Friday, November 16, 2007

I Want to Make a 100 Favorite Film List, But...

I love reading different critics and bloggers' "100 Favorite and/or Best Films" lists. To me, it's so fascinating to see what other people think and then silently rejoice when they pick one of my favorites or internally groan when they pick something pretentious or just plain awful. It's so much fun, in fact, that I've often thought about publishing my own list on here. But here are my concerns:
  • It would be very time consuming and I never seem to have a bunch of time. Writing my list is not something I just want to rush through and get over with.
  • Lord knows I have seen enough movies (all four years of high school I probably saw 4 or 5 films a week) from all different time periods, so I know I won't be biased towards the modern stuff (unlike a bunch of people out there whose Top 100 consists of movies made after 1985). My concern is that there are so many different genres, foreign films and film movements that I haven't even dabbled in yet that deserve my attention: I have never seen a Bollywood film or a German New Wave film of the 70's. I've only seen a couple "true" French New Wave films and I really need to catch up on Godard. I've only seen one film- Swoon- from the New Queer Cinema. I don't think I've actually ever seen a German Expressionist film from the 20's, either.
  • I make a list and then six months I review and I always think to myself What the hell was I thinking? Maybe a film I loved at first sight has diminished from my mind or I overrate a classic and place it higher on my list because of its status.
  • There are so many films I loved when I was a bit younger that I'm afraid to revisit because they might not be as good as I remembered. What am I afraid to watch again?: Clueless, Pride of the Yankees, As Good As It Gets, Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Grand Hotel, The Gold Diggers of 1933, Roman Holiday, Shall We Dansu?, 21 Grams, Inherit the Wind and Stage Door
So will you see a Top 100 list from me? I hope so. Not now, but one that I'm completely happy with should come sometime in the future. As soon as I see more films.

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