2013 projects

One of them is to be less embarrassed about blogging things I might have taken two or three tweets to say (& in fractured syntax, 140-chrcter cmpromises 2 boot), a benefit being that I will thereby be blogging more regularly. The other is to fill in what I consider the 10 Most Truly Embarrassing Gaps in my lifetime “films seen” list.

So in that dual spirit, I hereby resolve to, by the end of 2013, have seen and written something about the following 10 films, my previous ignorance of which will cause cinephiles’ jaws to drop from Park City to Pusan.

McCABE AND MRS MILLER (Robert Altman, USA, 1971) My bud Noel Murray’s all-time favorite film and Twitter avatar. By reputation, one of Altman’s two or three greatest.

BEFORE SUNRISE and BEFORE SUNSET (Richard Linklater, USA, 1995 and 2004) Scott Renshaw said I was dead to him and Mike D’Angelo said he’d pull my 2004 Skandies ballot when they learned of this gap. The bow at Sundance by the threequel BEFORE MIDNIGHT is the immediate inspiration for this post.

GHOSTBUSTERS (Ivan Reitman, USA, 1984) I was 18 years old when this came out and I didn’t see this generational touchstone. But I just wasn’t into movies until the later-80s.

BACK TO THE FUTURE (Robert Zemeckis, USA, 1985) Rinse and repeat previous. And for both films, I was reluctant for years to catch up on TV because of pan-scan, content cutting, special-effects losing oomph.

HEAT (Michael Mann, USA, 1995) One of Sonny Bunch’s all-time favorites, with Pacino and DeNiro. I was in Toronto last time it played at AFI Silver, part of a Mann retro where I saw his great THIEF.

NAKED (Mike Leigh, Britain, 1993) “If you’re already a Mike Leigh fanboy, what will you be after seeing THIS.” — Bilge Ebiri

LOVE AND DEATH (Woody Allen, USA, 1975) All-time favorite Woody film of Matt Prigge — “one of the early, funny ones.” When I first caught up with HUSBANDS AND WIVES circa 2003, I said I was even hungrier for a good “new (to me)” Woody film than I thought. I’m starving.

DAYS OF HEAVEN (Terence Malick, USA, 1978) “One of the early, less annoyingly arty ones.” (Supposedly.) But Malick has made so few films that there’s really no excuse not to be a completist.

THE TREE, THE MAYOR AND THE MEDIATHEQUE (Eric Rohmer, France, 1993) The one foray into politics by one of my all-time favorite directors and one of the few (only?) openly rightist film-makers unquestionably in the cinema pantheon. Yeah, I haven’t seen it.

HOMICIDE (David Mamet, USA, 1991) The only film-director credit I’ve not seen by one of my favorite writers and one of the few (only?) openly rightist playwrights unquestionably in the theatre pantheon. Yeah, I haven’t seen it.

Now for the kicker. Jaws drop far and wide, etc. I have copies of all of these films, in one form or another, in my apartment. #Packrat

So I have no excuses.