Many apologies for the unscheduled hiatus.
I was briefly transported back to the
dark ages of the 20th century when a rogue boat anchor
tore up communication cables near my suburb, leaving 100 homes
without Internet or telephone capabilities for three weeks
(and that is not counting the one week earlier in November). It also
doesn't help that I live in a beautiful but slightly isolated part of
Australia, a part that is known for its poor mobile phone (cell
phone) coverage as well.
Essentially, we were more cut off from
civilisation than usual.
On the plus side, the television still
worked and I was able to watch a ton of films during the period. I
saw thirty films in the month of November (thank you local library!),
and knocked off a few of my blind spots: Reservoir Dogs,
Avatar, Melancholia,
Schindler's List,
Saving Private Ryan to
name a few.
Having
started the year having only seen around 600 films in my lifetime
(according to my memory) I have, as of this date, got that number to
896, meaning I will easily reach my target of seeing 900 by 31st
December. (I keep a spreadsheet, hence the exactness of my figures).
Since
this time of the year lends itself to reflection, I thought I would
bore you with some of my thoughts about my film watching over the
year. I have learnt a lot. I have immersed myself in film history,
adding phrases like 'French New Wave,' 'Social Realism,' and
'agitprop' to my vocabulary. I learnt to appreciate and love people
like Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Ang Lee, and Ingmar Bergman and
discovered previously unknown delights in Andrei Tarkovsky and
Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Having
begun a personal course of study into the art of screenwriting, I
have a much greater depth of understanding in regards to story. You
would think that this might lead to cynicism and snobbiness, but
thankfully its effect has been to sharpen my appreciation of a
well-written story, to inwardly gasp at the mastery of Charlie
Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally
and Fritz Lang's M
amongst others.
Though
the title of favourite film/s has not changed hands, a huge number
have been added to the mental list this year: 2001: A Space
Odyssey, Psycho,
Trois Coleurs: Bleu,
Deliverance,
Rosemary's Baby,
Alien, Aliens,
Klute, Volver.
But my
recommendation from this year is not a film but a film history
documentary and companion book. If you can, grab/ borrow a copy of
Mark Cousins' The Story of Film.
I read the book first, which was a great initiation into film
history. The documentary, however, was fabulous; 15 one hour episodes
taking us from the invention of cameras, to musings on the future of
the film industry. I was educated and inspired.
So,
dear reader, what were the standouts of your year of viewing?
