The Story of Film: A New Generation review – invigorating study of 21st century cinema

Critic and film-maker Mark Cousins offers a new instalment in his monumental Story of Film series, examining what digital technology has brought to the table

Critic and documentary film-maker Mark Cousins has returned to Cannes with another episode of his amazingly ambitious cinephile history The Story of Film, an illuminated patchwork clip-quilt, accompanied by his inimitable incantation-voiceover. It's another example of his unique approach: Cousins is subjective almost to the point of free-associating or even sleep-talking (maybe appropriate for the dream state of the movies) but also colossally well-informed, bracingly internationalist and genuinely educational. I have never yet watched a Cousins film without learning something and being a bit sheepish about what I didn't know.

That said, Cousins's style takes some getting used to - almost like a hyper-innocent form of criticism, wide-eyed with wonder at cinema's brave new world, a Miranda of the movies. Occasionally Cousins's commentary verges on the superfluous, simply describing what is on screen, although there is almost always a shrewd insight there: he has a great section on a creepy travelling shot in David Robert Mitchell's psychological horror It Follows.