30° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
TFFdoc/INTERNAZIONALE.DOC

WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED LOVE?

WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED LOVE?
by Mark Cousins
Country: UK
Year: 2012
Duration: 77'


The film is a poetic documentary about the nature of happiness. Filmed in Mexico over three days, for just ten pounds, it begins as a film about the soviet director Sergej Eizenstein, and then, using his ideas, opens up to look at memory, landscape and the pleasures f walking. The film draws from a range of filmmakers and writers – principally Chris Marker, but also Virginia Woolf, Frank O’Hara and others – but aims to touch on themes that are relevant to a wide range of people – where joy comes from, the emotions involved with travel and homecoming, and the nature of solitude.

Biography

film director

Mark Cousins

Mark Cousins (Northern Ireland, UK) directed The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a fifteen-hour work collating the shots taken in the course of over six years in four continents and which originated from his book The Story of Film. In 2012 he presented What Is This Film Called Love? at Torino Film Festival.

FILMOGRAFIA

I Know Where I’m Going! Revisited (cm, tv, 1994), The First Movie (2009), The Story of Film: An Odyssey (15 episodi/episodes, 2011), What Is This Film Called Love? (doc., 2012), Life Maybe (doc., 2014).

Declaration

film director

“Eizenstein spent time in Mexico City in the 1930s. His time there liberated him. His thinking became more free. Why don’t I go to the places where he went? Retrace his steps? But how do I do this visually? Suddenly I realise that I could print out a photograph of Eisenstein and film it – him – as I walk.”

Cast

& Credits

regia, soggetto, fotografia/director, story, cinematography Mark Cousins montaggio/film editing Timo Langer
musica/music Simon Fisher Turner, Espen J Jorgensen, PJ Harvey, Bernard Herrmann
suono/sound Ali Murray
interpreti/cast Alison Watt, Mark Cousins (voci narranti/narrators)
produttori, vendita all’estero/producers, world sales Catherine Aitken, Mark Cousins
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