Deanna H.
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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 14: New American Independents & The Digital Revolution
Throughout The Story of Film, we’ve seen how the advent of new technology has changed the face of cinema. Sound, color, and widescreen technology altered filmmaking significantly, and in the 1990s CGI (computer generated imagery) changed cinema again. Suddenly, it seemed anything a filmmaker wanted to show, could be. A vast Roman city, one costing… 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 9: American Cinema of the 70’s
As we’ve seen in The Story of Film, while American cinema had been at the forefront of filmmaking for many years, over time, Hollywood’s movies had begun growing stagnant. The Production Code Administration still restricted what could be said, done, or shown in American movies. But by the early 1960’s, the PCA was losing its… 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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The Story of Film, Part 4: The Arrival of Sound
Continuing our journey through Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we’ve now reached the first full decade of talking pictures. Though silent films would still be made into the mid 1930’s (with some made in both silent and sound versions for a time), by the end of the decade “talkies” would be the industry standard and… Continue reading
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The Story of Film, Part 3: The Golden Age of World Cinema
In the last column exploring Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we looked at the early years of Hollywood and the beginnings of what Cousins’ refers to as “the bauble.” This column will focus on what was happening in other countries, where other directors were making films that were very different from Hollywood and featured… Continue reading
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The Story of Film, Part 2: The Hollywood Dream
Our travel through Mark Cousin’s history, The Story of Film, now takes us to the years 1918-1928 and the work of the great American silent comedians. Let’s start with Charlie Chaplin, probably the most famous of all the silent film stars. Like most silent comedians, Chaplin got his start acting and directing in comedy shorts… Continue reading
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The Story of Film, Part 1: Birth of the Cinema
In 2004, Irish film critic Marc Cousins published The Story of Film. Focusing on the history of innovation in cinema, it attempted to explore the full breadth of world filmmaking, discussing the work of artists of all races, genders, and nationalities, including many whose work has gone unacknowledged by mainstream, Hollywood-biased histories. That book became… Continue reading