I didn’t even manage a film a day in December this year. The end of the year is always crazy, and I was running around a lot (my parents were here for a week!), but also I was trying to surpass a book reading goal (I made it to 60 this year!), so that took up a lot of time. I did, however, watch several of my favorite 2014 films in December. As always, the full list is after the cut.

1. Sólo con tu pareja
2. Truly Madly Deeply
3. Elle s’en va
4. The Theory of Everything
5. Zero Motivation
6. Lonesome
7. The Last Performance
8. Broadway
9. Maps to the Stars
10. Whiplash
11. The Merry Widow (1925)
12. The Babadook
13. Inherent Vice
14. The Hudsucker Proxy
15. Still Alice
16. Wild
17. Big Eyes
18. Violette
19. Selma
20. Seconds
21. The Imitation Game
22. Riptide
23. A Most Violent Year

1880s: 0
1890s: 0
1900s: 0
1910s: 0
1920s: 3
1930s: 2
1940s: 0
1950s: 0
1960s: 1
1970s: 0
1980s: 0
1990s: 3
2000s: 0
2010s: 14

I’m not going to write about the films I watched in December that made it on to my Favorite Fifteen Films of 2014 list, but you can read about those here.

Sólo con tu pareja, 1991 (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)

This movie made me wish Cuarón made comedies more often; he’s clearly got a knack for it. This was the only one of his films I hadn’t seen and I found it on Netflix randomly hidden under hundreds of less-than-stellar rom-coms. So strange how gems from auteurs can get hidden in the depths of Netflix! An Almodóvarian sex farce at the height of the AIDS crisis, it’s also a sweet rom-com about difficult people, who need a little push to find that special someone.

Truly Madly Deeply, 1990 (dir. Anthony Minghella)

What a wonderful debut from Anthony Minghella! If you aren’t already in love with Alan Rickman, first check that you have a pulse, then watch this movie and you definitely will after its over. Juliet Stevenson plays a woman who is still deeply mourning her deceases boyfriend (Rickman) and finding it difficult to live her own life so her boyfriend decides to come back as a ghost in order to shake her out of living in her memories. It’s a beautiful mediation on loss and grieving, but also love and acceptance.

Lonesome, 1928 (dir. Paul Fejös)

I blind-bought this set (it came with two other films as special features) from Criterion during their latest 50% off sale and I am so glad I did. What a lovely, heartbreakingly romantic film from the end/height of the silent era! A must for all silent film fans and hopeless romantics.

Violette, 2014 (dir. Martin Provost)

Possibly my favorite “difficult” protagonist of 2014 was Violette Leduc, writer, survivor and egomaniac. Played with gusto by Emmanuelle Devos, bookworms will definitely be longing to read her scandalous, revolutionary and out of print books (but will have the same trouble tracking them down as I have!)

Seconds, 1966 (dir. John Frankenheimer)

This was like the perfect family movie to watch on a cold-post Christmas night! A pitch-black comedy (sort of?)/sci-fi about a middle-aged banker who decides to give up his family and responsibilities and get “reborn” as Rock Hudson and live a bohemian life. But be careful what you wish for, because wherever you go, there you are!

This is my last month for a year wherein I will be watching films directed by men (unless the screenplay is by a woman), so I am really looking forward to starting January and A Year With Women!