Widescreen: Watching. Real. People. Elsewhere

by Mark Cousins

Cinema has undergone huge changes in the last Asian filmmaking has been making the running; the ne'er do well genre, documentary, has broken through; digitalization and DVD has revived film history and is revolutionizing projection; world cinema has shifted in the direction of the real and the visually grainy; and animation has become more dominant that any time since Disney. Month by month, in the acclaimed journal Prospect , critic and filmmaker Mark Cousins has charted and contextualized these changes. Writing from Britain, Europe, Iran, India and Mexico, he has looked at the social trends and aesthetic implications of modern cinema's shifting sands. Watching. Real. People. Elsewhere is the result; a skeptical, passionate, eye-witness account of film today, argued originally and written with panache.

Genres: Film

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Mark Cousins is an author, film critic, producer, and documentary filmmaker. He is the former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and a regular contributor to Prospect, Sight and Sound, and The Times. His latest film is a 14-hour documentary about female filmmakers, Women Make Film.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book of short essays very useful. Each one has the date of writing on it and they follow a pattern of looking at different kinds of modern cinema from different countries and different makers. The author tells us how much money a sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean has made despite all the dreadful reviews and viewer comments. He asks about cinema in various countries - Asian, Iranian - and holds up good examples.

Personally I was not that interested in worldwide cinema at present, but I did find some very useful pieces. These gave me a vocabulary, a history and philosophers to use when discussing film making in college essays. I could also see what was meant by comparing director styles and so on, helping me consider my own short films objectively.

I borrowed this book from the Dublin Business School Library. This is an unbiased review.

[Mike O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed 'Widescreen'. It displays a passion for cinema from across the globe which is infectious. IT makes me want to look up all the films I haven't yet seen and re-watch those I have. I may not agree with all the comments (although I have certainly been encouraged to question some of my preconceptions) but they are always insightful and argued from the standpoint of someone who knows their subject thoroughly and really CARES about it.