So much more than Hollywood

Documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins talks about why he thinks world cinema is about more than just Hollywood.

October 30, 2014 05:46 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 07:35 pm IST

Mark Cousins

Mark Cousins

Mark Cousins is a document tary filmmaker, author, curator and wanderer. His documentary titled ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’ sought to change the American-West European hegemony over film history and present a truly inclusive chronicle of more than 100 years of world cinema.

Excerpts from the interview:

The documentary is a lofty project made with a monstrous ambition. What’s particularly amazing is a certain audacity with which it was conceived. What was the source of this ambition and courage?

Anger. I was angry that many of the histories of cinema don’t mention, for example, Guru Dutt, or Safi Faye, Senegal’s great director, or Forough Farroukhzad, the pioneering Iranian director. Too many film histories are racist by omission. To balance the anger was love. A love of the medium of film and a strong desire to share that love. And finally, for years now when I’ve been asked for advice by young filmmakers, my answer has been two words: “aim high”. I took my own advice.

A lot of the talk, both laudatory and critical, has been about the perspectival tone of ‘The Story of Film’, which you have clarified as counter-racist. Something that celebrates the position of innovative cinema in the ‘underleaf’ world instead of being guided by Hollywood and European art cinema. Could you talk a bit about this?

It makes me laugh to see the white, Anglo film world objecting to being only part of the story of film rather than its main melody. Their own lack of curiosity, their self absorption, or, at its worst, supremacism, makes them reluctant to cede ground. They are like the old Empire mongers. In ‘The Story of Film’, American cinema receives about a third of the screen time, which I think is what it deserves — more than any other country because US cinema has been so great for so long. Still, some of them want more. It’s the “rest of the world” mentality, the “Best Foreign Language” mentality: That the cinema of all the other continents can somehow be bundled together into one category. You get the same binary idea in Indian cinema. People think that it is either Hindi cinema or Satyajit Ray when, of course, it is multi-polar.

Indian cinema appears in about four chapters of The Story of Film. Tell us a bit about your research?

I watched a lot of films. I knew I needed to interview some people who had been part of the very diverse bits of the behemoth that’s Indian cinema, so Sharmila Tagore was a joy and it was great to meet Javed Akhtar (though he seemed reluctant to participate). I knew I wanted to look at Gulzar and Guru Dutt, and that Ritwik Ghatak was key. As my theme was innovation, I didn’t get into the star system in India (we include Bachchan because of the sort of character he played in ‘Sholay’). I read around the subject, about Indian literature, about the Naxalites, etc. I wish I had done more on Indian documentaries (the brilliant Anand Patwardhan, for eg.). I am no expert on Indian cinema, but I pride myself on knowing more than most white Europeans!

You referred to a scene in ‘Sant Tukaram’ and commented that such cinematic techniques predated Italian Neo-Realism. If an Indian film critic made that observation, it would be cursorily dismissed by both Western and home-grown experts. Were you aware that you were offering not just a new perspective on world cinema but one that at times empowers these “other” cinemas?

Yes. But I didn’t make that point as a provocation or to boost early Indian cinema beyond its merits. My comment is evidence based. We can see elements of new realism in the film — elements that do predate Italian Neo-Realism. My confidence in making such an assertion comes in part from my suspicion of the received opinion and the conventional histories of cinema. We have no problem in saying that Indian temple architecture or the paintings at Ajanta and Ellora caves are world class and have a place in art history, so why not ‘Sant Tukaram’?

It was heartening to see the film discuss Ray, Guru Dutt, Ritwik Ghatak… I understand ‘Kagaaz ke Phool’ is one of your personal favourites. Tell us a bit about what appeals most to you about these film-makers.

Where Hindi cinema is often about a romantic nowhere, Ray’s cinema is rooted. Think of the subtle depiction of class in ‘Aranyer Dinratri’, think of that house in ‘Devi’. Acuity is the word for him; he notices so much. Then there’s his brilliant graphic sense, the geometry of images. Then there’s the rhythm, the musicality of the films. Place-graphics-musicality — there’s a poetics to his films.

Yes, I love ‘Kagaaz ke Phool’. Those in the West who revere Vincente Minnelli should see Dutt’s movies, but I always think of him as Wellesean too — the epic scale, the elegy, the lost worlds, the writing-directing. Sometimes, he reminds me of John Garfield.

As for Ghatak, it’s the passion in him, the rage. He takes on the tragedy of his times, like Pasolini did in Italy and Sam Peckinpah did in America. These filmmakers register on the Richter scale. They show us that an earthquake is happening. Ghatak was also so innovative. His sci-fi sound, his spikey editing, his embracing of many genres and tones — melodrama, realism, modernism within a single film. I adore his work. I think Ghatak’s tide is rising.

You have said that ‘The Story of Film’ burned you in some ways; that you don’t want to go back to making this kind of documentary. Could you explain that?

I make films about various things — neo-Nazism, cities, walking, Iran... Cinema is one of the things that I am passionate about. I am delighted that people like ‘The Story of Film’, but often I meet people who think it’s the only thing I’ve made. For me, it was a big, enriching sideline.

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