Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A New Project, or: An explanation of recent Facebook behaviour


I’ve been doing this thing over on Facebook for the past few months where I post bad cellphone photographs of movie title cards. I’ve been getting some questions about it, so I thought it might be worthwhile explaining what exactly I’m up to. Every so often, some magazine or website will publish a list of ‘movies to see before you die.’ When this happens, or when I’ve been talking with my more cinema savvy friends, I often find myself confronted with a long list of notable movies I haven’t yet seen. Finding myself with a little more free time on my hands, and with an urgent need to unwind, I resolved to watch as many of these movies as could. To give the project some structure, I decided to set a few ground rules:
  1. In order to force some variety on my viewing habits, I decided to watch one movie from each year from 1945 to the present day. This not only forced me to draw on movies from a number of different eras, it also gave me an easy decision procedure when figuring out what to watch.
  2. The films in question must be notable in some way. I’m not following any particular list or cannon, but if they have won awards, or feature the work of directors, actors, or screenwriters that I admire, I’ll be more likely to watch them. The movies in question may not be the best produced in their given year, but they should at least be notable. For budgetary reasons, I’m largely dealing with what’s available on Netflix Canada, broadcasts on TCM, public revivals at various theatres in Halifax, and loans from friends. On occasion, I’ll rent something from the local video store in order to fill in any major holes.
  3. These must be movies I haven’t seen before. Even if I last saw a film  20 years ago, and can barely remember its plot or cast, it will not count for the purposes of the project. Here is a list of what I’ve watched so far.
  4. When I watch a movie at home, I take a picture of the title card with my cellphone, and enter its name, its year of production, the name(s) of its director(s), and the date watched into a spreadsheet. I’ve been keeping a little diary of thoughts about some of the movies I see. As the project moves forward, I may begin to share these thoughts online.


Here is a list of the movies I’ve watched so far:

1945
Brief Encounter
David Lean
12-03-31
1946
1947
1948
1949
The Third Man
Carol Reed
12-04-21
1950
All About Eve
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
12-05-07
1951
1952
1953
I Confess
Alfred Hitchcock
12-03-19
1954
Dial M for Murder
Alfred Hitchcock
12-03-05
1955
Marty
Delbert Mann
12-07-18
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
The Hustler
Robert Rossen
14-May-12
1962
1963
1964
The Naked Kiss
Samuel Fuller
*****
1965
1966
Harper
Jack Smight
15-May-12
1967
Bedazzled
Stanley Donen
12-07-10
1968
1969
Cactus Flower
Gene Saks
12-05-13
1970
1971
1972
What's Up Doc?
Peter Bogdonavich
12-03-31
1973
1974
The Conversation
Francis Ford Coppola
16-May-12
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
The Dark Crystal
Jim Henson & Frank Oz
12-07-08
1983
1984
Stop Making Sense
Jonathan Demme
12-04-28
1985
1986
1987
1988
Running on Empty
Sidney Lumet
*********
1989
1990
The Russia House
Fred Schepisi
12-02-24
1991
1992
Orlando
Sally Potter
12-07-07
1993
1994
Vanya on 42nd St.
Louis Malle
12-04-23
1995
Le Confessional
Robert Lepage
12-04-02
1996
Swingers
Doug Liman
12-06-23
1997
1998
Run Lola Run
Tom Tykwer
12-06-26
1999
Election
Alexander Payne
12-07-31
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Layer Cake
Matthew Vaughan
12-03-03
2005
Mirrormask
Dave McKean
12-04-25
2006
Marie Antoinette
Sofia Coppola
12-07-17
2007
The Lookout
Scott Frank
12-07-09
2008
2009
2010
****
****
****
2011
****
***
***
2012
****
****
****


I’ve intentionally left the entries for the past three years blank, since I’ve watched a number of movies from that time period, and I haven’t decided which to use for the purposes of the project.  The entries for 1964 and 1988 denote movies I’ve committed to watch for the project, but have not yet seen. Please let me know if you have any suggestions about what I should watch next.