‘The Story of Film: A New Generation’ Review: The Case for Modern Movies – The New York Times
The newest installment within the filmmaker-critic Mark Cousins’s survey of film historical past focuses on Twenty first-century developments.
A decade after presenting a guided tour of cinema historical past within the 15-hour docuseries “The Story of Movie: An Odyssey,” the filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins checks in on current developments in “The Story of Movie: A New Technology.”
This newest installment is a gratifyingly worldwide survey through which Cousins, who narrates, applies his analytical eye to films which are nonetheless settling within the thoughts. In the event you really feel such as you haven’t absolutely absorbed such vital movies as Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Cemetery of Splendour” (2016) or Mati Diop’s “Atlantics” (2019), Cousins’s consideration of their visible methods will make you need to watch them once more.
Cousins’s assessments provide lots to argue with, nevertheless it’s potential to get pleasure from “A New Technology” with out agreeing that “Booksmart” “extends the world of movie comedy,” as he claims, or {that a} shot in “It Follows” deserves comparability to the camerawork in Michael Snow’s landmark experimental movie “La Région Centrale.”
Regardless of main with “Joker” and “Frozen,” Cousins goes effectively past titles acquainted to western audiences, with Indian cinema (“Gangs of Wasseypur,” “Purpose”) coming in for specific reward. He additionally highlights works that check the boundaries of what qualifies as cinema — Beyoncé’s visible album “Lemonade,” Tsai Ming-liang’s virtual-reality experiment “The Abandoned” and the interactive “Bandersnatch” episode of “Black Mirror.”
If something, technological shifts — there’s dialogue of the iPhone-shot “Tangerine,” and of “Leviathan,” through which, based on Cousins, the filmmakers literalized the idea of a fisheye lens by attaching cameras to fish — get quick shrift. When Cousins says that lockdown gave folks time to observe “much more films,” and that “when public life returned, we marched to the films once more,” his “we” doesn’t solely comport with field workplace realities. “A New Technology” means to stay up for a vivid way forward for moviemaking, nevertheless it’s potential it’s a future that will not come to move.
The Story of Movie: A New Technology
Not rated. Working time: 2 hours 40 minutes. In theaters.
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