Skip to main content

The Film List Project

It's been a while since I've written on this blog regularly, so let me introduce myself. My name is Abby. I'm 20 years old. I go to UT. I'm excited to start writing again.

This time last year, I found out that I was going to be able to major in Cinema Studies. I was excited to finally get to study what I love, but I was intimidated. I really know nothing about movies. I've seen the same ones I love about 30 times each, but I haven't seen many of the movies that were actually considered good.

 So, over the summer, in order to educate myself, I composed a list. I did some googling and, by looking at three "best of" lists online, I created mine. I eliminated any movies that showed up twice, movies I had seen, there are 190 movies on the list, yadayadayada...This is the boring stuff.

Here's what I'm going to do with the list: I'm going to chronicle it here. I'm not going to do reviews or try to analyze anything (like I said, I really know nothing about film theory). I'm just going to start using this blog as kind of a diary. I'm still going to write about music, TV, and my life, but the list is going to be my new project.

Every Thursday, I'll post about the movies from the list I've seen that week. It could be one or it could be 20 (probably not 20). That's the fun of this. It'll change every week: different genres, eras, actors, directors. It's never going to be the same. When this list is done, I can find more lists of movies. That's the great thing about the Internet. Lots of lists. I hope you'll enjoy the list project with me.

I'm not going to post the list, but I will post what I've already crossed off:
1. All That Heaven Allows (1955)
2. An American in Paris (1951)
3. Apocalypse Now (1975)
4. Cat People (1942)
5. Citizen Kane (1941)
6. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
7. Nashville (1975)
8. Boyz n the Hood (1991)
9. Fish Tank (2009)
10. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
11. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
12. Rear Window (1954)
13. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
14. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
15. 12 Angry Men (1957)
16. Frankenstein (1931)
17. Chinatown (1974)
18. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
19. City Lights (1931)
20. Raging Bull (1980)
21. Mud (2013)
22. His Girl Friday (1940)
23. Gloria (2014)
24. Taxi Driver (1976)

There are 166 more to watch. I hope you'll join me.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Talking to Myself in the Mirror

I think it's a pretty safe bet that a lot of aspiring actors/writers/directors/filmy people practice their future Oscar speech in the mirror as kids. I did. Who am I kidding? I still do. It comes with the territory. My mirror talks go, ahem, went (who am I kidding? go) further. Sometimes, I do my makeup while talking to Barbara Walters. Other days, brushing my hair turns into a podcast interview. Most of the time, though, I rehearse what I'm going to say to my heroes. These hypothetical moments are incredibly important, and I can't afford to say anything stupid, so car rides, showers, and mornings getting ready are devoted to preparation. This probably makes me sound crazy. The word "narcissist" may also come to mind. I think one of my heroes would have appreciated both the crazy and the narcissism in this bit of oversharing, though, but we lost her this morning. One of my first posts on this blog was a tribute to Carrie Fisher. I read it over this afternoo
Post a Comment
Read more

Cameron Crowe Ruined My Life

Believe me when I say that it pained me to type out the title to this post. Cameron Crowe is one of my very favorite filmmakers. To me, a guy who can write teenagers who are real people, really capture the full spectrum of human emotion, and incorporate a great soundtrack into his work is a real genius. Though it initially made me feel warm, fuzzy, and hopeful, a recent late night viewing of 2005's Elizabethtown  ended up making me a little nervous. I realized that Crowe was just like everybody else. Now, this probably doesn't make sense to those of you who admire his work. As a writer and filmmaker, Crowe definitely has a unique voice and vision that helps his work connect with all kinds of audiences. That's precisely the problem. Last week I wrote a post about how movies are only a reflection of life and not actually true to life itself. In the post, I mentioned that filmmakers are just one person with one perspective, and that is absolutely true of Crowe. In Crow
Post a Comment
Read more

The Film List Project #2: MASH

Did you know MASH was a movie before it was a TV show? I didn't. Maybe that's a well-known fact. Maybe I'm very out of the loop. Anyway, I watched MASH this week. I'm just discovering Robert Altman, the director of the film. He made a movie in 1975 called Nashville , which I sort of felt obligated to watch since that's my hometown. I loved the film, especially because it had so many interesting characters mashed together. MASH  charmed me for the same reason. I've never been one for war films (this is set during the Korean War), but I was fascinated by the band of arrogant, witty surgeons in the film. It really didn't feel like a war film, to be honest. It felt like the Korean War was just where they happened to be. That feeling makes sense when you realize that these men and women are just trying to feel that way themselves. I don't have any personal experience with war, but I have read a few books about the subject, fiction and nonfiction, and
Post a Comment
Read more