Friday 5 April 2013

March review - The IMDB challenge


So for March we challenged ourselves to watch 15 films off the IMDB top 250 list that we had never seen before. Initially supposed to be the first 15, this changed to the first 15 we could easily get hold of. Below are the films I watched for the month.


  1. 12 Angry Men
  2. Modern Times
  3. City Lights
  4. M
  5. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
  6. North by Northwest
  7. Vertigo
  8. Citizen Kane
  9. Once Upon a Time In the West
  10.  Double Indemnity
  11.  The Great Dictator
  12.  To Kill a Mockingbird
  13.  Leon
  14.  Taxi Driver
  15.  Life is Beautiful


This was a great challenge and sums up The Film Project perfectly, a lot of these are films I would never have sought out to view, and yet only one was rated any less than 4 stars. I saw 3 that even got a perfect 5 stars. Below are those 3, truly the best films I saw in March. This is a challenge we will continue in 2014 and I urge you to try and do the same, there are films here you'd never have thought of viewing that are utterly amazing.

                                     

  • Leon is the film on the list I know I should have seen but for some reason I have never gotten round to it. A superb tale of the assassin and the girl he rescues, trains and ultimately saves. Jean Reno is superb and the opening scenes that introduce him are amazing.



  • 12 Angry Men is a fantastic tale of a jury convinced of a mans guilt apart from Henry Fonda. He slowly attempts to convince the jury to at least consider the case, rather than just accept their gut feeling, what follows is a fantastic film set mainly in the one room with a stunning performance from Fonda.



  • Life is Beautiful was my favourite film of the challenge. A simply mesmerising comedy/drama that had me in fits of laughter for an hour, then fits of tears for the rest. It's a superb, emotional, heartbreaking ride with an ending that I'm not ashamed to say had me wrecked.Roberto Benigni deserved his Oscar, his performance is truly wonderful.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

IMDB 250 Challenge - A Success.

The March challenge was completed; though that was never in doubt having seen 10 of the 15 films in the first half of the month. I ended up seeing 17 films in total, a couple I missed; Seven Samurai and The Lives of others. These can be passed into other challenges.

Have to say this has been my favourite challenge yet, an excellent suggestion by Martin. I actually think that everybody enjoyed doing this one; so much so that we are planning this as a year long  challenge in the 2014 Project!

So the challenge started with 12 Angry Men (1957) starring Henry Fonda; what a superb start. Enjoyed the simplicity of it all, with the tension rising in the room as each vote was staged. The cast were excellent, along with the writing it never felt dull or overplayed, just seemed perfect! 

Then came Schindler's List (1993), not really sure why I hadn't seen this film, maybe it was the subject matter. Not a film I can say I enjoyed, yet one I am glad I have seen. I managed to hold my emotions in check until they started covering the grave in stones; that bit got me the most! Strong performances and beautifully shot in black and white, accompanied by a glorious score.  Maybe not a film I would revisit in the near future.

Sunset Boulevard (1950) came next and another excellent film. Holden and Swanson were superb in this film, a well written as it exposing Hollywood's disregard for people; and how people crave stardom!

Next were 3 Chaplin films; City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940); all three of them were brilliant. Chaplin's comic timing was amazing, and the speech at the end of The Great Dictator was superb. 

M (1931) by Fritz Lang, possibly one of the best serial killer films I've seen. Peter Lorre is brilliant.   Double Indemnity (1944) insurance fraud and murder at it's best. Excellent film with an excellent cast. 
And still the brilliant films kept coming; To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) starring Gregory Peck. Just brilliant, Peck is superb in this well written court room drama.

Taxi Driver (1976) another film I had just let slip by, I was never really interested in this at all. However another film I really liked, De Niro is great as the mentally unstable cabbie, hoping to clean up the streets of New York City. In the end turning to violence to achieve his aim. Gritty, violent and a great social commentary which stands the test of time. 

City of God (2002) was a film I had in my collection and was wanting to see. As you might expect now this was another excellent film. Really enjoyed it, various people have told me I need to read the book. Which after this I may just do. 

Back in time again and Citizen Kane (1941) was next, I always thought this film was about something else, not about a publishing tycoon and the meaning of his last word before he dies. Another really enjoyable film, with a great cast and very well written. This was my 12th film and I was starting to believe that I wasn't going to get a bad film in this challenge. Even to the point where I might not like the film, technically it would still be well directed, written and well acted.

Now the next film was one I had just picked up on Blu Ray and one I had set aside for another challenge, but it was in this list and so the IMDB challenge claimed it. Once Upon A Time In The West  (1968) starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson; this was my favourite film of the month. It blew me away, aside the brilliant Blu Ray restoration. This was just 3 hours of epic film making directed wonderfully by Sergio Leone. His vision is immense, his deliberation in drawing out scenes just builds the tension. The opening scene seems to last forever, but never feels over long, never breaks you; just draws you into the film. The film is also quite brutal at times, Fonda is ruthless as the hired killer and plays it so well. Bronson is as cool in this as Eastwood was in any of his westerns. 
The cinematography is also stunning, Tonino Delli Colli really shows of the desolation and expanse of the wild west.
Finally the score by Ennio Morricone is simply brilliant. Not just the film of the month for me, but it also kicked Django Unchained out of my top 4 films! Even at 3 hours I could easily sit through this again and again!

Gladiator (2000) a film I had started once, nearly 10 years ago; got interrupted 40 minutes in and never came back to it. It's not my favourite film of the month, but even so it's still an excellent film.  Crowe was superb and Rome looked spectacular, along with brilliant score; have to say I really enjoyed it, much more than I did 10 years ago!

Two Hitchcock films followed; I'd only ever seen The Birds and Psycho and both of these a long time ago. Yet after seeing Hitchcock at the cinema in February I was quite keen to see Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959). Both films were superb; though I slightly preferred North By NorthWest; not by much. I now fancy seeing a few more Hitchcock films as well as re-watching The Birds and Psycho.

And my 17th film of the challenge was the French romantic comedy Amelie (2001) another film which I have had for a while and never got round to watching it. Audrey Tautou is delightful as Amelie a naive and innocent young woman in Paris who decides to help various people around her before she too finds love. Quirky, funny and touching; yet it all hinges on Tautou's performance and she is perfect! A fantastic film to end the challenge on.

Nothing I saw scored less than 4 out of 5. With a number of films getting 5/5 - to see my full list of scores click letterboxd list. Though I have to concede that these films are rated this high for a reason; they were all excellent.

But it wasn't just these films I also managed 25 visits to the cinema and also completed 10 challenge films and also my Link challenge film - American Psycho. My next film in this challenge is Dodgeball; linked by the song Lady In Red.

So April is comedy month - this should be a laugh!


Friday 15 March 2013

The March IMDB 250 Challenge - Half Way

So the month's challenge was to see the first 15 films on the IMDB 250 list which I hadn't seen. A challenge I wasn't really looking forward to doing, seeing old films just isn't my thing; that said I've loved every minute of it!

Paulette Goddard in Modern Times.
Never a Chaplin fan, always a big Lloyd fan; I have to  hold my hands up and say Chaplin was a genius. Apart from City Lights which was excellent, I also watched The Great Dictator and Modern Times, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. They also introduced me to the wonderful Paulette Goddard.

So far I've managed 10 films out of the 15, so I can't see myself failing this challenge. They have all been worthy films though, and ones I am glad I have now seen. 4/5 is the lowest score any film as acheieved from me, again showing the quality of these films, and why they are in the top 250.  My other films include 12 Angry Men, Schindler's List, Sunset Boulevard, M, Double Indemity, To Kill a Mockingbird and the infamous Taxi Driver. (Yep! I had never seen Taxi Driver). From these my favourites are 12 Angry Men, the Chaplin films, M, Double Indemnity and To kill a Mockingbird.

Alongside this challenge I've had a number of visits to the cinema, and picking up a couple of surprise personal challenges along the way; Broken City ended up being a film for my P.I challenge. Then Fire with Fire and Parker both went towards my righteous challenge. I also returned to Cloud Atlas because it was a film worthy of a 2nd viewing, if not even a third one; though I only saw it twice. It does contain my favourite score, there are some amazing pieces, the highlight being The Cloud Atlas Sextet. How this was overlooked for an Oscar is beyond me!


Talking of soundtracks - Rob has created a superb score for the film Maniac, I caught this again at Grimmfest with another film 247F which wasn't very good at all. Maniac was and I will be catching it again at Cineworld Bolton in the next week.

Stoker I was disappointed with and ended up sticking it on my watch again list, beautiful to look at, listen too and I enjoyed the performances but it lacked something; or I was expecting more. Another couple of decent cinema films were, Robot & Frank and Side Effects. Though the more I've thought about Side Effects the more I thought it was very good and not excellent; as I first thought. Robot & Frank is rather good though and well worth catching. One quick mention to the worst film I've seen this month and that's The Guilt Trip. For a comedy it wasn't very funny at all.

As for the rest doing the project, Steve has seen 4 films; 12 Angry Men, Taxi Driver, Once Upon a time in the west (on my list as well) and City Lights. Martin has managed 3 films; 12 Angry Men, Modern Times and City Lights. As for Tony - no idea!



Monday 4 March 2013

A worthy project!

2 Month's and all is well!



February - The Romance of it All, a pretty easy and quite enjoyable challenge. Though the original consideration of Romantic comedies only may have proved a little more challenging. Yet somehow not as appealing, allowing a more general romance film paved the way for some more alternative watches. Wall-E and Top Gun for instance, yet it also allowed me to see the rather brilliant In the Mood for Love, one of my highlights of the month.

 
Considering it was the month of love, the cinema was relatively lite on the romance front, I managed 4 films. I give it a year, Warm Bodies, Beautiful Creatures and the musical Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge being the stand out film for me at the cinema for this genre. 
 

Yet I continued to look for more alternative romance films, Blue Valentine; Ryan Gosling and Michelle William’s whirlwind romance, marriage and breakup; not an easy watch. Yet as usual Gosling delivers a quality performance. So I would say well worth watching. 

Another interesting film was Daydream nation, having some strange plot lines and fighting against the typical romantic features, it proved quite an entertaining watch. The cast were all reasonable, and the script smart and funny. Yet it had a secondary plot that was out of left field! Watch it to find out.




    Though I had completed the challenge with a few days to spare, I wanted to see a few more films, with the aim of finishing it with The Princess Bride, after also watching Stardust along the way. Though I had 2 films I was really hoping to fit in and did were Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, with the 3rd film Before Midnight getting rave reviews, this was a perfect time to see them.
    Both are superb films, I was transfixed by Hawke and Delpy for 3 hours! Brilliant! If you haven’t seen these 2 films, I urge to watch them.


I also had my Link film to watch – The Deer Hunter, tied to Close encounters by the cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. From The Deer Hunter I went to American Psycho, using the studio; Universal. From American Psycho; which I watched on the opening day of the month I can get rid of the song link; one link which was or could have proved quite tricky. The Song is Lady in Red and takes me to Dodgeball in April not the best but at least the link has gone!




 Again the film project is showing its worth; its design to lead me to films I may have missed, some I may never have seen is working. I have focus and a drive like never before, to boldly go where I have never been before!


 
March is going to be the true test of this; the first 15 films on the IMDB 250 list. I have to say it’s quite a shocking list. Films any film buff should have seen long ago, but not me and a major failing on my part; hating the word “classic” I tend to bypass these films. 12 Angry Men, Schindler’s List,Vertigo, City Lights and Citizen Kane, I could easily look the other way!






Yet March isn’t going to be easy, most films on my list are well over 110 minutes long, 4 or 5 well over 2 hours, 2 of them nearly 3 hours long, add to that a heavy cinema schedule plus the personal challenge films; that’s a lot of films this month! Seeing 3 films at the cinema in 1 day and none of them counting for a single challenge doesn’t help!

As they say Bring it on!








The February Stats

Here are the stats after the 2nd month of The Film Project.