The Story of Film: An Odyssey

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.

All Episodes - Season 1

Episode 1

Birth of the Cinema

Episode 2

The Hollywood Dream

Episode 3

The Golden Age of World Cinema

Episode 4

The Arrival of Sound

Episode 5

Post-War Cinema

Episode 6

Sex & Melodrama

Episode 7

European New Wave

Episode 8

New Directors, New Form

Episode 9

American Cinema of the 70s

Episode 10

Movies to Change the World

Episode 11

The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream

Episode 12

Fight the Power: Protest in Film

Episode 13

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

Episode 14

New American Independents & The Digital Revolution

Episode 15

Cinema Today and the Future