What would a three year anniversary post be without a round of "thank you's"? First and foremost, I need to thank my wife. It takes a lot of free time to watch 523 movies in three years and it takes a very understanding woman to allow me to do that. My wife has been nothing but supportive through this entire endeavor and without her I probably would have given up on this blog a long time ago. Thank you Ruthie, you're my rock and I'll always love you. Then there's the sixty-one of you guys who have clicked my "follow" button and taken that one moment to think about me and my writing and for that, I am forever grateful. To the people who have left comments on the blog, an even special-er thanks to you - every single one of them means the world to me and while I don't always take the time to comment back (I'm lazy like that) I DO appreciate them very much! (Ray, I hope you're well and your comments are missed).
A special thank you to Karen Burroughs Hannsberry who took time out of her busy schedule earlier this year to collaborate with me on "Seven Shadows Week" - a week's worth of film noir that I enjoyed promoting greatly. Karen, thank you for taking the time enjoy seven films with me.
I wasn't the most popular kid when I was younger. I didn't have a lot of friends at school and when I got home on Friday afternoon, I looked forward to nothing more than sitting in front of the television and oftentimes, my escape was a good movie. I can remember when my brother was in college and every weekend, when he'd return home for a couple days, we'd head to Pat's Discount or Video 99 (two local video stores) and rent two or three flicks (usually horror movies). Those were some great times. I can remember being so excited for my brother's visits, not only because I got to spend a couple of days with him, but because we, once again, got to make our weekly trip to the video store, turning over cellophane wrapped VHS cases and being hopeful that our choices were the right ones. I can remember my wife and I moving into our first apartment and not having cable for a couple of weeks and spending a lot of our days watching movies. In fact, the very first night I spent away from my childhood home and with my wife in our new apartment, was spent sitting on the floor, alphabetizing our movie collection. By the time we were finished, my home sickness had worn away and I was settled in. A lot of my favorite memories involve movies, which is why I'm happy to have a blog dedicated to furthering my knowledge of cinema and you can rest assured that I'll see this project to it's conclusion.
For my three year anniversary, I borrowed an idea from a fellow blogger friend of mine, Michael (Please check out his blog "I Shoot the Pictures" - he knows his stuff!). You guys know how much I love making lists and here's hoping you love reading them. I've compiled four separate lists below, for your viewing pleasure. Please be aware that all of these lists are UNRANKED and were thrown together in the last hour or so, but I'm very confident in the choices I've made. Also note that these lists were compiled using only the first 500 movies from THE BOOK and that nothing since "Paths of Glory" was considered for these lists.
25 Best Movies of the 1st Half:
C’era una volt il West (1968 – Sergio Leone)
12 Angry Men (1957 – Sidney Lumet)
The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003 – Peter Jackson)
Rear Window (1954 – Alfred Hitchcock)
Sideways (2004 – Alexander Payne)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943 – Alfred Hitchcock)
La Roue (1923 – Abel Gance)
Manhattan (1979 – Woody Allen)
Le Mepris (1963 – Jean-Luc Godard)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975 – Chantal Akerman)
Jaws (1975 – Steven Spielberg)
Suna no onna (1964 – Hiroshi Teshigahara)
Midnight Cowboy (1969 – John Schlesinger)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994 – Frank Darabont)
Greed (1924 – Erich von Stroheim)
Reservoir Dogs (1992 – Quentin Tarantino)
Se7en (1995 – David Fincher)
The Crowd (1928 – King Vidor)
Seven Chances (1925 – Buster Keaton)
Halloween (1978 – John Carpenter)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966 – Mike Nichols)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986 – Woody Allen)
The Unknown (1927 – Tod Browning)
3-Iron (2004 – Ki-duk Kim)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001 – Wes Anderson
25 Worst Movies of the 1st Half:
Dog Star Man (1962 – Stan Brakhage)
Campanadas a medianoche (1965 – Orson Welles)
Potomok Chingis-Khana (1928 – Vsevolod Pudovkin)
Tabu (1931 – F.W. Murnau)
I Walked with a Zombie (1943 – Jacques Tourneur)
Scorpio Rising (1964 – Kenneth Anger)
Mondo cane (1962 – Cavara, Jacopetti, Prosperi)
Sayat Nove (1969 – Sergei Parajanov)
Naked Lunch (1991 – David Cronenberg)
L’Avventura (1960 – Michelangelo Antonioni)
Whisky Galore! (1949 – Alexander Mackendrick)
I Know Where I’m Going! (1945 – Powell, Pressburger)
Wo hu cang long (2000 – Ang Lee)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 – Wes Craven)
Cat People (1942 – Jacques Tourneur)
La Dolce Vita (1960 – Federico Fellini)
Ninotchka (1939 – Ernst Lubitsch)
Gunga Din (1939 – George Stevens)
The Black Cat (1934 – Edgar G. Ulmer)
Vampyr (1932 – Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965 – Russ Meyer)
The Big Sky (1952 – Howard Hawks)
Easy Rider (1969 – Dennis Hopper)
Vidas Secas (1963 – Nelson Pereira dos Santos)
Pierrot le Fou (1965 – Jean-Luc Godard)
25 Biggest Dissapointments:(Movies that I had HIGH HOPES for, that ended up fizzling out)
The Hustler (1961 – Robert Rossen)
El labertino del fauno (2006 – Guillermo del Toro)
The Third Man (1949 – Carol Reed)
Dancer in the Dark (2000 – Lars von Trier)
The Haunting (1963 – Robert Wise)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 – Don Siegel)
This is Spinal Tap (1984 – Rob Reiner)
Videodrome (1983 – David Cronenberg)
Suspiria (1977 – Dario Argento)
Blowup (1966 – Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Thing (1982 – John Carpenter)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957 – Alexander Mackendrick)
On the Waterfront (1954 – Elia Kazan)
Ordinary People (1980 – Robert Redford)
Wo hu cang long (2000 – Ang Lee)
Broadcast News (1987 – James L. Brooks)
Der Himmel uber Berlin (1987 – Wim Wenders)
Irreversible (2002 – Gaspar Noe)
Repulsion (1965 – Roman Polanski)
Les yeux sans visage (1959 – Georges Franju)
La regle du jeu (1939 – Jean Renoir)
The Thin Man (1934 – W.S. Van Dyke)
Freaks (1932 – Tod Browning)
Metropolis (1927 – Fritz Lang)
Stagecoach (1939 – John Ford)
25 Best Movies to Not Appear on a TOP 20 List:
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992 – James Foley)
The Wedding Banquet (1993 – Ang Lee)
Edward Scissorhands (1990 – Tim Burton)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989 – Peter Greenaway)
Being There (1979 – Hal Ashby)
Rocky (1976 – John G. Avildsen)
Satyricon (1969 – Federico Fellini)
Psycho (1960 – Alfred Hitchcock)
Rope (1948 – Alfred Hitchcock)
A Place in the Sun (1951 – George Stevens)
Brief Encounter (1946 – David Lean)
Detour (1945 – Edgar G. Ulmer)
The Kid Brother (1927 – Ted Wilde)
Nanook of the North (1922 – Robert J. Flaherty)
Orphans of the Storm (1921 – D.W. Griffith)
Night of the Living Dead (1968 – George A. Romero)
The Servant (1963 – Joseph Losey)
Meet the Parents (2000 – Jay Roach)
Vertigo (1958 – Alfred Hitchcock)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 – Mel Stuart)
Grand Illusion (1937 – Jean Renoir)
Hombre (1967 – Martin Ritt)
Magnolia (1999 – Paul Thomas Anderson)
Gaslight (1944 – George Cukor)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007 – Julian Schnabel)
So there you have it folks; my three year anniversary post consisting of "thank you's" and lists. I hope you enjoy and I can't wait to see you all back here for my four year anniversary, but until then, lets watch some movies and hopefully some good ones!
September 12, 2012 11:32pm
Congratulations! Three years! That's so amazing! My English is not that good, although I can understand almost everything when I read it, it's much more difficult to write in English for me, so I usually don't leave comments on your blog, but when you write about a movie, that I have seen, then I read it.
ReplyDeleteI started with "1001 Movies..." two years ago, and since then I've seen 420 movies. It's really nice to follow your journey too, so keep writing... :) And I'll try to comment more often.
Sandra
Thank you Sandra. I understood your comment perfectly, so I hope you'll keep sharing your thoughts and I'll look forward to hearing them.
ReplyDeleteWow, great job. I have really enjoyed reading your blog, particularly your review of Blow Up (spot on). Have you ever thought about following the other 1001 lists?
ReplyDeleteThanks Amanda. No, I'm more of a movie hound and that's why I chose the 1001 movies book. Glad you enjoyed my site and hope that you keep enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteBeen reading this blog for a while. It's bookmarked and I check it out quite frequently.
ReplyDeleteExcuse the lack of comments and following.
It's a great blog. I've seen this type of thing attempted before and they usually fail after the first couple of weeks, so it's great to read one that's regularly updated.
Well thank you very much and I appreciate you reading it!!
ReplyDelete