WOMEN MAKE FILM: A NEW ROAD MOVIE THROUGH CINEMA

FILM

BD, DIGITAL HD

NEXTRAS

Making Of, Q&A, Video essay o, you haven’t heard wrongly. Mark Cousins’ magisterial, wideranging doc celebrating the artistry of female film directors really does clock in at an epic 14 hours (plus extras on Blu-ray!). From Lois Weber’s daring silents, through Kinuyo Tanaka’s melodramas to Patty Jenkins’ thunderous Wonder Woman, his grand tour covers 183 directors who’ve made nearly 1,000 films between them across five continents and 13 decades. Phew.

Arthouse-film lovers seeking an absorbing long-form project for any present or future lockdown should look no further. However, unlike Cousins’ previous cinema anthology, 2011’s equally ambitious 15-hour The Story Of Film: An Odyssey, this isn’t a linear movie history. Instead, it’s a bold set of video essays examining through analysis what makes a film great, but using only the work of women directors. Think of it as ‘a film school, where all the teachers are female’.

Despite the wry irony that male Cousins’ passionately opinionated criticism shapes every section, female narrators like Tilda Swinton, Thandie Newton, and Jane Fonda give WMF’s verdicts real emotional heft. The doco’s grabby opener featuring Binka Zhelyazkova’s moody, visually ingenious WW2-set We Were Young (1961) sets you wondering why it isn’t Third Man famous, and you’re hooked.

Still, the sharp questions in the film’s 40 chewy chapters are best