{"id":26956,"date":"2023-09-02T01:07:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T08:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=26956"},"modified":"2023-09-02T01:07:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T08:07:35","slug":"blu-ray-review-the-complete-story-of-film-2011-and-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=26956","title":{"rendered":"Blu-ray Review: THE COMPLETE STORY OF FILM (2011 and 2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray is currently available from Music Box Films.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For this reviewer, it\u2019s hard to imagine a world without\nmotion pictures. But thanks to the tireless work of inventors, artists,\ndistributors and others involved in the film industry, this individual hasn\u2019t\never had to worry about it and can instead watch, analyze or simply enjoy a\npicture with ease. There is an awful lot to detail about how motion pictures\nhave come about and the way that storytelling has progressed, so it\u2019s quite a\nbold statement to promise a complete look at roughly 130 years of movie history\nin two documentaries. However, historian Mark Cousins has attempted to do just\nthat with The Complete Story of Film<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, this release contains two separate non-fiction\nprojects. The first is the nearly 15-hour The Story of Film: An Odyssey<\/em>\n(2011) and the second is a 3 \u00bd hour follow-up The Story of Film: A New\nGeneration<\/em> (2021), which delves into more recent features and tries to\noffer suggestions about current trends and where the medium may be headed in\nthe future. These British productions have been the source of some controversy\namong film scholars. Some have critiqued elements of the docs and the\nnarrator\u2019s own personal biases towards particular figures and films irritating,\nwhile others have been amazed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each roughly 1-hour long episode has a theme and ultimately details\naccomplishments, starting with the invention of the motion picture camera,\nmoving through technical advancements like editing, camera angles, the use of\nsound, not to mention storytelling techniques. While chapters do use dates and\npromise to detail what specifically occurred during these periods, there are\nplenty of tangents that jump ahead to show how certain approaches were adapted\nin the future. Of course, the documentary moves through and covers Hollywood,\ninternational cinema, neorealism, film noir, French New Wave and many more\nmovements, eventually ending on modern cinema of the 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had never seen this lengthy treatise before and went in\ncold, other than having heard a few comments and\/or criticisms here and there.\nFrankly, many of the disapproving appraisals do have strong points to make.\nCondensing a massive subject into even 18 \u00bd hours means that many important\nbreakthroughs are given short shrift and there are some statements made by\nCousins that even I, frankly, completely disagree with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In jumping back and forth between eras and central themes on\neach subject, he does contradict himself on occasion. There\u2019s a definite\nblasting of Hollywood cinema, yet a large amount of time and attention is paid\nto it and the technical and creative advancements from this part of the world.\nAnd despite Cousin\u2019s annoyance about the lack of focus on innovators in world\ncinema, certain countries get a history that only amounts to a clip or two and\nnotes on a couple of filmmakers. Yes, a few parts of the world do get a lengthy\nexamination, but others don\u2019t get nearly as much attention as they should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For instance, Canada is summed up as a country that delivered the work of Norman McLaren and David Cronenberg and produced stories that expose the darker, dirtier side of human nature. And\u2026 (besides a brief reference to Denys Arcand in a later episode) that\u2019s pretty much it. There is much, much more going on in the country\u2019s cinematic history and it would have been nice to see a deeper delve into both this country and other nations that are given superficial treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The filmmakers also have a habit of playing up some older\nfilm stars as tragic figures. There is a suggestion that Buster Keaton was\ncompletely forgotten by the public following his heyday in the 1920s. But\ndespite a brief dark period noted in the narration and losing leading man\nstatus, Keaton actually continued performing in Hollywood features and spent\nthe later part of his life happily married and working steadily. Guess that\npart of his history just didn\u2019t have the same dramatic punch.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But despite its issues, the majority of what is presented\ndoes fit in with what I learned in university and, even in this distilled form,\nmakes for interesting and, at times, exciting viewing. There are some very\nimportant titles from the past and present that are examined and it\u2019s great to\nsee someone note camera angles and cuts and their effect on the narrative.\nSometimes there is a tendency to excessively describe the events occurring\nonscreen during clips, but plenty of his comments and notes are important and\nwill help viewers understand why a certain scene exudes a particular feeling or\nemotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, the Blu-ray\u2019s picture quality is excellent.\nAll of the clips look wonderful and one can really see how beautifully shot\nthese movies are, whether they came from the 1920s or recent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Again, many may disagree with some of Cousin\u2019s personal taste. But admittedly, different views are what makes discussing movies fun in the first place. The ability to talk passionately about why something on the screen works for them and what other viewers may get out of watching it is always enjoyable to listen to (even if other individuals may come away feeling differently about the very same picture). Many of the movies and filmmakers featured in the documentary are favorites of mine as well and, as it\u2019s entertaining to get a sense of why these particular titles speak to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the important historical details are present\nand will be informative to new audiences. And when Cousins does properly hone\nin on some underrepresented parts of the world and examines films that should\nbe better known, there is plenty of good insight. There are also some great\ninterviews with various figures who were either in or worked some of the\ntitles. They are able to present a clear picture of their intentions as well as\nthe individuals they worked with and knew personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall, the two documentaries that make up The Complete\nStory of Film<\/em> are enlightening and a wonderful way to either re-familiarize\nyourself with the origins of cinema\u2026 or introduce interested parties looking\nfor a place to start learning about its history. It may not be entirely\ncomplete (there\u2019s no way that such a huge subject can be covered perfectly in\nsuch a short amount of time) and some of it is debatable, but many essential\ninventions and titles are properly detailed. The Blu-ray is certainly worth\npicking up and checking out. At the very least, you\u2019ll walk away with a big,\nupdated list of must-see movies to check out in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray is currently available from Music Box Films. For this reviewer, it\u2019s hard to imagine a world without motion pictures. But thanks to the tireless work of inventors, artists, distributors and others involved in the film industry, this individual hasn\u2019t ever had to worry about it and can instead watch, analyze or simply enjoy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[160,206,213,3073,4427,5993,7524,14426,20308,20309,22308,22309],"class_list":["post-26956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-160","tag-206","tag-213","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-cinema","tag-documentary","tag-film-history","tag-music-box-films","tag-the-complete-story-of-film","tag-the-complete-story-of-film-blu-ray-review","tag-the-story-of-film-a-new-generation","tag-the-story-of-film-an-odyssey"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}