I have spent the past few days overhauling the design of this old blog, adding new pictures and fixing the structure to some of the older articles, and I have now written more entries in the past month than any other time since 2012. I have even changed the web address (filmsonfilms.blogspot.com) to make it easier to remember and to highlight that this was, and is always, a film blog, even when other topics sneak in. I think this is as good as a time as any to take a little stock.
I started this film blog my junior year in college, when I was studying abroad at the University of York. I was twenty-one and in a foreign country with too much time on my hands, and began watching, on average, more than a film a day. I had taken two film courses the previous semester and figured I knew a thing or two, so I wrote a bunch of articles until I moved on to something else, and ever since have popped in the odd update here and there.
Since then I have seen around 500-600 more films. I now use a website – www.icheckmovies.com - to keep track of all the movies I have seen. The number is at 1,313, which is probably lower than those of many other people who feel so inclined to pontificate on film blogs. Since 2011 I have discovered the directors Paul Thomas Anderson, Billy Wilder, Mike Leigh, Alexander Payne, Michael Haneke, Hayao Miyazaki, and others. I have used film as a teaching aid in Ghana, and given introductions to public screenings of Paths of Glory and The Fisher King. I don’t watch as many films as I used to, but I am much better at identifying great films before I watch them and being happy with the result. I credit this writing here to some extent.
But that’s just my world – I also want to take stock, if I might, of the world of film now in 2015. Roger Ebert and Robin Williams, who I have both written articles about, have died, and the film world is weaker for it. So have many other greats. Nine of the top ten grossing films of 2014 were sequels or adaptations, and the trend seems to be forever continuing. Sequels are more than ever the name of the day, as it seems the studios are more than willing now to let independent organisations make films that actually win awards (of the eight films nominated for best picture in 2015, only American Sniper was made by a major studio). Eventually, I suspect, they will run out of sequels to make – how many superhero films can honestly be made? I guess we will have to find out.
That being said, I am happy for independent films to be given a greater chance to find an audience. Boyhood and Birdman are two of the best films I have ever seen. Amazon has signed deals with Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam, proven greats who have been forced to work with tighter budgets in order to get films produced. Netflix and Hulu are also making their own original movies. The European cinema scene still continues to make artistic and culturally relevant films – the failure of the big studios is, in fact, a blessing, as it now creates competition in the rest of the industry to fill the void it has left.
I suspect that I will be leaving an odd update here and there, as I have been for the past few years. I feel that I am done growing up now, and merely growing older, and as this happens I fear for my online presence – thus necessitating an overhaul of my old blog, making it look more professional, or, whatever. But when the inspiration hits I will write again, saying something that I hope will be lucid and relevant. At that point, I will be thankful to those who still read.
I started this film blog my junior year in college, when I was studying abroad at the University of York. I was twenty-one and in a foreign country with too much time on my hands, and began watching, on average, more than a film a day. I had taken two film courses the previous semester and figured I knew a thing or two, so I wrote a bunch of articles until I moved on to something else, and ever since have popped in the odd update here and there.
Since then I have seen around 500-600 more films. I now use a website – www.icheckmovies.com - to keep track of all the movies I have seen. The number is at 1,313, which is probably lower than those of many other people who feel so inclined to pontificate on film blogs. Since 2011 I have discovered the directors Paul Thomas Anderson, Billy Wilder, Mike Leigh, Alexander Payne, Michael Haneke, Hayao Miyazaki, and others. I have used film as a teaching aid in Ghana, and given introductions to public screenings of Paths of Glory and The Fisher King. I don’t watch as many films as I used to, but I am much better at identifying great films before I watch them and being happy with the result. I credit this writing here to some extent.
But that’s just my world – I also want to take stock, if I might, of the world of film now in 2015. Roger Ebert and Robin Williams, who I have both written articles about, have died, and the film world is weaker for it. So have many other greats. Nine of the top ten grossing films of 2014 were sequels or adaptations, and the trend seems to be forever continuing. Sequels are more than ever the name of the day, as it seems the studios are more than willing now to let independent organisations make films that actually win awards (of the eight films nominated for best picture in 2015, only American Sniper was made by a major studio). Eventually, I suspect, they will run out of sequels to make – how many superhero films can honestly be made? I guess we will have to find out.
That being said, I am happy for independent films to be given a greater chance to find an audience. Boyhood and Birdman are two of the best films I have ever seen. Amazon has signed deals with Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam, proven greats who have been forced to work with tighter budgets in order to get films produced. Netflix and Hulu are also making their own original movies. The European cinema scene still continues to make artistic and culturally relevant films – the failure of the big studios is, in fact, a blessing, as it now creates competition in the rest of the industry to fill the void it has left.
I suspect that I will be leaving an odd update here and there, as I have been for the past few years. I feel that I am done growing up now, and merely growing older, and as this happens I fear for my online presence – thus necessitating an overhaul of my old blog, making it look more professional, or, whatever. But when the inspiration hits I will write again, saying something that I hope will be lucid and relevant. At that point, I will be thankful to those who still read.
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