Blog Archives
May 2018 in Films
So May was very different from April in that I didn’t watch nearly as many films directed by women as I had intended. Mostly this was because there were a bunch of films expiring from FilmStruck that I had to watch. Like, so many films. You’ll see. As always, the whole list of everything I watched in May plus my favorites can be found after the cut.
2017 in Films: 365 Days, 628 Films, and a Year Full of Cinema!
2017 was quite the film (and TV!) watching year for me. I got really obsessed with a lot of things and I watched more films this year than I have in a few years. After the cut you can see all 628 new-to-me films I watched (and you can read my monthly breakdowns here). This year was filled with a lot highlights both in terms of what I watched, but also places I visited and people I met. Here’s hoping 2018 will be even better!
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.
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.
April 2017 in Films
Here we are again! April mostly consisted of continuing my binge rewatch of Frasier – and I finally finished! Yes, 11 seasons, 263 episode – watched! That show really holds up, jsyk. I also spent a good deal of April in Los Angeles for the TCM Classic Film Festival (the highlight of my year every year!) and stayed an extra week on vacation. Despite all that, I did almost make it 30 films in April, thanks mostly to FilmStruck. So many films, so little time! As always, you can see everything I watched after the cut, as well as some highlights.
Movie Quote of the Day – Le Bonheur, 1965 (dir. Agnès Varda)
François: I’m different since I met you. On the contrary, I’m even more myself.
A Year With Women: 103 Essential Films By Female Filmmakers
Find out more about A Year With Women here.
Lately I’ve become more and more frustrated with the various “best ever” lists that have been released because they rarely feature films by women, or if they do it’s usually one or two films. I think this is more a reflection of those who are polled for these kinds of lists, as well as a compounding of history on itself. For so long films by men have made up the bulk of the film canon and I think people are afraid to add new films to these revered lists. I also think many people haven’t seen very many films by women, or if they have it’s always the same handful of films. In an attempt to create a better, more inclusive list of great films by women, I polled over 500 critics, filmmakers, bloggers, historians, professors and casual film viewers, asking them to tell me what films directed (or co-directed) by women are essential viewing. Some people only responded with as little as five votes, others submitted hundreds of films. In the end, I received over 7,000 votes for 1,100+ different films. After tallying up this data, with ties factored in, I then had a list of 103 essential films directed by women.
Movie Quote of the Day – La Pointe-Courte, 1955 (dir. Agnès Varda)
Elle: Everything would have been easier for us if I’d been born next door to you.
Lui: Too much! I wouldn’t have loved you if you were just like me. The resemblance must come little by little.
Movie Quote of the Day – Cléo de 5 à 7, 1962 (dir. Agnès Varda)
Cléo: Ugliness is a kind of death. . .As long as I’m beautiful,I’m alive more than others.
Movie Quote of the Day – Ultimo tango a Parigi (Last Tango in Paris), 1972 (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
Jeanne: You want to know why you don’t want to know anything about me? Because you hate women.
Paul: Oh, really?
Jeanne: What have they ever done to you?
Paul: Well, either they always pretend to know who I am or they pretend I don’t know who they are and that’s very boring.
