The Story of Film: An Odyssey 'The Arrival of Sound' (2011)
*** (out of 4)
The fourth film in Mark Cousins' series takes a look at the end of the silent era and the doors broke down with the invent of sound. From here we learn about some of the changes Hollywood had to make and then we see some of the most famous genres from this era including the Western, horror, musical and comedy. We then jump ship to France where we learn about the master French directors and their films. The film also takes us to German to see what Leni Riefenstahl was doing during this decade and then we go to Britain for the work of Alfred Hitchcock. As with the previous three, this here jumps all over the place. One moment you're on LOVE ME TONIGHT then you flashback to THE GOLEM, back to FRANKENSTEIN and then up to films decades later. Even with the Hitchcock segment, we spend much more time with films outside the 30's, although THE 39 STEPS gets some of the spotlight. Again, I'm not really sure what type of style Cousins was going for but it's somewhat distracting as things just jump around for whatever reason. It's almost as we really are getting Cousins look at the history of cinema and his mind just bounces around from one subject to another. While this is somewhat distracting, there's still no question that overall the film remains entertaining. It's always interesting hearing another opinion on cinema and we get several great film clips as well as getting to see locations of famous places connected to movies.
*** (out of 4)
The fourth film in Mark Cousins' series takes a look at the end of the silent era and the doors broke down with the invent of sound. From here we learn about some of the changes Hollywood had to make and then we see some of the most famous genres from this era including the Western, horror, musical and comedy. We then jump ship to France where we learn about the master French directors and their films. The film also takes us to German to see what Leni Riefenstahl was doing during this decade and then we go to Britain for the work of Alfred Hitchcock. As with the previous three, this here jumps all over the place. One moment you're on LOVE ME TONIGHT then you flashback to THE GOLEM, back to FRANKENSTEIN and then up to films decades later. Even with the Hitchcock segment, we spend much more time with films outside the 30's, although THE 39 STEPS gets some of the spotlight. Again, I'm not really sure what type of style Cousins was going for but it's somewhat distracting as things just jump around for whatever reason. It's almost as we really are getting Cousins look at the history of cinema and his mind just bounces around from one subject to another. While this is somewhat distracting, there's still no question that overall the film remains entertaining. It's always interesting hearing another opinion on cinema and we get several great film clips as well as getting to see locations of famous places connected to movies.