Mark Cousins: 'What is this film called love?'

Kill your Idols, or take them for a walk. Man with a movie camera, Mark Cousins, takes a laminated picture of Eisenstein and us on a three-day derivé through Mexico City and memory that is light hearted but immersive, full of humanism and the God in the detail.

Either by necessity or as a statement, his embrace of DIY/no budget filmmaking perfectly complements his continuous efforts to democratise Film. Without a hint of condescension, he takes us through the streets and through the film and the thought processes behind each moment shot or contemplated.

Arrogance in Cinema becomes passé when you love both the medium and the audience. Denying the institutionalised and snobbish attitudes that often penetrate art house filmmaking, the ‘Man’ embraces solitude as space, not as loneliness, and celebrates the moment of godliness inherent in all of us. The exact moment of art.

‘What is this film called Love?’ will probably not end up in a pantheon in the history of film. It is not clear to me if some choices regarding the editing and the voiceover served their intentions. But even if the film does not rise to the magnitude and magnificence of ‘The First Movie’ or ‘The Story of Film’, its ideas, ideals and propagation of art as potential inherent in all elevates it to a highly important, essential and thoroughly political viewing.

Robinson, is finally unbound.

more info:

http://whatisthisfilmcalledlove.co.uk/

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117947849/