Brent here, everyone. Frequent readers of the blog will recall that in September of 2008, I made a lone post heralding the monumental viewing of my 2000th film. Since here I am making yet another post, no doubt some of you are already doing the math, figuring out how long it takes a guy like me to watch 1000 films. Well, the answer is: it depends on how long the films are! I actually neglected to post about my 3000th, which I saw last November (14 months from my 2000th), and now, only four months later, have already seen the big four oh oh oh. How did I do this, you ask? Did I lose my job? Did I leave Michelle? Did I cut off all human contact? Did I finally create a device that freezes time around you and allows you to get all the things done that you've been meaning to do while the world around you waits? Happily, happily, sadly, and sadly, no, it was none of those things. Rather, as I've recently been watching mostly films from the earliest period of cinema (as early as 1890), literally hundreds of the films I've seen have been under an hour, under ten minutes, under a minute, under 30 seconds, etc. For example, just the other day I was able to watch something like 90 films, and without even really trying that hard.
But of course, it's not all about the numbers--it's about the films. And the two I picked to ring in those nice big round numbers up there were stunners. The first (pictured at left above) was a silent French film from the 1920s, an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe, and a masterpiece of surrealistic horror. It was originally going to be co-directed by the great Luis Buñuel, though he backed out of the project over creative differences. The second film was an epic Italian film from the 1960s, starring the inimitable Alain Delon, and following a family that moves from the country to the city and is eventually torn apart by all of the new temptations they find there. Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese have cited it as a major influence on both The Godfather films and Raging Bull, respectively.
Anyone who can guess what films I'm talking about will win a hefty dollop of respect from yours truly.
Brent out.
3 comments:
I don't know jack about films, but I do know that I have sat atop that same 'duomo' in Italy. Milano, right??
That's the Duomo di Milano, yes.
So, from a father's prospective I just have one question. Who keeps a running total of the number of films they see?
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