The Story of Film: An Odyssey
TV-PG 2011 · 1 season · 15 eps · ★ 7.7 · Documentary
Ended
A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.
Created by Mark Cousins
Network: Channel 4
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Where to Watch
Cast
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Mark Cousins Presenter / Narrator -
Mario Cordova Narrator -
Lars von Trier Self -
Paul Schrader Self -
Norman Lloyd Self -
Robert Towne Self -
Haskell Wexler Self -
Youssef Chahine Self -
Gaston Kaboré Self -
Samira Makhmalbaf Self - A Agnes de Mille Self
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Claudia Cardinale Self
Trailers & Videos
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★ 9.02005
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A gripping story of love, deceit, betrayal and survival set against the backdrop of the Miners' Strike of 1984-85. Michelle is married to Gary, a young miner who goes on strike as soon as the dispute between the Thatcher government and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) begins. Meanwhile, her sister Linda's husband Paul is a local policeman. Paul becomes more and more voluble in his opposition to the strike, while Linda looks around her and witnesses the women of her community suddenly find a voice and independence. The scene is set for political and personal conflicts which would change their lives forever.
The New Ten Commandments · 2008The New Ten Commandments
★ 8.72008
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The film was produced by Nick Higgins from Lansdowne Productions and Noémie Mendelle from the Scottish Documentary Institute and has 10 film-chapter directors for each of the 10 chapters of the film. The film's unifying theme is human rights in Scotland with each chapter illustrating one of the "New Ten Commandments" - 10 articles chosen from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 10 film chapters of The New Ten Commandments 1. The Right to Freedom of Assembly - Dir, David Graham Scott 2. The Right not to be enslaved - Dir, Nick Higgins 3. The Right to a fair trial - Dir, Sana Bilgrami 4. The Right to freedom of expression - Dir, Doug Aubrey 5. The Right to life - Dir, Kenny Glenaan 6. The Right to liberty - Dir, Irvine Welsh & Mark Cousins 7. The Right not to be tortured - Dir, Douglas Gordon 8. The Right to asylum - Dir, Anna Jones 9. The Right to privacy - Dir, Alice Nelson 10. The Right to freedom of thought - Dir, Mark Cousins & Tilda Swinton.
Another Journey By Train · 1993Another Journey By Train
★ 8.01993
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Four young neo-Nazis travel across Europe discussing their beliefs and their disbelief in the Holocaust. They meet several Holocaust survivors on their journey, including Kitty Hart-Moxon at Auschwitz, where she had been imprisoned for almost two years.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things · 2024A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
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One of the most important women in British modern art, the painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a highly inspirational figure, whose work was deeply impacted by a pivotal event in her life. In May 1949, this leading representative of the modernist St Ives group of artists climbed to the top of the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland, an experience which was to transform the way she saw the world.
6 Desires · 20146 Desires
★ 7.52014
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Documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins follows in the footsteps of DH Lawrence in this dazzling road-trip through Sardinia.
The Story of Film: A New Generation · 2021The Story of Film: A New Generation
★ 7.42021
MovieDocumentary
The final chapter of his exceptional 15-part documentary exploring the history of cinema, The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Mark Cousins builds a bridge between the “before” of the health crisis, and the “after”.
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Filmmaker Mark Cousins, who was brought up in a Northern Irish war zone, travels to Goptapa, a Kurdish-Iraqi village of just seven hundred people on a tributary of the Tigris river, and tries to make a dream film about a place that is normally only portrayed in current affairs programmes. He gives the kids cameras, and they make their own little movies about war, love, a fish that goes to a magical place, and a chicken who debates justice.
A Story of Children and Film · 2013A Story of Children and Film
★ 7.12013
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A meticulous essay on the presence and representation of children in the history of cinema, in which cinematographies from all over the world are analyzed.
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema · 2020Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema
★ 7.02020
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As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic history of the cinema focuses on women's integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world's greatest filmmakers -- all of them women.
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A poetic journey into the visual world of the legendary filmmaker and actor Orson Welles (1915-85) that reveals a new portrait of a unique genius, both of his life and of his monumental work: through his own eyes, drawn by his own hand, painted with his own brush.
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock · 2023My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
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Directed by Mark Cousins, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock re-examines the vast filmography and legacy of one of the 20th century’s greatest filmmakers, Alfred Hitchcock, through a new lens: through the auteur’s own voice.
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Using only archive film and a new musical score by the band Mogwai, Mark Cousins presents an impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times – protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima – but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. The nuclear age has been a nightmare, but dreamlike too.
Stockholm, My Love · 2016Stockholm, My Love
★ 6.72016
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Stockholm My Love is a city symphony, a love letter to Stockholm, the fiction debut of director Mark Cousins and the acting debut of musician Neneh Cherry. It follows one woman's footsteps through the streets of her native city, on a journey of recovery from a bad thing that happened to her exactly one year before. It's an exploration of grief, identity and the power of architecture and urbanism to shape lives, and a celebration of the power of walking and looking to make us all feel just a little bit better. With new music by Neneh Cherry, old music by Benny Andersson (of ABBA) and Franz Berwald, and images by Christopher Doyle and Mark Cousins.
I Am Belfast · 2016I Am Belfast
★ 6.62016
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Belfast, it's a city that is changing, changing because the people are leaving? But one came back, a 10,000 year old woman who claims that she is the city itself.
I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited · 1994I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited
★ 6.51994
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Nancy Franklin was so overwhelmed by the film 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945) that she traveled from New York to the Western Isles of Scotland to see the places where it was made and to find out more about the people who made it. This documentary retraces her steps on a subsequent visit.
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The fascinating story of the rise to power of dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy in 1922 and how fascism marked the fate of the entire world in the dark years to come.
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★ 7.22012
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