So I’ve been working my way through the massive list of films I’m trying to watch and you’ll be pleased to know I don’t hate them all! More recently I watched the Hannibal trilogy and despite them being very scary I loved these films. I’m just throwing this out there to gauge where I am on the crazy scale – did anyone else develop a sort of soft spot for Hannibal Lecter? I’m not saying it’s okay to go round eating people’s faces but in a weird way I was sort of rooting for him 😂 he had a bad childhood after all 😂 I also watched The Blues Brothers (hard not to love unless you’re the type of person that’s fundamentally opposed to happiness), and The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston. I don’t think I appreciated before this film how vivacious and beautiful she was. Parts of her personality in the film reminded my of myself. 

 

I watched a few British films too: Withnal and I, which I simply didn’t enjoy at all – sorry to say but this is a man’s film. One I REALLY enjoyed was Sexy Beast. I love gangster films and also that particular type of British gangster film. There are small moments of artyness and surrealism in this film which I found to be very beautiful – as well as the basic for any good film or plot: I felt invested in the outcome of the characters. Another British gangster film I enjoyed was The Gentlemen. That was a good one! I really like his films although they’re pretty much all the same. It’s become my life’s ambition to be get casted as a cold-but-slutty gangster wife in a Guy Ritchie film who’s main duties are walking around in expensive outfits, telling the police my husband was at home with me all night watching TV, and getting blood stains out of the carpet. One thing I like about British films is that they tend to be plausible and unglamorous, unlike a Hollywood film where the good guy wins and the hot woman marries him and they all retire to Miami or whatever. 

 

Another one I ticked off was Inglorious Basterds. Nearly turned off half way through the opening scene because it was so terrifying it was making me anxious! I don’t know how people can bear to watch such terrifying scenes my heart was jumping out of my chest it was so intense. I hid behind a cushion the whole time. Crazy to think what is depicted in film is actually a fraction of the horror of what actually happens in war in real life. This was another great film although I did feel it was a simple plot stretched out further than it needed to be. I also respected the end. They killed the girl – I thought that would never happen. It’s a well known fact that Tarantino has a foot fetish and once you know this – drinking wine from Salma Hayeks foot in “From Dusk Til Dawn”, the foot massage scene in “Pulp Fiction”, and even the lost shoe being the giveaway in “Inglorious Basterds”… it’s interesting how he always weaves this kink into his films.

 

On Sunday I decided to treat myself to the sort of film I prefer to watch (and watched a lot of before I started working on this list), and saw Saint Omer, a French independent film by Alice Diop, coincidentally just a few hours before it won a César award. I saw this film at the Curzon cinema in Bloomsbury, one of my favourites as it’s situated in the Brunswick Center which is a massive brutalist development in Bloomsbury. I love brutalist architecture (somebody’s got to) so I always have a walk around when I’m there. Anyway I enjoyed the film along with an Aperol Spritz (it’s that kind of cinema) and immediately after felt annoyed that I went alone as I really want to talk about this film but you have to watch it to get it and I don’t think anyone I know is likely to watch it. It’s very French so not for everyone (I don’t mean the language, I mean the style of film, how it’s shot, how it ends etc), but I enjoyed it.

 

French cinema is in a creative league of it’s own and like a lot of French arts for whatever reason is left alone to go in whatever direction it wants without the scrutiny of “offended” people. A few years ago I watched an excellent film called “Elle” which explores some dark sexual themes that I simply can’t imagine would be allowed in any other cinema. French cinema explores what I would call ultra-mature themes, and I really enjoy this type of cinema. Hollywood is all about animation and Superheros now. It’s not for me, I don’t get this constant pushing of childishness onto us – I’m into adult things, you know 😇 At one point I was very into collecting graphic erotic novels and virtually all of these are French – no other country produces or has the market for such things. I’m becoming a bit of a Francophile as you can see. I realised last year that you can buy a water mill in the French countryside with a lot of land and a farmhouse for like €300K and I started to think…

 

But I digress, back to the film list. I think I must have about 80 to go still! I don’t have any rules I watch the ones that appeal to me depending on my mood. I only have 4 limits:

 

– No chick flicks. I forgot to mention I watched Devil Wears Prada last night – what a waste of 2 hours that was!

– No American comedies. Everyone knows Americans are only good at three things: starting wars, grilling steaks, and… er, well actually two things I guess😂 (yes, this is a joke 😋 many of my favourite people are Americans – I find because Americans have on average a significantly lower IQ than other humans, we get along really well because they think I’m much smarter than I really am – they’re like “Wow, you know how to correctly pronounce the word ‘croissant’ you’re so sophisticated”, whereas English guys think you’re an uneducated peasant unless you can correctly recite the complete works of Shakespeare, ideally on horseback. This is also a joke. Wish my sense of humour worked better in writing. I’ll stop now 😂)

– No Marvel/Superhero films 

– No graphic horror/ constant violence/ gore

 

Anything else goes.

 

I thought I’d post below my Film List (the ones I’ve watched are marked “X”).