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2015: My Year of Film

As well as writing things on this here on-line film journal I also started keeping a physical journal this year keeping track of every film I watch. Here are all the films I watched in 2015.

Films seen at the Cinema will be red.

When it is a First Viewing of a film it will be bold & italicised for necessary emphasis.

  1. Birdman (Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.) USA, 2014  [JAN]
  2. Draft Day (USA, 2014)
  3. Boogie Nights (USA, 1997)
  4. Saturday Night Fever (USA, 1977)
  5. Punch-Drunk Love(USA, 2002)
  6. Buffalo’66 (USA, 1998)
  7. Badlands (USA, 1973)
  8. The Last Picture Show (USA, 1971)
  9. Blue Velvet (USA, 1986)
  10. No Country For Old Men (USA, 2007)
  11. A Most Violent Year (USA, 2014)
  12. True Grit (USA, 2010)
  13. Ed Wood (USA,1994)
  14. The Village (USA, 2004)
  15. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (USA, 1962)
  16. Ex Machina (UK, 2015)
  17. The Assassination Of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (USA, 2007)
  18. Beyond Clueless (UK, 2014)
  19. Three Kings (USA, 1999)
  20. Idle Hands (USA, 1999) [FEB]
  21. Ghost In the Shell (Japan, 1995)
  22. Amadeus (USA, 1984)
  23. The Long Goodbye (USA, 1973)
  24. Mean Streets (USA, 1973)
  25. Inherent Vice (USA, 2014)
  26. Mccabe & Mrs. Miller (USA, 1971)
  27. Umberto D (Italy, 1952)
  28. The King of Comedy (USA, 1982)
  29. The Fountain (USA, 2006)
  30. Django Unchained (USA, 2012)
  31. Citizenfour (USA, 2014)
  32. Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (USA, 2013)
  33. Gone Girl (USA, 2014)
  34. Rob the Mob (USA, 2014)
  35. You’re Next (USA, 2011) [MARCH]
  36. Simon Killer (USA/France, 2012)
  37. Metropolis (Germany, 1927)
  38. It Follows (USA, 2014)
  39. The House I Live In (USA, 2012)
  40. I Was a Male War Bride (USA, 1949)
  41. Monkey Business (USA, 1952)
  42. Fitzcarraldo (West Germany/Peru, 1982)
  43. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (USA, 1953)
  44. Harvey (USA, 1950)
  45. To Catch a Thief (USA, 1955)
  46. X+Y (UK, 2014)
  47. Life Itself (USA, 2014)
  48. Hana-Bi AKA Fireworks (Japan, 1997)
  49. Farewell My Concubine (China, 1993)
  50. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (USA, 1971)
  51. The Exterminating Angel (Mexico, 1962)
  52. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (West Germany, 1972) [APRIL]
  53. While We’re Young (USA, 2014)
  54. Romancing the Stone (USA, 1984)
  55. Red River (USA, 1948)
  56. Before Sunset (USA, 2004)
  57. Blade Runner: The Final Cut (USA, 1982)
  58. Lost River (USA, 2014)
  59. Drugstore Cowboy (USA, 1989)
  60. Spring In a Small Town (China, 1948)
  61. Los Olvidados (Mexico, 1950)
  62. Headhunters (Norway, 2011)
  63. Wayne’s World (USA, 1992)
  64. Raise the Red Lantern (China, 1991)
  65. The Empire Strikes Back (USA, 1980)
  66. The Mask (USA, 1994)
  67. Liar Liar (USA, 1997)
  68. Evil Dead (USA, 2013)
  69. Big Wednesday (USA, 1978)
  70. The Salvation (Denmark, 2014) [MAY]
  71. Mad Max: Fury Road (Australia, 2015)
  72. The New Girlfriend (France, 2015)
  73. What We Do In the Shadows (New Zealand, 2014)
  74. The Guest (USA,2014)
  75. Nightcrawler (USA,2014)
  76. Paddington (UK, 2014)
  77. Poltergeist (USA, 2015)
  78. The Homesman (USA, 2014)
  79. Frances Ha (USA, 2012)
  80. The Purple Rose of Cairo (USA, 1985)
  81. The Bride of Frankenstein (USA, 1935)
  82. Foxcatcher (USA, 2014) [JUNE]
  83. The Drop (USA, 2014)
  84. Whiplash (USA, 2014)
  85. Fruitvale Station (USA, 2013)
  86. Hinterland (UK, 2015)
  87. The Player (USA, 1992)
  88. Mystic River (USA, 2003)
  89. Network (USA, 1976)
  90. Taxi Driver (USA, 1976)
  91. The Conjuring (USA, 2013)
  92. Land of Silence and Darkness (West Germany, 1971)
  93. Inside Out (USA, 2015)
  94. The Tribe (Ukraine, 2014)
  95. The Amityville Horror (USA, 1979)
  96. Samurai Cop (USA, 1991)
  97. The Passion of Joan of Arc (France, 1928)
  98. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (USA, 1948)
  99. Radio Days (USA,1987)
  100. Annie Hall (USA, 1977) [JULY]
  101. Friday the 13th Part II (USA, 1981)
  102. High Plains Drifter (USA, 1973)
  103. The Right Stuff (USA, 1983)
  104. Fight Club (USA, 1999)
  105. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (USA, 2008)
  106. Wild At Heart (USA, 1990)
  107. The Machinist (Spain/USA, 2004)
  108. Memento (USA, 2000)
  109. Listen Up Philip (USA, 2014)
  110. Moon (UK, 2009)
  111. Love and Mercy (USA, 2014)
  112. Two Days, One Night (France, 2014)
  113. The Clouds of Sils Maria (France, 2014)
  114. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Iran/USA 2014)
  115. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (USA, 1992)
  116. Citizen Kane (USA, 1941)
  117. The Skeleton Twins (USA, 2014)
  118. A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting On Existence (Sweden, 2014) [AUGUST]
  119. The Trial (France, 1962)
  120. Sullivan’s Travels (USA, 1941)
  121. The Stranger (USA, 1946)
  122. The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (UK, 2014)
  123. The Sacrament (USA, 2013)
  124. Men, Women and Children (USA, 2014)
  125. Mistress America (USA, 2015)
  126. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (USA, 1946)
  127. Inferno (Italy, 1980)
  128. American Gigolo (USA, 1980) [SEPTEMBER]
  129. Stroszek (Germany, 1977)
  130. Only Lovers Left Alive (USA, 2013)
  131. American Ultra (USA, 2015)
  132. Night Moves (USA, 2013)
  133. God’s Pocket (USA, 2014)
  134. A Walk In the Woods (USA, 2015)
  135. Cujo (USA, 1983)
  136. Annabelle (USA, 2014)
  137. Pulp Fiction (USA, 1994)
  138. Roger & Me (USA, 1989)
  139. The Searchers (USA, 1956)
  140. 2001: A Space Odyssey (USA/UK, 1968)
  141. The One I Love (USA, 2014)
  142. Crimson Peak (USA, 2015) [OCTOBER]
  143. Black Mass (USA, 2015)
  144. The Woman In Black (UK, 2012)
  145. Scream (USA, 1996)
  146. The Innocents (UK, 1961)
  147. The Lobster (UK/Greece, 2015)
  148. They Came Together (USA, 2014) [NOVEMBER]
  149. Crossfire (USA, 1947)
  150. Manson Family Vacation (USA, 2015)
  151. Vertigo (USA, 1958)
  152. The Roaring Twenties (USA, 1939)
  153. Angels With Dirty Faces (USA, 1938)
  154. An American Werewolf in London (USA, 1981)
  155. Primer (USA, 2004)
  156. Good Will Hunting (USA, 1997)
  157. The Omen (USA, 1976)
  158. Each Dawn I Die (USA, 1939)
  159. Election (USA, 1999)
  160. Cool Hand Luke (USA, 1967)
  161. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (USA, 1950)
  162. Listen To Me Marlon (UK, 2015)
  163. Kiss Me Deadly (USA, 1955)
  164. Carol (UK/USA, 2015)
  165. Best Of Enemies (USA, 2015) [DECEMBER]
  166. John Wick (USA, 2014)
  167. Brooklyn (Canada/UK/Ireland, 2015)
  168. Top Five (USA, 2014)
  169. Call Me Lucky (USA, 2015)
  170. Hannah and Her Sisters (USA, 1986)
  171. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (USA, 2003)
  172. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (USA, 2004)
  173. 20 Feet From Stardom (USA, 2013)
  174. Room (Ireland/Canada, 2015)
  175. Return of the Jedi (USA, 1983)
  176. Jackie Brown (USA, 1997)
  177. Barry Lyndon (UK/USA, 1975)
  178. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (USA, 2015)
  179. Doctor Zhivago (USA, 1965)
  180. It’s a Wonderful Life (USA, 1946)
  181. Mad Max: Fury Road (Australia, 2015)
  182. Love & Mercy (USA, 2014)
  183. Manglehorn (USA, 2014)
  184. The Gift (Australia/USA, 2015)
  185. Come Drink With Me (Hong Kong, 1966)
  186. Yankee Doodle Dandy (USA, 1942)
  187. Slow West (UK/New Zealand, 2015)
  188. Love Is Strange (USA, 2014)

Am I happy with 188? 

Just over a film every other day, I would say this is well above civilian levels but is at bona-fide cinephile level? To me I think 188 is a good amount and not having the data for how many I have watched in previous years it is hard to compare. There are so many films I want to see that I know it won’t be possible to see them all in my short lifetime and as my girlfriend tells me occasionally it is nice to do something other than watch films so I think this is a decent haul. If i won the lottery and didn’t have to work and do the washing up I would probably watch quite a lot more but time is a precious commodity that becomes scarcer the closer I come to death.

First time viewings versus revisiting.

I usually find I go through phases of sometimes wanting to see all things that are new to me and sometimes revisiting. As I’m getting older it gets to the point where I have very little memory of films I saw and loved in  my teens. That was the case with Badlands – the last time I saw it was when I was 18 so a good ten years had passed, revisiting old favourites and seeing how my reaction and opinion of them has changed over time is the main reason I am keeping my film journal. January was a particularly good month for revisits. Out of the 188 films I watched this year 109 were for the first time – 79 were revisits. Here to explain this is a delicious pie chart.

pie

World Cinema vs USA 

I consider myself a World Cinema fan but how many foriegn language films did I actually watch this year? The answer my friend is 23, that is quite a paltry sum and I hope to see more foreign films in 2016.

What I  didn’t watch this year that I would like to in future. 

I am quite keen on watching far more from the Golden Age of the studio system and also films that came just after the silent era but before the code as I have seen approximately not many. Also neglected were silent films with only The Passion of Joan of Arc and Metropolis, I would like to get far better acquainted with Chaplin and other silent comedy stars particularly. Of course there are always films to revisit, the list only grows as more time passes. I would also like to see more classic Martial Arts films from the 60’s and 70’s having seen the seminal Come Drink with Me. 

2015 a good year for film?  

I think this is probably the best year so far of the twenty-teens, my top ten list features omissions of films I very much liked whereas in some previous years mediocre films have made the list out of necessity.

Visiting nice cinemas

One thing I would really like to do more of is to visit cinemas that are of historical value or are independent or just nice. In 2015 I managed to visit a couple, first there was The Plough Arts Centre in Devon where I saw The Clouds Of Sils Maria and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. The programming is excellent featuring late-run mainstream films and a host of independent and World Cinema, it is in my girlfriend’s home town and she visited frequently in her formative years.

plough

The other was The Princes Charles Cinema in London, I have been wanting to visit and finally got round to it after drooling at their mouthwatering what’s on guides on the website for years and it was a special one: 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm. Worth risking being mugged or not appreciated.

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Was Netflix worth it? 

At £5.99 a month Netflix done me for £71.88 in 2015, I watched 21 films from it so around £3.40 a film. Considering I also watched some shows on there such as Master of None, Scream, Fargo, Bojack Horseman, Better Call Saul and some others I think that is about fair enough but I wish video shops were still everywhere instead 😦

Observations and opinions from revisits. 

  • I watched Django Unchained for the 2nd time the first being in the cinema and it is in my opinion Tarantino’s worst film – which still makes it pretty good but I think that the death of his editor Sally Menke really had an averse effect of the film, maybe she was good at reigning him in because the pacing for this film was a mess. In fact there is definitely a much better film here with a good edit, the final 20-30 minutes stand out as just not working, especially the scene where Tarantino insists on casting himself with an Australian accent. I hope The Hateful Eight does not suffer from the same problems as Django.
  • There is no answer to the question of greatest film of all time but if you were to say Citizen Kane – I wouldn’t argue.
  • Tommy Lee Jones’s character is the most interesting in No Country For Old Men.
  • John Cusack’s performance as Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy  is not overtly inferior to Paul Dano’s and he is not just playing John Cusack.
  • The Mask and Liar Liar are modern classic comedies.
  • Only the last 40 minutes of Return of the Jedi are any good and that’s because I like the Ewok’s battle scene and although the laser disc non-special editions are usually superior the music that has replaced the celebration at the end of Jedi is actually better than the original.
  • Annie Hall remains one of my very favourite films, watchable even after viewings into the double figures
  • Mystic River is not as good as I thought it was when I was younger, it is quite heavy handed. Better than an average thriller and fine for an evening’s entertainment but certainly not the high caliber I thought it was.
  • On second viewing of Whiplash I noticed at the beginning Andrew’s desire for a relationship is emphasised making the sacrifice when he breaks up with the girl more impactful. I like the way the film lets you make up your own mind on Fletcher’s methods – to me he does genuinely want to nourish greatness but is also bitter and an egomaniac who relishes in the tormenting that he justifies to himself, he gets caught up being sadistic and forgets his original modus operandi so even though his intentions are ultimately good his method obscures it to the point that his motivations are impossible to ascertain.
  • This is the funniest scene in Wayne’s World :
  • Mccabe and Mrs. Miller is one of my favourite films.

Top Ten of 2015

The order is somewhat arbitrary as I like different films for different reasons and it is hard to compare.

  1. Carol (Todd Haynes)
  2. The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)
  3. Inside Out (Pete Docter)
  4. Lost River (Ryan Gosling)
  5. Brooklyn (John Crowley)
  6. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
  7. Room (Lenny Abrahamson)
  8. Listen To Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
  9. The New Girlfriend (François Ozon)
  10. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)

Close runner-ups include White God, A Most Violent Year & The Clouds of Sils Maria. The worst film I saw at the cinema was the Poltergeist remake. I was disappointed with Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young and want to give Mistress America another watch. Black Mass I saw at a mystery advanced screening and I was underwhelmed.

Conclusion

2015 is a year that occurred and in that year I watched some films – of this much we can be certain. Join me again next year for this fascinating insight into the life of a wannabe video shop owner from 1994. In the meantime I will be writing things on here as and when. Share it with your film enthusiast friends why not?

 

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