Commenting on the critics with Simon Columb…
Mark Cousins writes for Sight and Sound this month (S&S, May 2012) about the reaction the audience had towards his epic The Story of Film: An Odyssey. I particularly found the following paragraph interesting:
“Slightly more problematic has been IMDb’s billing of The Story of Film as a TV series, just because they saw it on TV. We hope it works well on the small screen, but it was shot and cut for the big screen as well. My producer John Archer and I have pointed this out to IMDb, but they seem to think that they have the right to decide what it is. So many people around the world use IMDb that it influences how the work is perceived.”
Cousins fails to clearly communicate how he would define the film – an art installation? A documentary? Personally, I tried to watch The Story of Film on the Channel 4 (TV series?) online service 4OD (web series?). Unfortunately, midway through, it failed to successfully load and we had to abandon ship and decided to wait for the DVD release. I am incredibly excited to reveal that the release date is 23rd April 2012 and I will certainly watch it its entirety – as I know I will be keen to digest and rewatch the film to educate myself further on the history of cinema.
But the issue regarding the IMDb is a difficult one. In twenty years, it seems that most people will look back on the original Swedish Millennium trilogy as three films titled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, but, in truth, the latter two films were created to be TV features in Sweden. They were changed to be released theatrically when the first film was so successful. It is unclear whether the TV versions were extended for multiple sales on DVD or whether the theatrical releases were cut to suit a shorter film length – but the fact remains that the original intention was for the films to be released on TV, rather than at the cinema. Both versions are available now on DVD and Blu-Ray. Even Flickering Myth’s writer Luke Owen produced, directed and [briefly] appeared in a web series titled The Collector’s Room. It is listed on the IMDb as a ‘TV series’, when it is only available online from, initially his website, and now YouTube.
Like Mark Cousins, it seems to me the filmmakers are not the ones who dictate what IMDb lists a film as. When people research films (TV series, art installations, etc.), they look to the IMDb for reference. Cousins mentions Christian Marclay’s The Clock as a frame of reference to the way his film was screened; Marclay presented a 24-hour art film whilst Cousins equally presents a 15-hour ‘odyssey’ – both of which have been screened in their entirety at festivals (The Story of Film screened as ‘a marathon’ in The Berlinale) and galleries (Marclay specifically expects viewers to ensure that they watch The Clock at the correct time as it correlates with the art piece itself).
But the IMDb dictates that The Clock is a documentary and The Story of Film is a TV series documentary. There is a responsibility for the Internet Movie Database to respect the creators of the film and define it correctly – and if that means creating a new category (web series / art installation), then so be it.
Originally published April 15, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
