (Carol Reed) filmed a certain shot only to them see how others (Godard, Scorsese) were influenced by this scene and worked it into their own version in their own films. Cousins style is certainly something interesting and quite different than what you'd normally get from a documentary. He serves as the narrator and puts his own spin on how he wants to tell the history of film. Those who have seen Jean-Luc Godard's series on the history of film will be happy to know that this here isn't quite as extreme. It's too early to comment on the entire series but I thought this episode was entertaining enough. The history of cinema has been told countless ways and I thought Cousins brought a few new ideas to the table. This includes showing scenes from older movies from the 1890s and then showing us that location today. Getting to see where Melies shot his first movie was interesting as well as a sequence where we see the current locations of the first movie theaters. Along the way we also learn about how editing changed the format and how various other techniques came into play. BIRTH OF THE CINEMA gets the series off to a good and unique start so we'll see how it goes from here.
*** (out of 4)
The first of fifteen films in Mark Cousins documentary starts off by taking a look at the various pioneers who put their stamp on the format. This includes those who invented the cameras, invented film, who realized what light could do to project an image as well as those men and women who started to film things and change their style. We see how one director (Carol Reed) filmed a certain shot only to them see how others (Godard, Scorsese) were influenced by this scene and worked it into their own version in their own films. Cousins style is certainly something interesting and quite different than what you'd normally get from a documentary. He serves as the narrator and puts his own spin on how he wants to tell the history of film. Those who have seen Jean-Luc Godard's series on the history of film will be happy to know that this here isn't quite as extreme. It's too early to comment on the entire series but I thought this episode was entertaining enough. The history of cinema has been told countless ways and I thought Cousins brought a few new ideas to the table. This includes showing scenes from older movies from the 1890s and then showing us that location today. Getting to see where Melies shot his first movie was interesting as well as a sequence where we see the current locations of the first movie theaters. Along the way we also learn about how editing changed the format and how various other techniques came into play. BIRTH OF THE CINEMA gets the series off to a good and unique start so we'll see how it goes from here.