S1E1 Birth of the Cinema
Mark Cousins tells the story of cinema, starting in this episode with the birth of the movies, telling the glamorous, surprising stories of early moviemaking and the first film stars.
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🏆 Top Episodes
#2
S1E3
The Golden Age of World Cinema
The 1920s were a golden age for world cinema. The programme visits Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Shanghai and Tokyo to explore the places where movie makers were pushing the boundaries of the medium. German expressionism, Soviet montage and French impressionism and surrealism were passionate new film movements, but less well known are the glories of Chinese and Japanese films and the moving story of one of the great, now largely forgotten, movie stars, Ruan Lingyu.
#3
S1E4
The Arrival of Sound
The coming of sound in the 1930s upends everything. We watch the birth of new types of film: screwball comedies, gangster pictures, horror films, westerns and musicals, and discover a master of most of them, Howard Hawks. Alfred Hitchcock hits his stride and French directors become masters of mood.
- 4. S1E5 "Post-War Cinema"
- 5. S1E7 "European New Wave"
- 6. S1E9 "American Cinema of the 70s"
- 7. S1E2 "The Hollywood Dream"
- 8. S1E8 "New Directors, New Form"
- 9. S1E13 "New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America"
- 10. S1E14 "New American Independents & the Digital Revolution"
📉 Bottom Episodes
#15
S1E10
Movies to Change the World
The movies that tried to change the world in the seventies: Wim Wenders in Germany; Ken Loach and Britain; Pasolini in Italy; the birth of new Australian cinema; and then Japan, which was making the most moving films in the world. Even bigger, bolder questions about film were being asked in Africa and South America, and the story ends with John Lennon’s favourite film, the extraordinary, psychedelic The Holy Mountain.
- 14. S1E12 "Fight the Power: Protest in Film"
- 13. S1E11 "The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream"
- 12. S1E6 "Sex & Melodrama"
- 11. S1E15 "Cinema Today and the Future"
The Quality Arc
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Episode Engagement
Vote count shows how many people cared enough to rate. High votes + high rating = beloved classic. High votes + low rating = notorious stinker. Low votes + high rating = hidden gem.
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8 Standouts
0 Infamous
7 Hidden Gems
0 Forgettable
Top Standout: S1E1 Birth of the Cinema
Best Hidden Gem: S1E8 New Directors, New Form
Episodes plotted by rating vs. vote count. The vertical line marks the rating threshold (7.5). More votes = more engagement. Toggle above to compare against global or show-specific median.