Monday 29 July 2019

500 Movies Anniversary



500 Movies Anniversary
On a 1001 list, 500 marks the halfway point. My list has grown considerably longer over the years and that is not counting off-List movies, but reaching the 500 movie mark still feels like a sharp corner.

So, a pat on my shoulder for keeping it going this far.

The stretch from 400 to 500 movies took me from 1962 to 1968, which is only six years and it has taken me two years exactly. The List is getting crowded in the sixties and I suppose I have slowed down a bit. Well, that just means that I will have plenty more years of fun.

I made it a tradition to present some sort of award every time I reach another hundred movies and that this reward somehow reflects the period covered by the past hundred movies. I gave this some thought and decided that the category should be:

Most annoying movie.

As in the good ol’ Academy days I will nominate a whole bunch of movies. If you wonder why each of them have been nominated you are welcome to look up their review.

1.       Limite

2.       Ivan the Terrible

3.       Umberto D

4.       Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

5.       Dog Star Man

6.       Flaming Creatures

7.       Blonde Cobra

8.       Vinyl

9.       Pierrot Goes Wild

10.   Daisies

11.   Masculine-Feminine

12.   Two or Three Things I Know About Her

13.   Week End

 

It is a difficult pick, indeed it is. As much as I grind my teeth over dancing cowboys or free-flying dicks, there is one director that makes me despair by name alone. Who else than Godard? And the worst so far must be Week End.

I know, this is a bit of a negative award, but it is also very typical for the sixties. There are a lot of great movies but there are also surprisingly many annoying movies. By that I do not mean experimental or arty movie. Some of those are interesting and contribute in some way to cinema. But there are those that just… annoy me and the List is suddenly loaded with those. This is very much a contributing factor to the off-List movies I have introduced. Movies that often could or should have replaced the garbage we are stuck with.

And, yeah, this is of course a very subjective assessment, I am certain there are plenty of people who love these movies, but this is my blog and I can pretty much do what I want.

 

6 comments:

  1. Congrats on making it to 500! My hat is off to anyone who tackles this massive list.

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    1. Thank you very much. It is a massive list.

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  2. Nicely done. I suppose I shouldn't admit that I like some of your most annoying movies.

    Like...I recommend Daisies to people.

    Then again, I still maintain that Vinyl is literally the worst movie I have ever seen.

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    1. Yes, I understand that such a list will always be controversial. In the case of Daisies the attitude of those two girls annoyed me way out of liking anything else in that movie. Vinyl was pretty high on my list, but even that had to yield to Godard. Just the name is making me agitated.

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  3. An annoying movie list is interesting. I have to admit that I didn't like Week End twenty minutes into it, but was pretty much wowed by it by the time it was over. I do think Godard films are really a mixed bag overall and the 1001 book could have probably cut at least a couple of them out.

    Keep up the good work!

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    1. Thank you, I will do my best.
      I guess at this point, evn if I encountered a good Godard movie I would be so predisposed that it would stand no chance with me. I am impressed with anybody getting anything out of Week-end. For me, that one nailed to coffin on Godard.

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