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Movie Quote of the Day – Red Riding Hood, 2011 (dir. Catherine Hardwicke)
Valerie: There must be a God, because you’re the Devil.
Cesaire: And you’re the Devil’s daughter.
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 – Thirteen, 2003 (dir. Catherine Hardwicke)
Tracy: [crying] Oh no, Mom. Get off of me. I hate you. Stop.
Mel: I love you and your brother more than anything in the world. I would die for you, but I won’t leave you alone right now.
Movie Quote of the Day – Lords of Dogtown, 2005 (dir. Catherine Hardwicke)
Skip: You gotta approach every day as if it’s your last, alright?
Movie Quote of the Day – Twilight, 2008 (dir. Catherine Hardwicke)
Edward Cullen: What’s in Jacksonville?
Bella Swan: How did you know about that?
Edward Cullen: I. . . You didn’t answer my question.
Bella Swan: Look, You haven’t answered any of mine, so. . . You don’t even say hi to me.
Edward Cullen: Hi.
Bella Swan: Are you gonna to tell me how you stopped the van?
Edward Cullen: Yeah.I had an adrenaline rush. It’s very common. You can Google it.
In Defense of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (and the series in general)
I wasn’t going to write a review of this movie, mostly because the focus of this site is Oscar-winning and/or nominated films and contenders, but I got several requests to do a proper review. I also wanted to write on the movie because I’ve noticed that a lot of the reviewers for this chapter, as well as the previous two, have had a negative bias whether they realize it or not (Richard Roeper, this time around, however said he liked the film and was entertained). This pre-disposition is something I don’t understand at all, as part of being a reviewer is to try to stand back and approach a film objectively. That being said, I have read the books and seen all the films, and although I realize that the writing in the books is less than stellar, there is something about them that I just love. What I think it is, is that they are entertaining. They are a form of escapism, and whether they are written well or no, they are enjoyable. Same goes for the films. They are made to ENTERTAIN, not to enlighten, enrich or inspire us. Fans of the film series already know this. The books never claimed, nor tried to be, Pulitzer Prize quality and the films never tried to be Oscar worthy. What they did was entertain and from the sheer amount of money they’ve made, clearly they have done just that.
the diary of a film history fanatic 