Cinephile and filmmaker Mark Cousins returns to his landmark series with a new instalment that looks to the future of film.
There are the old guard of cinema who decry the ‘death of cinema’, suggesting that the medium is no longer the vibrant form it once was. Cousins, a filmmaker, essayist, author and walking encyclopaedia of the moving image, would beg to differ. As this riveting companion to his ambitious, 15-part 2011 documentary series shows, there is not only much to be thrilled by cinema today, the future might just offer exciting new avenues to explore.
The third film produced in 2021 by Cousins (he also directed The Story of Looking and The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, both available on Curzon Home Cinema), this latest instalment of The Story of Film joins that invaluable series and his subsequent The Story of Children and Film (2013) and Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (2018) in presenting a singular, occasionally idiosyncratic guide to world cinema. Presented by Cousins in his inimitable style, this is both an enjoyable overview of where cinema is at and a richly rewarding guide to films and filmmakers that may not have appeared on everyone’s radar.
