Season 1
(2018)
Overview
Five years in the making, this epic journey through film history is made up of forty “chapters” narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton, and Debra Winger. WOMEN MAKE FILM follows in the footsteps of Mark Cousins’s THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY to give us a guided tour of the art and craft of the movies. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Cousins explores how films are made, shot, and edited; how…
Cast
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
Episodes
Openings, Tone 0.0
September 1, 2018
“Openings”. With examples from 1943 to 2013, from China to Iran, Australia to Finland, we look at how to open a film: f…
Believability, Introducing Character, Meet Cute 0.0
September 1, 2018
“Believability”. It’s easy to spot, but not so easy to understand. Believability is about simple human stories, the tru…
Conversation, Framing, Tracking 0.0
September 1, 2018
“Conversation”. A basic human interaction—how to make it cinematic? “Framing”. Frames describe and paint the scenes. T…
Staging, Journey, Discovery 0.0
September 1, 2018
“Staging”. Scene staging is an element of film form pointing clearly to cinema’s origin: theater. “Journey”. Movement …
Adult/Child, Economy, Editing 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Adult/Child”. Most famous movie genres—war pictures, westerns, etc.—are about adults, but in this chapter, Jane Fonda …
POV, Close-up, Dream 0.0
May 18, 2020
“POV”. Is cinema the art of point of view? Jocelyn Moorhouse, Ida Lupino, Edith Carlmar, Sofia Coppola, Liliana Cavani,…
Bodies, Sex 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Bodies”. Bodies in cinema can be enticing, athletic, or brutalized. Jane Fonda narrates this chapter about how some of…
Home, Religion, Work 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Home”. Refuge, shelter, or prison? Sharmila Tagore narrates the story of home on-screen in the great films of Edith Ca…
Politics, Gear Change, Comedy 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Politics”. Another aspect of everyday life. From silent cinema to the twenty-first century, movies from the visually a…
Melodrama, Sci-Fi, Horror & Hell 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Melodrama”. A genre as popular as comedy, but what are some of the great scenes in melodrama? Sharmila Tagore narrates…
Tension, Stasis, Leave Out 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Tension”. Thrillers, and so much more. We look at gripping scenes in films as diverse as Joel DeMott’s documentary DEM…
Reveal, Memory, Time 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Reveal”. How does Lynne Ramsay do a reveal, in MORVEN CALLAR? How does the great actor-director Kinuyo Tanaka? Or Sara…
Life Inside, The Meaning of Life, Love 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Life Inside”. Novels are great at describing thoughts, but how do films do so? In this chapter, we see how great direc…
Death, Endings, Song and Dance 0.0
May 18, 2020
“Death”. The biggest subject in life, the most universal subject—no wonder that Japan’s Kinuyo Tanaka, Canada’s Carolin…