You in?!
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Iâm going to attempt it with a few modifications of my own:
- doing it along with partner so weâll take turns choosing within the categories
- Not making a list in advance
- Starting in the Christmas break, peak movie watching time
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interesting
probs wonât do
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Iâm in! List is locked.
Only tiny tweak is that Iâve added in a couple of long-overdue rewatches.
Kicking things off first week of the new year!
Enthusiasm levels: 100/100.
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Iâm off!
First up was Spirit of the Beehive, which was gorgeous. (Also ticked off one of the forumâs 150 I hadnât seen)
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Yesssss
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aLRIGHT i;m doing it
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as @noopout has started I have too, I watched Pandoraâs Box today and it was good, way ahead of its time, but not something that captivated me.
Looking forward to a lot of my list - a lot from the lists weâve done here recently, some that was already on my watchlist, but some that I would never have watched otherwise (The Wiz, Visions of Eight, King Kong vs Godzilla). It has also forced me to schedule my first rewatch of Mulholland Drive in over a decade. And Iâll also be finishing the Apu trilogy, 4 years after starting it.
Looking forward to reading the reviews in here!
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this stupid thing is forcing me to watch Playtime, because David Byrneâs stupid list is full of stupid Tati movies, damn you David you stupid genius.
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Done my second viewing!
- 20th Anniversary Releases - Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
- Watch a film not on your watchlist - Nanook of the North (1922)
I knew a little bit about the controversy around this supposedly authentic portait of an Inuit family in Northern Canada before watching, but I was surprised that it telegraphs its staged nature up front. Title cards at the beginning explain that original footage shot in the Arctic was accidentally destroyed, so Robert J. Flaherty went back to film again and created a âcomposite characterâ who he felt portrayed the way of life he was trying to capture. So, âNanookâ is a character, developed it seems in collaboration with Allakariallak, the man who plays him. Lots of the scenes are staged and by the time the film was being made Inuits were using rifles and wearing Westernised clothes, so it has a slighty iffy patronising feel to it. But documentary is always false! The camera always has an agenda. I think itâs way more interesting to consider Nanook as pioneering piece of cinematic history, simultaneously creating and undermining the documentary genre, than as a a flawed piece of ethnographic filmmaking.
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Four down already - off to a strong start!
Two child-focused films, two political films. Films about children are very much my thing, and political films usually arenât. But I liked them all!
1 - A 20th Anniversary Release:
The Children Are Watching Us (1943) -
I think I liked this more than Bicycle Thieves - the only other from the director that I know. Maybe mostly because it doesnât carry the same canonical weight, so it didnât feel so much like homework. This probably isnât as âstructurally perfectâ as Bicycle Thieves, but it felt bleaker and, in a way, more honest. Less engineered for tears? Thatâs probably too harsh on BT, which I did like too. This felt more willing to just sit with the wreckage a child inherits from adult failure. Fun stuff.
2 - A Film Not On Your Watchlist:
Z (1969) -
Iâll be recommending this to a lot of people I think! What really worked for me was the way it frames itself upfront. Itâs not about one specific conflict, but about a system. âAny similarities to real people or events are intentional!â. So, for a political history thicko like me, that abstraction made it much easier to confidently follow along than political films that lean heavily on specific context.
3 - A Film With A Colo(u)r In The Title:
The Red Balloon (1956) - 
Just wonderful. And I think if I didnât already feel like Iâd seen literally hundreds of far lesser versions of this film at animation festivals, I would have loved it even more. So pure and simple.
4 - A 2020s Film or An Upcoming Release: 
5 - A Romance:
A Special Day (1977) -
Coincidentally, another very political film. I think I preferred this to Z, mainly because itâs grounded in a single, intimate relationship. The unfolding historical horror is always there, but mostly offscreen, a bit like in Zone of Interest. Itâs political, but more interestingly for me, deeply humane too. And, reminiscent of another all-time favourite of mine, Autumn Sonata - itâs just a simple film with two absolute GOATs together, smashing it.
Am I gonna rank them? Sure!
Current Standings
- A Special Day (1977)
- The Red Balloon (1956)
- Z (1969)
- The Children Are Watching Us (1943)
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Whatâs the difference between a heart and 5 stars?
Thatâs just how I use the ratings on Letterboxd. I guess a is like 3 - 4.5 stars? (Then all 5 stars get the on there too obvs.)
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A friend recommended Z to me only the other day. Looks very cool, just my kind of thing!
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Well if weâre rankinâ em.
5.0 Mulholland Drive
3.5 Cleo from 5 to 7
3.5 Metropolitan
3.0 Pandoraâs Box
heartily recommend Z also, lucky enough to catch it at the cinema a while back
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Bro, these films are so good.
7 - Queer Cinema
Happy Together (1997)
I love the two WKW classics Iâve seen - so why havenât I watched the rest yet? I think this is my favourite of the three! I donât even know where to start unpacking everything I loved here. Itâs so dense! The central relationship, the creativity in pretty much every composition, the whole feel of it, that sense of being lost in a foreign city. The street food! Chang Chen! Tony Leung Chiu-wai! Will watch this one again soon I think, thereâs just so much in it. The best film Iâve seen on this challenge so far.
10 - Random Number Generator
Il Sorpasso (1962)
Loved this one too. Itâs funny and properly exhilarating! You really feel the speed and the heat of the drives through those beautiful roads and landscapes. One of the best road movies Iâve seen. I worried at first it might just be a bit âlive life to the fullestâ, but the film does such a good job of depicting Brunoâs sadness and emptiness. Feels like it doesnât really force a single moral. Just shows these two different ways of living.
14 - A Film from the 2000s
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
I normally watch these on my own late at night, and itâs become a bit of a running joke that most mornings I start the day by telling pitterpatterpartner that âI watched a brilliant film last night!â, then me incoherently rambling on about everything I loved. If I think itâs something sheâd appreciate/enjoy, I usually try to hold back a bit. but I couldnât with this one. Itâs so simple on the surface, but the depth is astonishing. Ended up in tears trying to explain everything. Will watch it again with her soon. An absolute masterpiece. (+ clear BĂ©la Tarr influences 
)
16 - Seth Rogen and Evan Goldbergâs Closet Picks
Infernal Affairs (2002)
A solid version of this kind of film - just not really for me thanks.
47 - Women Directors: The Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films
Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 60s in Brussels (1994)
Thought this beautifully captured that teenage state of feeling everything and nothing. And handles her emerging queerness so quietly and naturally. Loved it.
Ranked!
- Happy Together (1997)
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
- A Special Day (1977)
- The Red Balloon (1956)
- Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 60s in Brussels (1994)
- Il Sorpasso (1962)
- Z (1969)
- The Children Are Watching Us (1943)
- Infernal Affairs (2002)
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Youâre flying through these! Lots there I want to see
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might do a 10 category mini-version or something, to give me a slightly different focus to the DiS Challenge ones but keep it realistic for my effort levels
(and try to only do first-time watches)
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