The ever-prolific Mark Cousins emerges from pandemic lockdown with the engagingly insightful The Story of Looking(which closed Sheffield DocFest), a film that touches on territory he has delved into before but also comes with a personal spin that makes it all the more appealing.
Though on the surface this is a film that links to his 2017 book of the same title, the arrival of Covid and pandemic lockdown hampered his ability to make a detailed film that dwelt on science and sports as well as art and film, as planned.
Instead, that same intention to meditate on the power and pleasure of the experience of looking sat alongside Cousins having to have eye surgery, and while the film sees him typically at ease ruminating on films and art there is an underlying sense of fear (fear of the operation itself and fear of it impacting on his love of looking) that really resonates.
Just to alert Cousins fans early-doors – yes, he does get naked, and yes, you do get to see lots of his tattoos. For this film he actually spends a lot of time filming himself while lying in bed which perhaps links to the fact that as a personality he is far more emotionally exposed than in previous films.
The film opens with a clip of singer Ray Charles from 1972 talking about his blindness which Cousins watches on his mobile phone early in the morning while lying in bed. The film’s structure can’t allow him to continue doing so for very long because he is due in hospital for an eye operation to remove a cataract “tomorrow” and while he uses this as the jumping off point to discuss “looking” he admits to being nervous about the procedure.
The Story of Looking sees Mark Cousins prepare for surgery to restore his vision exploring the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. He guides his audience through the visible world, delivering a cornucopia of striking imagery from diverse cultures and eras.
One of his opening shots is actually the most memorable. Looking out of his bathroom window he films an unidentified man on a rooftop sitting next to chimney pots and staring out over Edinburgh. His journey through looking is absorbing, enjoyable, challenging and thoughtful. Naturally enough it features clips from plenty of feature films – ranging from Singin’ in the Rain and A Matter of Life and Death through to Spellbound and Casablanca – and footage of various locations from his travels.
Just past the hour point and he heads to hospital for the operation. He arranges for filming of the cataract being removed, his left eye being cut and a new lens being put in place. Naturally enough, this is intercut with the classic eye-cutting scene from Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou as well as a few other films that reference eyes.
Post-operation and he continues to ruminate on the pleasure and pain of seeing the world in all its complexities and contradictions. The Covid pandemic may well have hampered Cousins’ ability to take his camera on his cinematic travels but it did enable him time and space – driven by a fear that his ability to ‘see’ might be hampered by the operation – to look into the power and the glory of looking.
UK, 2021, 90mins
Dir Mark Cousins
Production Bofa Productions, Creative Scotland
Producers Mary Bell, Adam Dawtrey
Editor Timo Langer
Music Donna McKevitt
