The Tour is over, but the list still remains. When I wrapped things up last year, there were 247 films left, but then when I started up again on January 1, 2012, the number had ballooned back up to 270. Remember, I started in 2009 with a massive list of 435 films, and I've been constantly adding to it. So somehow 435 + x - 1300 = 213. Math tells me I've added 1,078 films along the way, and the total now stands at 213. Progress has been made, but Movie Year Five is still needed to bring this thing under control.
Out of the 84 Oscar winners for Best Picture, I have now seen 59 (it couldn't be an even 60, now could it?) and from the list of the "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", I've seen 299 (it couldn't be an even 300, now could it?).
The good news is, the World Tour took care of some really classic films. With a couple of notable exceptions, and once you subtract the Hitchcock films and the Woody Allen films, about half of what's left was released in calendar year 2010 and 2011. It makes sense, once I started concentrating on the classics, I didn't have time for seeing most current releases.
So here's what's on tap for 2013, assuming the Mayans were wrong. Hitchcock (I think I've really only seen "Psycho" and "The Birds"), Woody Allen (I may have seen only half of his films), and the James Bond series (I've only seen "The Living Daylights" and "Diamonds Are Forever", and that last one was just to appreciate Jill St. John). There are a few films that were cut from the World Tour, like "The Shipping News" and "Brokeback Mountain", a year's worth of animated cuddly creatures (they do tend to pile up each January), and my annual February nod to romance in all its forms. My too-late tribute to politics, plus spies and soldiers, cowboys and aliens, addicts and serial killers. Oh, and there will be monkeys. Err, apes, whatever.
There might be 3 or 4 films on the list that I think I've seen before, so I'll try to get to those during the break - but first I've seriously got to re-organize my comic book collection, and I've got to start working on my annual Christmas mix CD. Thanksgiving is just two weeks away, and then comes holiday cards, holiday shopping, and more holiday eating.
We have a four-way tie for highest-rated film this year: "The Avengers", "X-Men: First Class", "Captain America: The First Avenger" and "Tron: Legacy" all scored 9's, according to my very non-scientific system. Damn, but I'm a geek. Can you spot what demographic I'm apparently in? It might seem like I'm harsh on movies, but I also handed out a number of 8's this year. Seen on a graph, my ratings form a near-perfect pyramid, with the highest point over the 6. That seems about right, plus it seems more than fair. 8's and 9's should be rare, and a perfect score should be nearly unattainable.
Most recently I've had a run of 4's and 5's, and I'm not sure if that's because I've seen all the good films already, or if I'm suffering from burnout. 2 months of downtime might be for the best, and then I'll try to lead off with some stronger films come January. Let me be (among) the first to wish you a happy, safe and relatively healthy holiday season, and please check back in with me afterwards.
My new Latin catchphrase is "Gutta Cavat Lapidem", which means (I think) "Dripping water hollows out a stone."
Not by force, but by continuously dripping. Metaphorically each day's
film is a drop of water, and after a few years together they're carving
out quite a notch. I promise to keep being a big drip next year as well.
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And now we've learned that in addition to the spiral-bound notebook, you also maintain a spreadsheet that tracks all of this data and generates charts and reports.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a special sign that you hang on the door to the home office that warns your wife "I want to be alone with my data for a little while..."?
Surprisingly, no spreadsheets are involved in my process. I have a couple of Word documents that list the Top IMDB films of all time, the Top 250 films of 2009, 2010, 2011, the AFI Top 100 films, the Oscar Winners for Best Picture, and the "1,000 Films to See Before You Die" list.
ReplyDeleteIn all cases, the films in my collection left for me to view are colored red, and after I see a film, it gets turned blue. That's all.
Beyond that, I've got a Watchlist on IMDB, which allows me to move films around to find the best viewing order. I've also got a list of viewed films on IMDB, and one for rated films, which essentially is the same list. But that's how I figure out the best-rated films of each year, and where I've last seen a particular actor or actress - I just set the filter to include only films with say, Edward Norton, and click "Apply".
I just upgraded my lists to include the 2011 version of "The 1,000 Films to See Before You Die", instead of the 2009 one. I had hoped this would push my total from 299 films seen to an even 300 - and when I realized that "La Jetée" was on the list under its translated name "The Pier", I thought maybe I'd made it to that benchmark.
But, in order to include more recent films like "Hugo", "True Grit", "Black Swan" and "The Artist", (some of which I'd seen, some not) that list dropped a few films from the late 1990's, like "There's Something About Mary", and a number of films from 2008-2009 like "Crash", "The Wrestler", "The Hangover", and "The Bourne Ultimatum".
The net result - I'm down from 299 to 297 films seen out of the new 1,001. Them's the breaks.
By comparison, Roger Ebert said he has seen 943 of the 1,001 films listed on the "To See Before You Die" list. So he still puts me to shame, his total is over three times mine.
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