cinema
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The Story of Film Part 15: Cinema Today an Tomorrow
We’ve now come to the end of our journey through Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film, following cinema’s early beginnings to the advent of the digital age. But before we ring down the curtain, we have a few more stops on our tour of cinema history. As digital effects began to strip the “realness” from mainstream… Continue reading
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The Story of Film Part 12: Fight the Power – Protest in Film
In our last column on Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we looked at the rise of Hong Kong and Bollywood cinema, and the triumph of big budget, high concept blockbusters in Hollywood. More change was on the way in the 1980’s, with the rise of MTV and music videos making a huge impact on… Continue reading
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The Story of Film Column #11: The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream
As we close out The Story of Film’s look at the Seventies, we focus on three major developments that would influence world cinema dramatically. First was the rise of Asian films in the world market, specifically the action and fantasy spectacles coming from Hong Kong. Second were the changes in Indian cinema, leading to the… Continue reading
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The Story of Film Column #10: Movies To Change The World
As we continue our walk thru Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we’ve now reached the 1970’s, one of the defining decades in cinema history. As we saw in the last column, an influx of talent from television, film schools and independent filmmaking had led to the birth of the “New Hollywood” movement in America. At… Continue reading
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The Story of Film Part 8: New Directors, New Form
Continuing our journey through The Story of Film, we move further abroad as a new wave of filmmakers emerges across the world. With the French New wave in full flower and major new filmmakers from Italy and Sweden, cinema was in an exciting period of growth, with new directors emerging from countries whose voices had… Continue reading
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The Story of Film, Part 7: The European New Wave
In last week’s column on Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we took a look at what was happening in world cinema in the United States, India, and Japan. But what was happening in Europe? Quite a bit, as we’ll see in this column. Some of the most famous directors in cinema history were creating masterpieces… Continue reading
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The Story of Film Part 6: Sex & Melodrama!
Moving forward in Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we’ve reached the mid 1950’s. By now, the rise of television in America was making a definite impact on Hollywood. Film-going in the US, which was at its peak in 1946, was declining, especially now that TV sets were affordable to the public. And television was… Continue reading
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The Story of Film Part 5: Post War Cinema
Our last column on Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film left us in 1939, as the clouds of war rolled in. By the early 1940’s, the world was fully embroiled in the conflict of World War 2. Film production in most countries either slowed down or closed entirely. Films still being made were full of propaganda… Continue reading
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Pride Month: Queer Cinema by Queer Directors
“There have never been lesbians or gay men in Hollywood. Only homosexuals.” With this final despairing statement, gay film historian and activist Vito Russo ends The Celluloid Closet, his landmark study of representations of LGBTQ people in film. When Russo first published The Celluloid Closet in 1981, he could not imagine that over a decade… Continue reading