Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Monthly Round Up - The Best Films I Saw in November

I surpassed a milestone this month – 700 posts. If I knew I would surpass 700 posts when I started working on this blog nearly two years ago, I never would have believed it. Just finding the time, energy and motivation to review one film a week back then was a challenge. Now I look to keep up the 10 posts a week pace – and about 4-5 reviews. There is plenty to write about; depending on the direction I want to go with my blog. I have been posting more promo material than usual lately. It is sent to me and I figure it is footage and information that will be of interest to my readers.  Most recently, I have been focusing on film interest articles and lists etc. I haven’t seen all that much at the cinema this month – but with the release of Moneyball, We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Ides of March, I can’t say it was a bad month overall. It was also the month I saw The Debt, In Time and Immortals – pretty average films.



I am on pace to surpass 365 film views this year, and 500 posts. If December is as busy as November was, and it is looking like it is – then I will blow those milestones away. I have almost completed my Godard-a-thon. I have watched Made in U.S.A and have decided I have nothing remotely interesting or intelligent to say about the bizarre film. I am yet to see Week End, the final Godard in my series. It has been hard to select a favourite film from this group. I liked Breathless, Vivre Sa Vie and Bande A Part a lot, while having seen Pierrot Le Fou and Masculine Feminine before, I was just as impressed on a repeat viewing. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the others – Contempt is incredible – just that I didn’t shine to them as much. The only Godard film I struggled with was Alphaville. I doubt I am alone there.

I’m glad I got my Top 100 Films updated. Now I can start thinking about the Oscar season and from December 26th through to the end of February there are a plethora of anticipated releases that I will try and cover as succinctly as possible. Throw in more cinema work because of the busy season, and I may have to sacrifice some of my usual posts (and a DOTM) in favor of consistent new release coverage. I have also been blessed to become a part of an inspiring and supportive film blogging community. I would like to take this opportunity to give a huge thanks to all of the readers who regularly stop by my site, leave comments and link to my page.

The Large Association of Movie Blogs (LAMB) has also been great. I am a proud member of the LAMB and love contributing to their monthly segments. Joel, who runs the LAMB Twitter page, constantly #RT my posts, which I greatly appreciate. I would also like to thank the Aussie film critics and bloggers I have got to know through screenings, or through Twitter. I hope you all know who you are. You are an inspiration to me, and I feel so privileged to share a passion for film with such a great group of people, and such skilled writers. I hope I have the opportunity to meet you all in future, and perhaps even work with you one day.

In November I watched a total of 42 Films.

New Releases/Screenings (Cinema) - We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)The First Grader (Justin Chadwick, 2011)Anonymous (Roland Emmerich, 2011)Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011)The Debt (John Madden, 2011), The Ides of March (George Clooney, 2011 - Twice)Burning Man (Jonathan Teplitzky, 2011), The Tall Man (Tony Krawitz, 2011)In Time (Andrew Niccol, 2011), War Horse (Steven Spielberg, 2011), Immortals (Tarsem Singh, 2011), The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011), The Inbetweeners (Ben Palmer, 2011), Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Bill Condon, 2011)

First Viewing (DVD/Torrent) - Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932), Ivan the Terrible Part 1 (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944), Vivre Sa Vie [My Life to Live] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963), Bande A Part (Jean-Luc Godard, (1964) Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965), Made in U.S.A (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967), El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973), Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979), Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982), Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983), The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke, 1989), Benny's Video (Michael Haneke, 1992), Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008), Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar, 2009)

Re-Watched (DVD/Torrent) - Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965), Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983), Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986), Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993), Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999)Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002), Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007), Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007) and The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)

Essential Viewing


Vampyr

Ivan the Terrible Part 1

Vivre Sa Vie



Contempt

Bande A Part

Pierrot Le Fou



American Graffiti

Manhattan

Platoon



Reservoir Dogs

Boogie Nights

Punch Drunk Love



Ratatouille

Gone Baby Gone

The Social Network



We Need to Talk About Kevin

Moneyball


Current Tally (303) + 42 = 345 Films

9 comments:

  1. A reminder of the Godard I need to catch up with. Also cool to see you catch up with Ivan the Terrible. One of my favorites.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats on 700 posts! I am miles behind you (I am at 255).

    ALPHAVILLE isn't brilliant, and I haven't seen MADE IN USA. I doubt you'll be able to find much to say about WEEK END as it is probably the most disturbing film Godard has ever made, but I hope you will try.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have only broken the surface of Godard, but it's sure been interesting.

    Cheers my friend. You'll make it there eventually. Yeah, I just couldn't get into Alphaville, but I'l certainly try and get something down about Week End.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats on 700 posts! I'm right around 400 counting reviews. I didn't think I'd do that many in a year but here we are. Love this blog, so glad it's doing well. The Godard film I think I've seen is 'Breathless' which was good. I have Pierrot le Fou, I just haven't watched it yet.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Max for the kind words and the encouragement. I'm close to hitting 500 for the year, which is pretty insane, and I doubt I'll ever repeat that. I really appreciate your support. I work hard on it, and I'm so glad it has drawn a following over the past 12 months - I love film and the regular readers and the fact that I now receive regular screening invites, has inspired me to continue bettering myself.

    I still need to frequent other blogs more, a factor that I have been disappointed by - I get to about a third of my Blogroll every day, but I wish I could frequent everyone. You should watch Pierrot Le Fou...it's a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on hitting 700. I'm amazed at how much effort you put into this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Bonjour! I do put in a lot of effort, but it's what I enjoy. You're blog is one of the best on the net. You're an inspiration to me - thanks for consistently posting such excellent reviews of obscure and little known film. I hope to learn how to make mine look as good as yours someday!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm glad you at least were able to check out Made in USA, even if you didn't write about it. It's definitely not an easy film to write about, but I'm kind of fascinated by it.

    Vampyr has been high on my list for a while, and I keep not getting to it. That's gotta change. I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ Jandy - I enjoyed Made in U.S.A but I just drew a blank on what to say about it. I think you will like Vampyr. Dreyer is a genius.

    ReplyDelete