Episode #1.6 (8 Oct. 2011)

Director:

Mark Cousins

Writer:

Mark Cousins

Stars:

Mark Cousins, Youssef Chahine, Soumendu Roy

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Mark Cousins	...	Himself - Presenter
Youssef Chahine	...	Himself - Interviewee
Soumendu Roy	...	Himself - Interviewee
Sharmila Tagore	...	Herself - Interviewee
Jin Xie	...	Himself - Interviewee
Kyôko Kagawa	...	Herself - Interviewee
Donald Richie	...	Himself - Interviewee
François Truffaut	...	Himself (archive footage)
Judy Balaban	...	Herself - Interviewee
David Lean	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 October 2011 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hopscotch Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

62 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Himself - Presenter: The story of Indian film is as vast as the country. India knew as much if not more about devastation as Europe in the '50s. De-colonialization, partition, famine, and the caste system had traumatized it. In all this turmoil you'd think that the country would have no time for cinema. But you'd be wrong. By the 1950s, India seemed made for cinema. It's colors seemed to have the hand of a production designer, back then. It's luminosity as the feel of a studio arc light.

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Connections

Features Rio Bravo (1959)

User Reviews

Will the Real James Dean Please Stand Up

The Story of Film: An Odyssey 'Sex and Melodrama' (2011)

*** (out of 4)

The six episode in Mark Cousins' series takes a look at the melodrama's of the 1950s but much like earlier episodes, the film jumps around to cover a wide range of topics. We start off seeing a clip of James Dean but then we hear Cousins' say that the real Dean was Youssef Chahina who made CAIRO STATION. From here we take a look at some films from India (PANTHER PANCHALI, MOTHER India) and then the works of Kurosawa, Mexican cinema and Bunuel, Nicholas Ray and even Ken Anger. As I go through this series it's becoming very clear that Cousins isn't trying to tell a general history of film but instead he's staying true to his vision and his opinion by telling you what his idea of the story of film should be. I think this approach might turn many off but if you stick with it there are some very good moments throughout. I think some of the highlights here include a look at ON THE WATERFRONT and we even get to see a location and how it looks today compared to in the film. Cousins has an interesting take on the taxi scene and compares it to a scene in RED RIVER. Overall this is another fine episode but the remark on Dean was... a little off I guess you could say.