2021 Film Challenge

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Does anyone ever "sweep the board" so to speak? I'm guessing Takoma generally has Nightmare Mode finished by April. She's the Bill Belichick of movie challenges. Without the cheating. And the sleveless sweatshirts, presumably.
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This year I finished both Main and Nightmare Modes by July. There were obviously extenuating circumstances, though.
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The trick is not minding
Does anyone ever "sweep the board" so to speak? I'm guessing Takoma generally has Nightmare Mode finished by April. She's the Bill Belichick of movie challenges. Without the cheating. And the sleveless sweatshirts, presumably.
If by “sweeping the board” you mean 100% completion, most have yes. I know Siddon, Iro, and Jabs finish this yearly.
I will also be completing the 2020 challenge 100% this weekend.
I aim finish the 2021 challenge earlier.



You can, but that’s what the “rate your last movie” thread is for, so I would just post your reviews there but keep track of them here. It would avoid too much clutter here.
Welcome aboard!
Best thing about these challenges, as this is its 4th year here, and my second year participating, is the different genres and film movements that you can explore if you haven’t previously.
This leads to some truly unique films.
Great way to become a well rounded cinephile.
Okay that makes perfect sense that’s what I’ll do. Yeah the categories are interesting for sure and I reckon I’ll find a gem or two among them for sure. I’m getting into video reviewing right now so absolutely can only help round my knowledge out.



Also answers to Jabba
Always nice to see new faces take up the challenge.


@Vanillapie it hasn't been the practice so far to write reviews in this thread and it is mostly because of the volume of films we each watch during the year and because there are better places in the forum to do so. That shouldn't stop you from posting about films you watched for the challenge here. As long as it doesn't become too cluttered/monologuesque (a word I just made up) it should be fine.



Always nice to see new faces take up the challenge.


@Vanillapie it hasn't been the practice so far to write reviews in this thread and it is mostly because of the volume of films we each watch during the year and because there are better places in the forum to do so. That shouldn't stop you from posting about films you watched for the challenge here. As long as it doesn't become too cluttered/monologuesque (a word I just made up) it should be fine.
Yeah I absolutely get that I’ll probs just message the movie I watched then go into more depth on “the last movie you watched” topic.



Does anyone ever "sweep the board" so to speak? I'm guessing Takoma generally has Nightmare Mode finished by April. She's the Bill Belichick of movie challenges. Without the cheating. And the sleveless sweatshirts, presumably.
I didn't land here until June, and didn't discover this thread until July, so I was a little behind.

But I'm close to finishing! (Nightmare mode & all).



The trick is not minding
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The trick is not minding
Yeah I absolutely get that I’ll probs just message the movie I watched then go into more depth on “the last movie you watched” topic.
Best thing about the yearly challenge is Jabs changes it up so it’s different genres and movements each time



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Wylde piqued my interest in this, so I'm gonna give it a shot.
Hey all!!
Gonna start adding a few to the watchlist for after the New Year.

Watchlist films
Viewed films
Passed On; 2022

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<F. I see dead people:
[Watch one film from each group of deceased directors, actors & cinematographers]
1. Anthony Mann/Dennis Hopper/Elia Kazan/Stanley Kubrick
2. Robert Bresson/Akira Kurosawa/Fritz Lang/Pier Paolo Pasolini
3. Yul Brynner/Sean Connery/Bruce Lee/Ricardo Montalban
4. Hannelore Elsner/Janet Leigh/Katina Paxinou/Romy Schneider
5. Néstor Almendros/Jack Cardiff/Sven Nykvist/Gordon Willis>


So should I watch a Mann, Hopper, Kazan & Kubrick (4 total), or a Mann, Bresson, Brynner, Elsner & Almendros (5 total)?



The trick is not minding
<F. I see dead people:
[Watch one film from each group of deceased directors, actors & cinematographers]
1. Anthony Mann/Dennis Hopper/Elia Kazan/Stanley Kubrick
2. Robert Bresson/Akira Kurosawa/Fritz Lang/Pier Paolo Pasolini
3. Yul Brynner/Sean Connery/Bruce Lee/Ricardo Montalban
4. Hannelore Elsner/Janet Leigh/Katina Paxinou/Romy Schneider
5. Néstor Almendros/Jack Cardiff/Sven Nykvist/Gordon Willis>


So should I watch a Mann, Hopper, Kazan & Kubrick (4 total), or a Mann, Bresson, Brynner, Elsner & Almendros (5 total)?
The latter. Choose One from each grouping.



Also answers to Jabba
For the past 2 years that the 10 films from the same actor category was included, I chose actors that would help me indirectly advance directors' filmographies. Namely Eastwood and Mifune (for Kurosawa). This year I thought I would venture into something truly unknown to myself with Anna Karina. There is a healthy mix of different films there with directors ranging from Godard to Varda and even Fassbinder and Visconti. Should be interesting.



Welcome to the human race...
I have to admit that that was sort of my rationale for picking Mifune this year, though another factor is that I have a lot of unwatched movies in my collection and I think he might be in more of them than any other actor. Also makes for a real change-up after (relatively) less interesting picks like Nic Cage or Robert De Niro (especially when I'd already burned through most of their good movies already and was just settling for people who were prolific).



Also answers to Jabba
It is a legit reason, especially if you are like me and pay a lot more attention to completing a director's filmography than an actor's. This year I thought I would mix it up. I am thinking of picking a French director (Melville, Godard, Trouffaut or Varda) and France as my country of choice and thus dedicate a decent chunk of the challenge to learning more about French cinema.



I haven't picked my actor yet, and I'm torn between two ideas.

One idea was to go with an actor with a really long career and try to watch 2 films from each decade. So someone like Van Sydow or Angela Landsbury.

My other thought was to grab one of those incredibly prolific character actors (like George Sanders) and try to watch 10 films from a really narrow window of time.

I'm also debating doing Varda again for my director, because Criterion has such a complete set of her films and it's so rare to get to watch all of someone's movies in chronological order.



The trick is not minding
I need to sometime do a much deeper delve into French, Japanese and Italian films from the more famous directors.
I’m still missing a lot of films from Fellini, Kurasaw, Ozu, Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, Godard, and others.
The problem is accessibility. They’re rarely ever available on my normal streaming channels, unless I finally decide to purchase the criterion channel like I’ve always planned.
There is a movie rental down the road that has many of these though.
Maybe later. I still have a box set of Clint Eastwood film with about 19 (out of 35) of his films to watch yet so I can knock out many of his lesser known film from the 80’s (Foxfire, Tight Rope, City Heat) with him as my actor.

I chose Chahine as my director since I only became familiar with his films a few months ago. He’s got another 11 films to watch on Netflix with their retrospective they have going on.

I think next year I’ll switch it to foreign actor or actress for this, and choose another foreign director from any of the previously mentioned directors. I’m assuming that then, I’ll have bought the criterion channel.