December 2017 in Films
I had a pretty long vacation so I filled it with way too many films (that’s not true; there’s no such thing as too many films!) Before I get to December, do check out my Favorite Fifteen Films of 2017 here and know that my year long round up will be posted tomorrow. Back to December, due to this prolonged vacation and access to FilmStruck and TCM, I watched a whopping 77 new-to-me films this month! 17 of those films were directed by Shirley Clarke and 31 of those films featured the inimitable Lana Turner. It was a great month.
Cinema Fanatic’s Favorite Fifteen Films of 2017
In 2017 I watched 72 new releases, mostly in movie theaters (I am a junkie) and while there were a few films I really hated, mostly I saw a lot of films I really enjoyed. I discovered a love for documentary cinema (I saw fourteen documentaries this year!). I watched 32 new release films directed by women (with my total new-to-me directed by women clocking in at 79 this year; more on that when I do my year-end review tomorrow). For the second year in a row my favorite film of the year was not directed by a woman, but as per tradition it was also a queer romance. I am pretty easy to please. As a final reminder, I am not a fan of the term best. Film is an art that allows the viewer to bring themselves in conversation with it, and therefore what each person sees in a film will be different from what anyone else sees. This is a list of favorites and why these films resonated so with me. There are some spoilers, so beware.
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 8th Anniversary!
I almost forgot to celebrate the blog’s 8th anniversary today! When I first started this blog I posted every day and now it’s mostly the home of my monthly and yearly viewing wrap-ups. Those of you who still read all of those, I applaud you! For those of you who miss my every day posts, you can still find me all over the internet: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr! As far as 2017 goes, this was a great year. I went back to Italy for the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, I visited the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, I visited the Criterion Collection closet in NYC, I was on a panel about Universal Monsters at DragonCon, Videodrome ATL let me curate a #Noirvember section at their store, and #Noirvember made it into the New York Times! All and all, I think it was a pretty good year. In a few weeks I’ll post about all the films I watched this year (looks like I might come close to 600 new-to-me, a feat I haven’t managed in a few years) as well as all my favorite 2017 releases. Until then, happy watching!
P.S. Watch one of my fave films from the last few years, Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous (’15).
Noirvember 2017 in Films
I can’t believe how fast this month seemed to go! This was the 8th year of Noirvember and it really was a banner year with more participants than ever in more countries than ever. It even got written up in the New York Times! This month along with all the noir (and neo-noir, so much neo-noir!) I also watched my way through all of Tarkovsky’s filmography, however you will not see any write-ups about his films. Spoiler alert: I can safely say I am not a Tarkovsky fan. I also saw a TON of 2017 releases and various other things. I am voracious. As always, you can see all the films I watched plus a few highlights after the cut.
Pordenone Silent Film Festival (aka October 2017 in Films)
You’re gonna look at this list after the cut and go “girl you watched how many movies???” and I’ll be like “so many movies!” Mostly silent movies because it’s that time of year:Pordenone Silent Film Festival! This year I watched a little over 200 films at Pordenone Silent counting films I’d seen before (with exactly 200 of them were new-to-me!). I also peppered in a few highly anticipated 2017 releases and a few more silents on FilmStruck (because they’re addicting!) As always, you can see all the films I saw in October, plus a breakdown of years (spoiler alert: about a third of them were from the 1910s!), after the cut.
September 2017 in Films
I didn’t actually watch very many films in September. It was partially from post-SUTS overload, but also because I got sucked into a terrible tv show (CW’s Beauty and the Beast reboot. I watched all 70 episodes in two weeks!) Also, I am posting early this month because I will be heading back out to the Pordenone Silent Film Festival tomorrow. More on that when I recap October! Anyways, as always everything I watched plus some favorites can be found after the cut.
August 2017 in Films
This month was mostly filled with Summer Under The Stars, but I also caught up on a bunch of Sam Shepard films, and went to Noir City Chicago. As always, everything I watched is under the cut.
July 2017 in Films
I watched way too many movies in July. Not only did I watch a lot of new-to-me films, I also did a ton of rewatching. This uptick in movie watching had a few factors: 1) holy wow we had a lot of good films on TCM last month! 2) I use movies to cope when I am stressed and current events are making me very stressed. 3) I broke my foot, so I stayed in a lot. As always, you can see all the films I watched in July after the cut, as well as some of my favorite first time watches.
June 2017 in Films
So not only did I watch way more movies in June than I did in previous months this year, I also watched a season and a half of Supergirl! The CW has most of my favorite shows (Riverdale, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane The Virgin), I definitely recommend trying their shows. A good deal of what I watched this month was part of TCM’s celebration of Pride month. It was so wonderful to see gay men and lesbians who worked in Old Hollywood get a piece of the limelight. I also saw a movie in theaters that is on a 30th anniversary restoration tour and my life may never be the same. To see what movie that is and everything else I watched in June, proceed past the cut!
May 2017 in Films
May was another month filled with auteurist completism. I tried to finish all of Michelangelo Antonioni’s films. While I didn’t finish all of his films, I did see everything we had streaming on FilmStruck and am only a few films shy of completing his directorial filmography. I also watched more Varda. My plan is to finish all her films on FilmStruck by the end of June. In May I also watched auteur television and by that I mean season two of Master of None, which was a fabulous tribute to Italian cinema. Check it out if you haven’t seen it already! As always, you can find my favorite films of the month + everything I watched after the cut.
