The Story of Film: An Odyssey - Season 1

The first two decades of cinema, 1895-1918; its invention in New Jersey and Lyon and its development from a gimmick to a language through the innovation of many technicians and artists.

1918-1928; the establishment of Hollywood as an industry that produced optimism, romanticism and happy endings; the filmmakers in America and Europe who defied Hollywood fantasy to show a harsh reality in cinema.

1918-1932, the great rebel filmmakers around the world. Novel and remarkable experiments in silent cinema; French impressionism and surrealism, German expressionism, Soviet, Japanese and Chinese cinematic innovation.

The Story of Film looks at the films of the 1930s and the development of "talking pictures". Sound requires the use of sound stages and this effects lighting and cinematography. It looks at Rouben Mamoulian's musical Love Me Tonight. It looks at the development of film genres in Hollywood: horror films, gangster films, musicals, westerns, comedies, and animated cartoons. It then looks overseas to look at the work of French filmmakers, South American filmmakers, Poland, Germany, and England.

1939-1952 looks at film-making during and immediately after World War II.

The Story of Film examines cinema in the period of 1953-1957. It looks at the growth of movie-making around the world and examines how sex and melodrama dominated the period.

The Story of Film examines European cinema in the period of 1957-1964.

The Story of Film examines world cinema in the period of 1965-1969 when New Wave Cinema swept the world and gave rise to a whole new generation of filmmakers.

The Story of Film examines American cinema in the period of 1967-1979 also known as New American Cinema. Films of this time generally fell into three types: satirical films that mocked society and the times, dissident films that challenged the conventional style of cinema, and assimilationist films that rework old studio genres with new techniques.

The Story of Film examines world cinema in the period of 1969-1979. 

A look at the development of mainstream film in the 1970s and examines how such films were innovative.

Cinema of the 1980s and how directors used movies to protest and speak truth to those in power.

World cinema in the period of 1990-1998 the waning days of the celluloid era and the birth of the digital age. 

The Story of Film looks at American and Australia cinema in the 1990s and examines the rise of digital film-making which allows for the crafting of scenes that would otherwise be impossible. It looks at the innovative effects work of Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and Steven Spielberg and discusses the popular CGI animated film Toy Story (1995).

The Story of Film looks at film in the 2000's and considers innovations that will drive film forward to the future.