January 24th is when the official Academy Award nominations are set to be announced. I’ve seen quite a few films from this year already (in fact already more than 2010) so I imagine I’ll be in good shape when the nominees are announced. Until then I can either watch a few more 2011 releases or tackle another project, hmm well that project might be a bit all consuming.
For starters I have a few too many movies in my possession. Whether it’s recent DVDs/Blu-Rays I’ve gotten, films on my DVR, or films from plenty of other sources there’s more movies to watch than I can sit through in several months. So thus begins a process of filtering out just what films to watch and hopefully watching them in some semblance of order.
Enter Jonathan Rosenbaum, whose Essential Cinema book contains an appendix with his personal 1000 film cannon. Since getting this book I’ve made several half assed attempts at chopping the list down. I’ve kept my eyes peeled for specific films whenever they come around. When I first got the book I attempted to tackle them in order and didn’t get far out of the silent era before tossing up my hands at the rather hard to find films contained.
In fact the list is FULL of hard to find titles. Films that have never been on VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray and possibly never even distributed theatrically. There’s a word for this elitist film criticism, and well there’s a good and bad to it. On the one hand it makes tackling this book a really hard time. These movies aren’t easy to find and I wonder if I’ll ever see them all. On the other hand this isn’t the same stodgy old film cannon. Some rather obvious films are left off and in it’s place are heretofore unknown titles like Hangin’ with the Homeboys, Love and Death on Long Island, Child of the Big City and several hundred others that I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of either.
So I have Mr. Rosenbaum to thank on a few occasions. For starters some of these unknown titles are proving to be gems. I have immensely enjoyed some of the films I’ve recently watched from his list like Blonde Crazy, Matinee, and Deep Cover. I also somewhat relish the challenge of tackling all of the list. After all I’ve tackled other lists, some as long, but none quite so esoteric. Perhaps if I take on this entire list and complete somewhere in the imaginary film nerd hall of fame they’ll build a statue of me as the ultimate list fetishist. That’s neither here nor there, in my quest to know it all about film, well I have to stretch out of my comfort zone a bit.
On the other hand I often think he can go to hell for his weirdo picks that he made just to be difficult, as if to intentionally thwart any attempts at achieving his supreme level of film snobbery. After all NO ONE could possibly have seen all of these films except for Rosenbaum so he shall have the final word as the nerd among all film nerds. Not to mention, where the hell is Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, or The Godfather? Are we to believe that The Cat’s Meow, I’ll do Anything, That’s Entertainment III are better than these films? Well hell it’s his personal list so I won’t knock the guy for his personal favorites. Hell, no matter how stupid I knew the film was I couldn’t help but enjoy the film I Love Melvin reuniting Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor a year after Singin’ in the Rain. Not to mention I have plenty of my own “sacred cows” that I’d probably leave off my own personal list. Never does he intend this list to be a definitive 1000 best or greatest, simply his personal cannon, so whatever.
Well how to tackle the list is a good question that I’ll attempt to answer as I whittle my way through it. I have not taken the time to write out every single film I need to see from the cannon. I’ve avoided this seemingly crucial first step for two reasons. First of all, there’s too damn many films I haven’t seen. This would mean not only would it take a damn long time to write them all out, but the massive amount of ignorance that will be unveiled as I try and number how many of these films I haven’t watched would not only be a huge deterrent to ever accomplishing this goal but it would make me feel somewhat less of a man. In other words, let me watch some more before I start writing them all out.
I did however get a head start on this and that brings me to where I’m at now. While researching my top 50 of the 90s, posted here last year, I figured I needed to see some more films, particularly foreign ones from that decade. In the process I wrote out all the films on his list from 1990 to 2003 (where the list ends). Now I’m not going to lie to you and say I watched a ton of these films, in fact I hardly watched any of them, but at least I did have those films already written out.
So why not start there? After all if there’s anything a list fetishist loves its crossing a film off a list. Since I don’t feel like marking my book with a highlighter or pen, putting them in text form and crossing them off is a joy that’s hard to explain to people who don’t give a shit about these things. We’re the same people who love it when our CD’s from a similar artist have the same labels on the binding, or when certain DVD sets are in numbered order (like Criterion or Fox Film Noir). So let’s begin with the 90s.
First step is to go through the films I’ve picked up that are on the list and watch them. Fairly simple enough. Once these are done it’s time to start looking. Whether that’s from Netflix, my local library(s), or other means I won’t publish here, I’m trying to get as many films from this period as I can. Since the list is fairly difficult, some of these won’t be easy. One of the good or bad things about his list depending on your perspective is the fact that he includes short films. Well as you can imagine very few of these short films are available on their own. If they get released on DVD they’re most likely part of a set of films, or maybe even a special feature on another DVD.
Luckily you’d be amazed how many of these films are available on the internet. Backtracking a bit, Rosenbaum is a fan of Laurel and Hardy. Their films Leave ‘em Laughing, The Two Tars, and The Music Box are all available online on Hulu. So if you don’t mind the occasional ad (which I’ve now figured out how to block thank you very much) you can watch them on your computer. Since they’re 20 minute films made a good 80 years ago it’s not terribly important to see them in ultra high definition on your super sweet TV, I’m sure they’ll look just fine.
As I indicated in a previous blog entry (which I know you read), I’m planning on posting my film journal at the end of the month. In that case you can see just how damn many of the films from this list I’ve seen. Not only that but you can see when I diverted myself from the list, and hopefully when I find gainful employment and don’t watch nearly as many films.
Once I make the most of the 90s and the first few years of the 2000s, I’ll probably take one of two approaches. The first is to resume my list from the beginning. In other words try and find the silent films, the thirties films, and continue on up until I finish the 80s. The other approach is to keep working backwards. Since there are more films from the last several decades that I need to see these would be harder to tackle theoretically and therefore I should work on them first. Or perhaps I simply say to hell with it and go in any damn order I please, after all is there some secret police that are going to arrest me for watching films from this list out of order?
So the haphazard approach I’ll take is as follows. Once I make mince meat out of the 90s I’ll take a similar approach to the rest of the decades. After all certain films may be on TCM, shown at a special screening, or what have you to make things interesting. I’ll watch the films I own or have copies of from the other decades before I start actively looking for more. Now chances are I’ll get bored and start accumulating far more than I can watch. When the Oscar nominations are announced I’ll make a slight detour to see all the films that get major nominations.
If you’ve read this far I’ll give you a cliff notes version and tell you some of the better films I’ve watched since starting this thing.
Blonde Crazy (1931)
The Birth of Love (1993)
Matinee (1993)
I Love Melvin (1953)
Deep Cover (1992)
Oriental Elegy (1996)
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