"The Complete Story of Film" - Blu Ray Release Review
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
To distill an entire movie into one cohesive documentary is no easy feat. The history of film goes back to 1899 and Thomas Edison’s desire to create a mechanism that could play visuals to accompany the sounds of a phonograph. In the 1890s, the famous Lumiere brothers would begin their own experiments with filmmaking and would capture the mundanities of daily life. Around the same time, George Méliès and Pathé Frères began to play with the ideas of narrative films and special effects. The blending of audio and video didn’t fully overtake the Hollywood movie industry until the late 1920s. Several years later, in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated film, was released. Color film became the standard in the 1950s, and in the ’70s we saw the growth of slashers as the studio system and production code declined. The ’80s and VHS tapes created the home video boom that has given way to the streaming wars. And look where we are now. Entire worlds are being created on computer screens. A freedom and a burden now exist in filmmaking because of technology.
That very brief overview of the history of film pales in comparison to Mark Cousins’ sprawling The Complete Story of Film, an immersive documentary series of the artform. In 2011, Cousins created The Story of Film: An Odyssey. This fifteen-hour documentary was an attempt at a comprehensive history of this fairly new medium. Unlike painting, theatre, or literature, film has only existed for labor 140 years. In the grand scheme of things, the motion picture is still in its infancy. In 2021, Cousins released an update to his original work. The Story of Film: A New Generation was a just-over-two-hour addition that brought his criticism to the modern times. For the first time, these two documentaries will be made available together on Blu-Ray. The Complete Story of Film is almost eighteen hours worth of critique, history, and reflection.
The Story Of Film: A New Generation. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
In a time when some critics look at the film industry and proclaim that this is cinema’s last, gasping breath, Cousins is relentlessly hopeful. As much as The Complete Story of Film is a history lesson, the documentary is a celebration of an artform we all enjoy. Quite simply, this comprehensive look at the film industry couldn’t be made by someone who looks at the artform cynically. You have to be able to hold an appreciation for Casablanca, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Booksmart, and Mad Max: Fury Road all at the same time. Cousins understands that cinema is elusive, limitless, and undefinable. He approaches movies with a critical eye, but without losing his love of movies. It’s a balance that a lot of contemporary critics struggle with because there has to be a fundamental understanding of the art, its influences, and its reach. There’s more to the cinematic canon than most average moviegoers realize, yet films from India, the United States, Senegal, Finland, Taiwan, etc. are tied together by the common thread of the medium.
In a sense, Cousins’ desire to document the entire history of film is futile. With ever-changing technology and more opportunities for movies to be made, it is simply impossible to chronicle this shifting artform. Cousins, however, is up for the challenge. His unique ability to use the editing room allows him to weave this massive web of stories into a narrative in its own right. There are some jump cuts that are downright exciting, connecting great films from all over the world to each other. The Complete Story of Film is an essential addition to the collection of anyone who loves films. It’s our closest means of summing up the totality of this beautiful medium.
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