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The Worst Episodes of The Story of Film: An Odyssey

Every episode of The Story of Film: An Odyssey ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of The Story of Film: An Odyssey!

Binge this in 15h 46m•Peaking at 8.7/10

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

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  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 2 - The Hollywood Dream
    7.5/10(4 votes)

    #1 - The Hollywood Dream

    S1:E2

    Movies in the Roaring Twenties: Hollywood became a glittering entertainment industry with star directors like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. But the gloss and fantasy was challenged by movie makers like Robert Flaherty, Eric Von Stroheim and Carl Theodor Dreyer, who wanted films to be more serious and mature. This was a battle for the soul of cinema. The result: some of the greatest movies ever made.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 1 - Birth of the Cinema
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    #2 - Birth of the Cinema

    S1:E1

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 4 - The Arrival of Sound
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #3 - The Arrival of Sound

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 5 - Post-War Cinema
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #4 - Post-War Cinema

    S1:E5

    Mark Cousins explores how the trauma of war led to more daring creations for cinema, focusing on the darkening of American film and the drama of the McCarthy years. Screenwriters Paul Schrader and Robert Towne discuss the era and Stanley Donen - director of Singin' in the Rain - talks about his career.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 6 - Sex & Melodrama
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #5 - Sex & Melodrama

    S1:E6

    Sex and melodrama in the movies of the fifties: James Dean, On the Waterfront and glossy weepies. We travel to Egypt, India, China, Mexico, Britain and Japan to find that movies there were also full of rage and passion. Exclusive interviews include associates of Indian master Satyajit Ray; legendary Japanese actress Kyoko Kagawa, who starred in films by Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu; and the first great African director, Youssef Chahine.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 7 - European New Wave
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #6 - European New Wave

    S1:E7

    The explosive story of film in the late fifties and sixties: The great movie star Claudia Cardinale talks exclusively about Federico Fellini; in Denmark, Lars von Trier describes his admiration for Ingmar Bergman; and Bernardo Bertolucci remembers his work with Pier Paolo Pasolini. French filmmakers plant a bomb under the movies, and the new wave it causes sweeps across Europe.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 8 - New Directors, New Form
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #7 - New Directors, New Form

    S1:E8

    The dazzling 1960s in cinema around the world: In Hollywood, legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler reveals how documentary influenced mainstream movies. Easy Rider and 2001: A Space Odyssey signal a new era in America cinema. We discover the films of Roman Polanski, Andrei Tarkvosky, and Nagisa Oshima. Black African cinema is born, and we talk exclusively to the Indian master director Mani Kaul.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 9 - American Cinema of the 70s
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #8 - American Cinema of the 70s

    S1:E9

    The maturing of American cinema of the late sixties and seventies: Buck Henry, writer of The Graduate, talks exclusively about movie satire of the time. Paul Schrader reveals his thoughts on his existential screenplay for Taxi Driver. Writer Robert Towne explores the dark ideas in Chinatown, and director Charles Burnett talks about the birth of Black American cinema.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 10 - Movies to Change the World
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #9 - Movies to Change the World

    S1:E10

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 11 - The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #10 - The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream

    S1:E11

    Star Wars, Jaws and The Exorcist created the multiplexes, but they were also innovative. In India the world’s most famous movie star, Amitabh Bachchan, shows how Bollywood was doing new things in the seventies too. And we discover that Bruce Lee movies kick-started the kinetic films of Hong Kong, where master Yuen Woo-ping talks exclusively about his action movies and his wire fu choreography for The Matrix.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 12 - Fight the Power: Protest in Film
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #11 - Fight the Power: Protest in Film

    S1:E12

    Protest in the movies of the 1980s: brave filmmakers spoke truth to power. American independent director John Sayles talks exclusively about these years. In Beijing, Chinese cinema blossomed before the Tiananmen crackdown. In the Soviet Union, the past wells up in astonishing films, and master director Krzysztof Kieslowski emerges in Poland.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 13 - New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #12 - New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America

    S1:E13

    Film in the 1990s enters a surprise golden age. In Iran we meet Abbas Kiarostami, who rethought movie making and made it more real. Then, in Tokyo, we meet Shinji Tsukamoto, who laid the ground for the bold new Japanese horror cinema. In Paris one of the world’s greatest directors, Claire Denis, talks exclusively about her work. The story ends in Mexico.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 14 - New American Independents & The Digital Revolution
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #13 - New American Independents & The Digital Revolution

    S1:E14

    Brilliant, flashy, playful movies in the English speaking world in the nineties. We look at what was new in Tarantino’s dialogue and the edginess of the Coen Brothers. The writer of Starship Troopers and Robocop talks exclusively about the films’ irony. In Australia, Baz Luhrmann talks about Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge, and we plunge into the digital world to see how it has changed the movies forever.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 15 - Cinema Today and the Future
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #14 - Cinema Today and the Future

    S1:E15

    Movies come full circle: They get more serious after 9/11, and Romanian movies come to the fore. But then David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive becomes one of the most complex dream films ever made and Inception turns film into a game. In Moscow, master director Alexander Sokurov talks exclusively about his innovative films. Then, a surprise: The Story of Film goes beyond the present, to look at film in the future.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. The Story of Film: An Odyssey Season 1 Episode 3 - The Golden Age of World Cinema
    8.7/10(3 votes)

    #15 - The Golden Age of World Cinema

    S1:E3

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Worst Episodes Summary

"The Hollywood Dream" is the worst rated episode of "The Story of Film: An Odyssey". It scored 7.5/10 based on 4 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 9/10/2011. This episode scored 0.3 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Birth of the Cinema".