MovieChat Forums > The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) Discussion > Mistake when Mark Cousins talks about Th...

Mistake when Mark Cousins talks about The Conversation (1974)

posted 12 years ago by thao
1 reply | jump to latest

I'm watching this documentary. It is rather good and informative but there was this one mistake which kind of surprised me. When Mark Cousins talks about The Conversation (1974) he says that the main character stumbled upon this conversation and then becomes obsessed about it and loses himself. The truth is that he does not record this by accident. He is spying on these people and trying to hear what they are saying. It's his work. And he does not lose himself, he just could not hand over something which could harm someone. He had a masterpiece, his best work ever, which could make him even more famous but he had morals. Did anyone else notice this? I wonder why Cousins would make such a mistake and why did not one point this out to him?

- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -

[–] TrevorAclea 12 years ago

I wonder why Cousins would make such a mistake and why did not one point this out to him?

The series is riddled with elementary mistakes - years, characters, plots, even history itself falls victim to Cousins' inability to check even the most basic facts if thy get in the way of his interpretation of events. In one episode he even claims the most adventurous American directors were making films in the European continent during the war...

As for anyone pointing it out to him, he tends to turn a deaf ear to contradictions to his point of view: if you've seen his Scene by Scene interviews there will invariably be a moment where he insists such-and-such a film MUST be autobiographical or have "hummersexewal undertones" and refuses to accept the interviewees when they say it's simply not the case (this crops up in this series where he rather gratuitously claims Howard Hawks was a bisexual, which will be news to many people, including Hawks if he were still alive).

"Security - release the badgers."