"The Story of Film" is showing in segments over a period of weeks at the NW Film Center in the Portland Art Museum. I wandered into the three segments that mostly address the period between 1969 and the mid 1980s, complacently figuring I'd view a lot of footage I'd already experienced in my youth. I was terribly mistaken, and that's why I feel the previous reviewer is unfair to Cousins's project.
Given the comparatively minuscule budget for a job this grandiose in concept, I believe Cousins has done admirable work. He rarely appears on camera, he gives a tremendous amount of attention to so-called Third World filmmakers, and he has gathered an amazing though perhaps idiosyncratic series of on-camera interviews by directors, actors, and other commentators. For this viewer, who had seen hundreds of old films and brand-new movies in the 1980s that have since become iconic, I was astounded by the array of interesting films he unearthed from India, West Africa, China, and the old Soviet Union. (Where the hell am I ever going to get my hands on a copy of "Repentance" or "Come and See"?)
Yes, though the pacing doesn't feel rushed from moment to moment, you still feel left a bit breathless by all the ground covered. I appreciated the occasional visual examples of the points Cousins tries to make about particular filmmakers or nations' approach to movies: changing the filter shading or positioning of the horizon in sample footage before your eyes. In the particular section I saw, I appreciated his efforts to put the work of new filmmakers in historical and political context: a comparison between the eyes of David Lynch and those of President Reagan made me smile. Even if you don't agree with Cousins's judgments, they're worth thinking about . . . and it's just a great thing that somebody has the cojones to attempt a retrospective on this scale.
Given the comparatively minuscule budget for a job this grandiose in concept, I believe Cousins has done admirable work. He rarely appears on camera, he gives a tremendous amount of attention to so-called Third World filmmakers, and he has gathered an amazing though perhaps idiosyncratic series of on-camera interviews by directors, actors, and other commentators. For this viewer, who had seen hundreds of old films and brand-new movies in the 1980s that have since become iconic, I was astounded by the array of interesting films he unearthed from India, West Africa, China, and the old Soviet Union. (Where the hell am I ever going to get my hands on a copy of "Repentance" or "Come and See"?)
Yes, though the pacing doesn't feel rushed from moment to moment, you still feel left a bit breathless by all the ground covered. I appreciated the occasional visual examples of the points Cousins tries to make about particular filmmakers or nations' approach to movies: changing the filter shading or positioning of the horizon in sample footage before your eyes. In the particular section I saw, I appreciated his efforts to put the work of new filmmakers in historical and political context: a comparison between the eyes of David Lynch and those of President Reagan made me smile. Even if you don't agree with Cousins's judgments, they're worth thinking about . . . and it's just a great thing that somebody has the cojones to attempt a retrospective on this scale.