The Story of Film: An Odyssey

2011 NR 1 Season

The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an unprecedented cinematic event, an epic journey through the history of world cinema that is a treat for movie lovers around the globe.

Directed by: Mark Cousins

Genre: Documentary · Documentary Series · Documentary · Documentary Series

Start watching with your public library card

15 Episodes

1 - Birth of the Cinema 1 h 4 min

This opening of The Story of Film: An Odyssey shows the birth of a great new art form, the movies. Filmed in the very buildings where the first movies were made, it shows that ideas and passion have always driven film, more than money and marketing.

2 - The Hollywood Dream 1 h 4 min

This is the fascinating story of the movies in the roaring 20s. We see how Hollywood became a glittering entertainment industry and how star directors like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton emerged.

3 - The Golden Age of World Cinema 1 h 4 min

The 1920s were a golden age for world cinema. In this part, we visit Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Shanghai and Tokyo to discover the places where movie makers were pushing the boundaries of the medium.

4 - The Arrival of Sound 1 h 4 min

In part 4, we see how the coming of sound in the 1930s upended everything. We watch the birth of new types of film: screwball comedies, gangster pictures, horror films, westerns and musicals, and discover a master of most of them: Howard Hawks.

5 - Post-War Cinema 1 h 4 min

This part of The Story of Film shows how the trauma of war made cinema more daring. The story starts in Italy, and then we go to Hollywood, discover Orson Welles and chart the darkening of American film and the drama of the McCarthy era.

6 - Sex & Melodrama 1 h 4 min

This part explores the story of sex and melodrama in the American movies of the 1950s while also traveling to Egypt, India, China, Mexico, Britain and Japan to find that movies there were also full of rage and passion.

7 - European New Wave 1 h 4 min

This is the explosive story of film in the late 50s and 60s. In Denmark, Lars Von Trier describes his admiration for Ingmar Bergman, and Bernardo Bertolucci remembers his work with Pier Paolo Pasolini.

8 - New Directors, New Form 1 h 4 min

This is the story of the dazzling 1960s in cinema around the world. In Hollywood, legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler reveals how documentary influenced mainstream movies. Easy Rider and 2001: A Space Odyssey begin a new era in American cinema.

9 - American Cinema of the 70s 1 h 3 min

This is the remarkable story of the maturing of American cinema of the late 60s and 70s. Writer Robert Towne explores the dark ideas in Chinatown, and director Charles Burnett talks about the birth of Black American cinema.

10 - Movies to Change the World 1 h 4 min

This is the story of the movies that tried to change the world in the 70s. We start in Germany with Wim Wenders, travel to Italy, see the birth of new Australian cinema, and then arrive in Japan, which was making the most moving films in the world.

11 - The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream 1 h 4 min

Star Wars, Jaws and The Exorcist created the multiplexes, but they were also innovative. The Story of Film: Part 11 explains how, and then travels to India where Amitabh Bachchan, shows how Bollywood was doing new things in the 70s.

12 - Fight the Power - Protest in Film 1 h 4 min

With Ronald Reagan in the White House and Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street, the 1980s were the years of protest in the movies. This is the story of how brave filmmakers spoke truth to power.

13 - New Boundaries - Cinema From Around the World 1 h 4 min

Cinema around the world in the 90s entered a golden age. We start in Iran, meeting Abbas Kiarostami, who rethought movie making and made it more real. Then we meet Shinya Tsukamoto, who laid the ground for the bold new Japanese horror cinema.

14 - New American Independents & The Digital Revolution 1 h 4 min

This is the story of the flashy, playful movies in the English-speaking world in the 90s. We look at what was new in Tarantino's dialogue and the edge of the Coen brothers. Baz Luhrmann talks about Moulin Rouge and we plunge into the digital world.

15 - Cinema Today and the Future 1 h 5 min

In the final part of The Story of Film: An Odyssey, movies come full circle. They get more serious after 9/11, followed by David Lynch's Mulholland Drive becoming one of the most complex dream films ever made and Inception turning film into a game.