TCM to present U.S. TV premiere of ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’

Turner Classic Movies is set to present the U.S. TV premiere of Mark Cousins’ acclaimed 15-hour documentary, “The Story of Film: An Odyssey,” beginning Sept. 2.

The cable network will show Cousins’ documentary with a complementary program of 119 movies and dozens of short subjects that represent 29 countries. Cousins, who hails from Northern Ireland, will join TCM host Robert Osborne to introduce each week’s episode.

“Mark Cousins’ ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’ is a fascinating, brilliant documentary series that takes viewers beyond Hollywood to track the history of cinema on a global scale,” Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM, said in a statement Thursday.

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Based on Cousins’ 2004 book, “The Story of Film,” the documentary aired on British TV in 2011 and screened that year at the Toronto International Film Festival. Last year, it was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in York and is also available on DVD.

Among the classic films set to accompany and complement the series are D.W. Griffith’s 1916 epic “Intolerance”; Erich von Stroheim’s 1924 “Greed”; Orson Welles’ 1941 masterwork “Citizen Kane”; Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir “Double Indemnity”; Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain”; Steven Spielberg’s 1975 “Jaws”; and Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic “Gladiator.”

More than 30 films will be making their TCM premieres, including Satyajit Ray’s 1955 “Pather Panchali”; Wim Wenders’ 1974 “Alice in the Cities”; and Vilgot Sjöman’s 1967 “I Am Curious (Yellow).”

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