A Story of Children and Film (Mark Cousins, 2013)

[thirtyframesasecond]

I gather the Criterion consensus on 'A Story of Film' was pretty mixed, and I certainly felt it petered out towards the end (mainly due to his promotion of Baz Luhrmann as a contemporary Vincente Minnelli!). His new documentary is about childhood in cinema, but childhood seen through the eyes of children themselves. Some of the films he refers to are well known (E.T. Night of the Hunter), but seeing films from Albania and Iranian films that have never seen the light of day in the West are a revelation. It does of course feature Cousins' idiosyncratic voiceover, which can be divisive (I like it), and he uses his own nephew and niece for the film's context. It's in British cinemas at the moment but is released on DVD at the end of April.

[Calvin]

I loved it. I think it works better than The Story of Film: An Odyssey because it feels like a more personal work rather than Cousins trying to teach his audience, so his idiosyncrasies are welcome in a way that they weren't in a work that was more overtly documentary.

[bottled spider]

I loved it too. I'd like to see all of the films he excerpted, especially the Iranian one with the boy carrying the pane of glass. I've been working my way through the featured films that are locally available, which is only about half of them. The video of his neice and nephew provided an effective connecting thread, and periodic refreshment from the long series of clips.

[Calvin]

17 of the films featured are screening around the UK as part of the Cinema of Childhood season. I'm aiming to get to every one that I can manage.

[thirtyframesasecond]

17 of the films featured are screening around the UK as part of the Cinema of Childhood season. I'm aiming to get to every one that I can manage.

I've got tickets for Willow and Wind / The Boot for this month and plan for more in May and June.

The BFI also has a Walerian Borowczyk season in May, which could hit my wallet harder.

[MichaelB]

The BFI also has a Walerian Borowczyk season in May, which could hit my wallet harder.

Most of the Borowczyk season is effectively included in Arrow's upcoming box set - and indeed most of the screenings are sourced from the same 2K restorations.

Which is why I'm going for things like La Marge and of course Docteur Jekyll - I understand the latter is being projected from a rare uncut French-language 35mm print.

[broadwayrock]

Most of the films that are part of The Cinema of Childhood season can be rented on VOD via Filmhouse Player and BFIplayer (although BFIplayer only has Bag of Rice available at the moment, but its £3.50 instead of Filmhouse Player's £5)