Showing posts with label blog concept. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog concept. Show all posts
Friday, 1 June 2018
A list of all the films to date
Pre-History!
1900: The Enchanted Drawing
1901: Stop Thief!
1902: La Voyage dans la Lune
1903: La Vie et La Passion de Jesus Christ, The Great Train Robbery
1904: Welding the Big Ring
1905: Rescued by Rover
1906: Humorous Phases of Funny Faces
1907: Ben Hur
1908: Japanese Butterflies
The Nineteen-Tens!
1913: Dr. Nicholson and the Blue Diamond
1914: Cabiria
1915: Birth of a Nation
1916: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1917: Seven Keys to Baldpate
1918: Tarzan of the Apes
1919: Broken Blossoms
The Nineteen-Twenties!
1920: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
1921: The Kid
1922: Häxan, Nosferatu, Dr Mabuse, der Spieler
1923: Cœur Fidèle
1924: Die Nibelungen
1925: Battleship Potemkin
1926: Faust
1927: Metropolis
1928: The Passion of Joan of Arc
1929: Man With a Movie Camera
The Nineteen-Thirties!
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front
1931: M
1932: The Island of Lost Souls
1933: Das Testament Des Dr Mabuse
1934: Lieutenant Kizhe
1935: Lives of a Bengal Lancer
1936: My Man Godfrey
1937: Laurel and Hardy Way Out West
1938: Alexander Nevsky
1939: Gone With the Wind
The Nineteen-Forties!
1940: Das Herz der Königin
1941: Peer Gynt
1942: Went the Day Well?
1943: Münchausen
1944: Double Indemnity
1945: Les Enfants du Paradis
1946: Great Expectations
1947: Miracle on 34th Street
1948: Rope
1949: The Third Man
The Nineteen-Fifties!
1950: Julius Caesar, Orphée
1951: The African Queen
1952: High Noon
1953: The Robe, The Titfield Thunderbolt
1954: Rear Window
1955: The Quatermass Xperiment
1956: High Society
1957: Bridge on the River Kwai
1958: The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
1959: Ben-Hur: a Tale of the Christ, Bucket of Blood
The Nineteen-Sixties!
1960: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
1961: Breakfast at Tiffany's
1962: The Longest Day
1963: Lilies of the Field
1964: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
1965: Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen, Doctor Zhivago
1966: Daisies
1967: Casino Royale, Herostratus
1968: Yellow Submarine
1969: The Bed Sitting Room, The Valley of Gwangi
The Nineteen-Seventies!
1970: Beneath the Planet of the Apes
1971: Shaft, Nicholas and Alexandra
1972: Shaft's Big Score!, The Godfather
1973: Shaft in Africa
1974: H is for House, Madhouse
1975: Winstanley, Lisztomania
1976: Taxi Driver
1977: Na Srebrnym Globie
1978: A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist
1979: Stalker
The Nineteen-Eighties!
1980: Miś, Xanadu
1981: Das Boot
1982: Blade Runner
1983: 2019, After the Fall of New York
1984: Heimat
1985: Ninja Terminator, A Zed and Two Noughts
1986: America 3000
1987: The Belly of an Architect, Dragnet
1988: The Last Temptation of Christ, Akira, A Short Film About Killing, Drowning by Numbers
1989: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town
The Nineteen-Nineties!
1990: GoodFellas
1991: King Ralph
1992: Glengarry Glen Ross, The Lawnmower Man
1993: Jurassic Park, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
1994: The Crow
1995: Empire Records, Kids
1996: Scream
1997: Starship Troopers
1998: Train to Hell, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Run Lola Run
1999: Dogma, But I'm a Cheerleader, Office Space, Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ
The Twenty Hundreds!
2000: Battlefield Earth
2001: Fellowship of the Ring
2002: The Two Towers
2003: Return of the King, Goodbye Lenin, Party Monster
2004: Finding Neverland
2005: Brick, Man Alone
2006: Das Security Bathroom, Southland Tales
2007: Persepolis, The BQE
2008: The Baader-Meinhof Complex, Slumdog Millionaire
2009: Up, Mary & Max
The Twenty Tens!
2010: Shutter Island
2011: Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!, Hobo With a Shotgun, Cabin in the Woods, Super 8
2012: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi
2013: A Field in England, Die Andere Heimat, One Direction: This is Us
2014: The Grand Budapest Hotel
2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron
2016: Wizardhood
2017:
2018:
2019: Rocketman, Fisherman's Friends
...and a page of films that didn't get their own posts - because sometimes I watched films for myself, rather than for The Penciltonian.
Sunday, 15 December 2013
The End of the Penciltonian
Well, that was The Penciltonian. A hundred films from a hundred years, 1913-2013 - and a few besides. There were a number of other criteria I ventured for those wishing to play along at home, and of these I believe I also managed a film from each letter of the alphabet.
The viewing and the blogging have encompassed:
130 films in total
25 British films
54 American films
16 German films
7 French films
19 silent films
28 crime films
28 comedy films
14 horror films
21 films about war
7 films about revolution, which I found to be the most interesting through-line
I failed in my attempt to watch a film from each continent - I only managed a couple from the whole of Asia, and neglected to watch any at all from Africa, South America, Antarctica or The Moon, so I certainly can't claim to have encompassed anything beyond Western, Minority-World cinema. African cinema, in particular, sounds to be artistically and philosophically different from the sorts of things I ended up watching, and its absence is probably the single greatest deficiency in this Penciltonian project. I also managed to find terribly few films by female directors, yet must have watched half a dozen with entirely male casts.
The 1920s and the 1940s seemed much the most enjoyable decades, with almost all their films garnering great praise, but I thought the 1910s were a bit rubbish, perhaps because of their lack of later cinematic techniques - I've ventured elsewhere that the decade's lack of close-ups left the performances feeling rather distant, meaning the actors were only able to convey rather crude emotions, lacking nuance.
I expect there will be a handful of additional updates to The Penciltonian, though on a less regular basis. Wherever I see something startling, or unfairly neglected, I'll try to make mention of it. But I won't renew a commitment to a century in a year, or two films a week - the costs in time and funds were too high.
The viewing and the blogging have encompassed:
130 films in total
25 British films
54 American films
16 German films
7 French films
19 silent films
28 crime films
28 comedy films
14 horror films
21 films about war
7 films about revolution, which I found to be the most interesting through-line
I failed in my attempt to watch a film from each continent - I only managed a couple from the whole of Asia, and neglected to watch any at all from Africa, South America, Antarctica or The Moon, so I certainly can't claim to have encompassed anything beyond Western, Minority-World cinema. African cinema, in particular, sounds to be artistically and philosophically different from the sorts of things I ended up watching, and its absence is probably the single greatest deficiency in this Penciltonian project. I also managed to find terribly few films by female directors, yet must have watched half a dozen with entirely male casts.
The 1920s and the 1940s seemed much the most enjoyable decades, with almost all their films garnering great praise, but I thought the 1910s were a bit rubbish, perhaps because of their lack of later cinematic techniques - I've ventured elsewhere that the decade's lack of close-ups left the performances feeling rather distant, meaning the actors were only able to convey rather crude emotions, lacking nuance.
I expect there will be a handful of additional updates to The Penciltonian, though on a less regular basis. Wherever I see something startling, or unfairly neglected, I'll try to make mention of it. But I won't renew a commitment to a century in a year, or two films a week - the costs in time and funds were too high.
I guess I'd hoped I could sum up more victoriously, and tell tales of a project completed, which had led to some great, personal revelation, some spiritual refreshment, or revitalisation of character. I have watched a hundred films - a goal any of you could achieve inside two months. It's not especially impressive, only a tribute to obsessive list-making, and to materialism. My main achievement here was to sit on my ass all year watching movies, which really oughtn't to be something to shout about.
The End.
The End.
Thursday, 28 November 2013
The Alphabet (not a film)
If you find a satisfaction in the completion of arbitrary lists, please marvel at my ability to watch a film for each letter of the alphabet. It's a far easier task than watching a film from each year of the century, and this is a venture you might enjoy trying for yourself (indeed, I once listed it as a way to play along at home)
America 3000 (1986)
The Belly of an Architect (1987)
Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Empire Records (1995)
Faust (1926)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Häxan (1922)
The Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Julius Caesar (1950)
King Ralph (1991)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
M (1931)
Ninja Terminator (1985)
Office Space (1999)
Persepolis (2007)
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
The Robe (1953)
Shaft (1971)
Train to Hell (1998)
Up (2009)
La Vie et La Passion de Jesus Christ (1903)
Winstanley (1975)
Xanadu (1980)
Yellow Submarine (1968)
A Zed and Two Noughts (1985)
One can have fun constructing one's own alphabet of movies. I could just as easily have watched (off the top of my head) 'Animal Crackers' (1930), 'Beethoven's 2nd' (1993), 'Caravaggio' (1986), 'Dog Soldiers' (2002), 'East is East' (1999), 'Fantasia' (1940), 'Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns' (2003), 'Hot Shots! Part Deux' (1993), 'I, Robot' (2004), 'The Jungle Book' (1942), 'A King in New York' (1957), 'The Lion King' (1994), 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (1956), 'No Country for Old Men' (2007), 'The Omen' (1976), 'Il Postino' (1994), 'The Quiet American' (1958), 'Russian Ark' (2002), 'Step Up 2 The Streets' (2008), 'TMNT' (2007), 'U-571' (2000), 'V for Vendetta' (2006), 'Wall Street' (1929), 'X2' (2003), 'You Only Live Twice' (1967), and 'Zardoz' (1974). But that would have been a different Penciltonian to the one you have been reading.
America 3000 (1986)
The Belly of an Architect (1987)
Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Empire Records (1995)
Faust (1926)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Häxan (1922)
The Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Julius Caesar (1950)
King Ralph (1991)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
M (1931)
Ninja Terminator (1985)
Office Space (1999)
Persepolis (2007)
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
The Robe (1953)
Shaft (1971)
Train to Hell (1998)
Up (2009)
La Vie et La Passion de Jesus Christ (1903)
Winstanley (1975)
Xanadu (1980)
Yellow Submarine (1968)
A Zed and Two Noughts (1985)
One can have fun constructing one's own alphabet of movies. I could just as easily have watched (off the top of my head) 'Animal Crackers' (1930), 'Beethoven's 2nd' (1993), 'Caravaggio' (1986), 'Dog Soldiers' (2002), 'East is East' (1999), 'Fantasia' (1940), 'Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns' (2003), 'Hot Shots! Part Deux' (1993), 'I, Robot' (2004), 'The Jungle Book' (1942), 'A King in New York' (1957), 'The Lion King' (1994), 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (1956), 'No Country for Old Men' (2007), 'The Omen' (1976), 'Il Postino' (1994), 'The Quiet American' (1958), 'Russian Ark' (2002), 'Step Up 2 The Streets' (2008), 'TMNT' (2007), 'U-571' (2000), 'V for Vendetta' (2006), 'Wall Street' (1929), 'X2' (2003), 'You Only Live Twice' (1967), and 'Zardoz' (1974). But that would have been a different Penciltonian to the one you have been reading.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
The films so far
People have occasionally asked me which years I've covered and which are blank. Without giving you a massive list of titles, this post is a summation of what I have and haven't watched. Squares are beautiful shapes, and square numbers are just great, so that's how we'll start.
Square of films so far
Not-films
Origins Achievements Pancakes BalletYears with multiple entries
1922: Criminal Vampire Witchcraft1950: Shakespeare Mirrors
1959: Epic B-Movie
1965: Cohen Zhivago
1971: Shaft Rasputin
1972: Shaft Mafia
1974: Murder Windows
1976: Taxi Alphabet
1980: Poland Disco
1985: Ninja Zoo
1987: Architecture Cops
1988: Jesus Anime Killing
1989: Food Chicks
1992: Internet Salesmen
1993: Piano Dinosaurs
1998: Groove Running Nazis
1999: God Gayness Office
2003: Socialism Fantasy Party
2006: Bathroom America
2009: Beautiful CGI
2011: Pencilton Homicide Mystery Movies
2012: Tiger Gollum
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Join in at home: ways to play along
Now, I don't expect y'all to watch a hundred films ancient and modern, but I can't help feeling this blog should be a slightly more interactive affair - that there should be ways for you to join in at home, do some film-watching-shaped activities and claim some victories.
The best games have multiple victory conditions, and I believe there are ways to prosper in this film-watching project other than consuming as many films as I'm currently attempting (1,100,100 films, if you count in binary). Therefore, I've prepared the following *achievements*. See how many you can unlock (by which I mean achieve). If you get them all, you can perm some skills, whatever that means. Oh, give it a go, senors and senoritas.
1. Watch ten films from different decades.
This one is actually way easy, and anyone can do it if they have access to a library or BBC iPlayer. One film per decade from the 1920s to the 2010s. 'The Wizard of Oz' was out in 1939, so if you're averse to monochrome you only have the 20s to worry about on that count - and if you despise silent films, you could avoid them entirely by keeping to the back end of that fine decade.
2. Watch a film beginning with each letter of the alphabet
I suspect I'll end up achieving this one myself without meaning to. There are only a small number of tricky letters, and I'll see if I can make them less daunting. Z, as in 'A Zed and Two Noughts' (1985), 'Die Zweite Heimat' (1992) or 'Zoolander' (2001). X, as in 'Xanadu' (1980 - but it's on Wikipedia's list of 'films considered the worst ever), 'X2' (2003), or more tenuously any film starting with 'cross' or 'trans'. Y, as in 'You Only Live Twice' (1967), 'Yellow Submarine' (1968) or 'The Young Victoria' (2009). I'll also venture 'K', as it's my least favourite letter in the Western alphabet - but any film starting with 'King' or 'Kangaroo' will suit you here.
3. Watch ten per cent of the films I watch for this blog
Currently that only requires you to watch two films, and it isn't a number that will suddenly escalate. Bonus points if you watch ones you hadn't heard of prior to 2003. And make that twenty per cent, not ten per cent, if you work part-time or not at all.
4. Watch ten foreign-language films from different decades.
The whole Penciltonian thing, watching a hundred films from a hundred years, etcetera is, as well as an excuse to watch more films, a chance to look at a hundred years of human culture. Foreign-language films are very important to this. I used to find them daunting, but I was shown 'Amélie' (2001), and discovered they were very easy to watch - the same as English-language films, but fascinatingly different.
5. Watch a film from each continent
And that includes Antarctica. And the Indian subcontinent. And if you can see your way to include The Moon, so much the better. And it doesn't count if it's just about English folks going out and being merry in such-and-such a country - these should be films conceived and made within the continent concerned.
6. Pick a genre, watch eight films from it, from different decades
This one's pretty easy, and potentially interesting. See how the musical, or the Western, or the swashbuckle, or the horror developed. I'm inclined to disallow sci-fi here as it's so excessively broad and ubiquitous. I've limited this to eight films, as you might otherwise find yourself forced to watch a terrible film because it's a decade's sole example of whatever genre you've happened to pick. It's a vague one, so feel free to write in with a better idea for achievement six.
7. Watch 10 different films in the same language, other than your own.
I suspect I'll find little difficulty fitting ten German films into my hundred-or-so. If I can get one per decade, so much the better.
8. Watch 'Die Zweite Heimat' (1992)
This is the film I love the best, but it's also the length of any 13 other films, so it's an investment of time. Very well worth it. I like to think its duration isn't the sole reason I rate it so highly, but you won't be sure until you've seen some or all of it. Truly, I think this is one of the best bits of art to come from the 20th Century.
9. Make your own film
Any quality or duration, collating and synthesising some of the things you've learnt from film-watching. I intend to do this, and I fully expect it to be embarrassingly identical to films I made before this whole hundred-film adventure, proving I haven't really learnt anything.
10a. Make and eat some pancakes.
My pancake recipe will appear on this blog shortly before Pancake Day. This may not seem relevant to films, but pancakes are, in fact, very important, and they're in season.
10b. Eat a live porcupine.
Because it's good to have something to strive for, and nobody should be able to unlock every achievement or achieve every lock.
The best games have multiple victory conditions, and I believe there are ways to prosper in this film-watching project other than consuming as many films as I'm currently attempting (1,100,100 films, if you count in binary). Therefore, I've prepared the following *achievements*. See how many you can unlock (by which I mean achieve). If you get them all, you can perm some skills, whatever that means. Oh, give it a go, senors and senoritas.
Beginner
1. Watch ten films from different decades.
This one is actually way easy, and anyone can do it if they have access to a library or BBC iPlayer. One film per decade from the 1920s to the 2010s. 'The Wizard of Oz' was out in 1939, so if you're averse to monochrome you only have the 20s to worry about on that count - and if you despise silent films, you could avoid them entirely by keeping to the back end of that fine decade.
2. Watch a film beginning with each letter of the alphabet
I suspect I'll end up achieving this one myself without meaning to. There are only a small number of tricky letters, and I'll see if I can make them less daunting. Z, as in 'A Zed and Two Noughts' (1985), 'Die Zweite Heimat' (1992) or 'Zoolander' (2001). X, as in 'Xanadu' (1980 - but it's on Wikipedia's list of 'films considered the worst ever), 'X2' (2003), or more tenuously any film starting with 'cross' or 'trans'. Y, as in 'You Only Live Twice' (1967), 'Yellow Submarine' (1968) or 'The Young Victoria' (2009). I'll also venture 'K', as it's my least favourite letter in the Western alphabet - but any film starting with 'King' or 'Kangaroo' will suit you here.
3. Watch ten per cent of the films I watch for this blog
Currently that only requires you to watch two films, and it isn't a number that will suddenly escalate. Bonus points if you watch ones you hadn't heard of prior to 2003. And make that twenty per cent, not ten per cent, if you work part-time or not at all.
Intermediate
4. Watch ten foreign-language films from different decades.
The whole Penciltonian thing, watching a hundred films from a hundred years, etcetera is, as well as an excuse to watch more films, a chance to look at a hundred years of human culture. Foreign-language films are very important to this. I used to find them daunting, but I was shown 'Amélie' (2001), and discovered they were very easy to watch - the same as English-language films, but fascinatingly different.
5. Watch a film from each continent
And that includes Antarctica. And the Indian subcontinent. And if you can see your way to include The Moon, so much the better. And it doesn't count if it's just about English folks going out and being merry in such-and-such a country - these should be films conceived and made within the continent concerned.
6. Pick a genre, watch eight films from it, from different decades
This one's pretty easy, and potentially interesting. See how the musical, or the Western, or the swashbuckle, or the horror developed. I'm inclined to disallow sci-fi here as it's so excessively broad and ubiquitous. I've limited this to eight films, as you might otherwise find yourself forced to watch a terrible film because it's a decade's sole example of whatever genre you've happened to pick. It's a vague one, so feel free to write in with a better idea for achievement six.
Advanced
7. Watch 10 different films in the same language, other than your own.
I suspect I'll find little difficulty fitting ten German films into my hundred-or-so. If I can get one per decade, so much the better.
8. Watch 'Die Zweite Heimat' (1992)
This is the film I love the best, but it's also the length of any 13 other films, so it's an investment of time. Very well worth it. I like to think its duration isn't the sole reason I rate it so highly, but you won't be sure until you've seen some or all of it. Truly, I think this is one of the best bits of art to come from the 20th Century.
9. Make your own film
Any quality or duration, collating and synthesising some of the things you've learnt from film-watching. I intend to do this, and I fully expect it to be embarrassingly identical to films I made before this whole hundred-film adventure, proving I haven't really learnt anything.
Bonus easy and difficult achievement to unlock:
10a. Make and eat some pancakes.
My pancake recipe will appear on this blog shortly before Pancake Day. This may not seem relevant to films, but pancakes are, in fact, very important, and they're in season.
10b. Eat a live porcupine.
Because it's good to have something to strive for, and nobody should be able to unlock every achievement or achieve every lock.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
The Concept
So here's the idea, then.
I've resolved, mainly as an excuse to watch more films, that I should watch a movie from every year of the last hundred, from 1913 to 2013. This, in a year or more or less.
I hadn't intended to review the films or anything like that, but decided I might as well put a few thoughts down on paper (since computers are made of paper) so that I have something to show for the whole thing. Not reviews - or, at least that isn't the plan - but a few thoughts on why the film is interesting, or why you might like to see it, or why you might like to imagine it, but then not see it because what you imagined in enough.
Anyway, I like stories, I like the sort of obsessing that lets a person make a list of a hundred years and slowly attach a film or two to each of them, and find a delight in choosing appropriate screen-captures from each of the hundred or so films. I don't have the century mapped out, so if you have a favourite film, or just a film you feel I ought to include in my adventures, by all means mention it in the comments and I might just give it a go.
I've resolved, mainly as an excuse to watch more films, that I should watch a movie from every year of the last hundred, from 1913 to 2013. This, in a year or more or less.
I hadn't intended to review the films or anything like that, but decided I might as well put a few thoughts down on paper (since computers are made of paper) so that I have something to show for the whole thing. Not reviews - or, at least that isn't the plan - but a few thoughts on why the film is interesting, or why you might like to see it, or why you might like to imagine it, but then not see it because what you imagined in enough.
Anyway, I like stories, I like the sort of obsessing that lets a person make a list of a hundred years and slowly attach a film or two to each of them, and find a delight in choosing appropriate screen-captures from each of the hundred or so films. I don't have the century mapped out, so if you have a favourite film, or just a film you feel I ought to include in my adventures, by all means mention it in the comments and I might just give it a go.
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