the Story of Film

Fifteen hours later and I'm done with the Story of Film.

This is a fifteen part documentary about film from its inception through to contemporary times. Clearly it's worth seeing or I wouldn't have stuck it out, but I almost didn't get past episode one. Why? Cuz Mark Cousins' voice is so fucking annoying.

Mark is an Irish film critic who wrote, directed and narrated the series. It's very well-done, but his intonation drives you up the wall. He makes everything sound so profound or so dramatic. He can't string two words together without making them sound like the last two words on Earth. It's tiresome. So, you eventually get used to it or you just turn it off.

900 minutes of his annoying intonation and cadence aside, you gotta give the man respect. Putting a documentary together of this scale is a ridiculous undertaking. He's gonna get panned no matter what. It's an impossible journey to take without upsetting everyone. I'm not going to begin to get into the areas and artists he left out for one reason or another, but I can't put aside the glaring omission of Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle. At the very least he should have mentioned Trainspotting. That movie was so goddamn important to British cinema...c'mon. But I digress...

If you love cinema; watch this doc. Simply put. You'll learn a lot. You'll agree and disagree with Mark's POV at times, but it's a worthwhile trip. The man has a lot of knowledge to share. I'm hoping this is only the first series of films. If he opens it up to more detailed looks at certain countries, movements or genres, that could get really fucking cool. There's literally an infinite amount of content to cull from.

So, hats off to Mark Cousins. Hopefully there's at least another 900 minutes more to come...and hopefully he hires someone else to narrate the fucking thing.