Simseboy's Film Diary 2015

So I'm creating this thread so I can use it as motivation to watch more films, even though I already watch a lot of films. Basically I'll try to watch atleast one film everyday, and I will post a rating, plus a few thoughts depending on how much there is to say. I'm a film student, but more importantly I am in love with cinema, so you can expect that I will watch all kiiiiinds of films.

I might make weeks with a theme, for example one week I might only watch silent films, spaghetti westerns, the french new wave, japanese melodrama, etc what ever might be interesting. Maybe this will also start a discussion on this thread on films that are rarely debated, or if anyone is interested you can leave sugestions for that theme, when i plan one.

However I am mostly doing this for myself, I usually write about the films I see in a word document, I might as well do it here, maybe someone will find it interesting, or might even watch the same films or want to talk about them? I don't know, I think it's a good idea.


Month: January
2. january: (Blow Out, 1981)
3. january: (The Pianist, 2002) + (Safety Last!, 1923) + (The Hobbit 3, 2014) + (Terms of Endearment, 1983)
4. january: (Funny Games, 1997)
5. january: (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967)
6. january: (Easy Rider, 1969)
7. january: (The 400 Blows, 1959)
8. january: (The Maltese Falcon, 1941)
9. january: (Mad Max, 1979)
10. january: (Ladri di biciclette, 1948) + (Rashomon, 1950)
11. january: (Rome, Open City, 1945) + (La Grande Illusion, 1937)
12. january: (Battleship Potemkin, 1925)
13. january: (Foxcatcher, 2014) + (Whiplash, 2014)
14. january:
15. january:
16. january:
17. january:
18. january:
19. january:
20. january:
21. january:

Great idea, I look forward to this and hope to learn stuff too!

I especially like this:
Maybe you could post in advance when you're going on a watching spree of 'themes'...so that others might watch some too and then be able to compare notes. Just an idea.

2. january

Blow Out (1981)
Director: Brian De Palma


My 4th De Palma film. It's pretty good, the premise is similiar to The Conversation. probably the best performance I have seen from Travolta.

It's suspenseful and dark, but also has some great deep focus shots, look at this:





Pretty spectacular shots. Interesting thing as well, I have noticed many scenes in De Palma's films to have the camera circulate the actors in an important scene, you can see that in "Body Double" and "The Untouchables". Something that you also can see in Quention Tarantino's beginning dinner scene in "Resevoir Dogs" and a few times in "Death Proof". Not that surprising considereing Quentin is a big fan of De Palma. Just an observation though

I can easily understand why this is considered De Palma's masterpiece. I might like The Untouchables more though.

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking!

Blow Out was a good one. I enjoyed it a lot when I watched it.

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You are no Vader. You are just a child in a mask.

I'm pretty sure I've seen Blow Out, but way back when. I should rewatch it. Have you seen Blow Up?

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Nah I haven't, but I am sure I will. I read that Blow up is almost the same, except it isn't a sound recordist but a photographer. Sounds interesting to me!
I actually haven't watched a film from Antonioni yet. That needs to be fixed.

3. january

The Pianist (2002, Roman Polanski)

Wow this film is both spectacular and heartbreaking, I'm speechless. My parents and family are from Poland, so this film really got to me man. I don't really think I need to say anything else.

I will be watching The Hobbit 3 later tonight with my family, and maybe some other films. I'm not amazingly interested in watching The Hobbit, mainly because the 1st and 2nd was just kinda mehhh. LotR is brilliant though.

I was thinking about the "theme week", I'll probably start one soon. Gonna post later what I have in mind and what movies I'm thinking of watching.

I saw Blow Out at the movies with my mother when I was 10 years old. I loved it then and I love it now. De Palma is one of my favorite directors; my favorite of his being Carlitos Way.

The Pianist is a spectacular film, but I didn't quite enjoy it enough for it to be a personal favorite.

Have you seen Blow-Up or The Conversation, simseboy? Big influences on Blow-Out story-wise, and in my opinion both better films. And I say that as a fan of Blow-Out.

Split screen as well, he used it in the first Kill Bill volume

Yeah I have seen The Conversation, great film. Obviously a lot of influence there. Haven't seen Blow-Up, but it is on my watchlist

3. january

Safety Last! (1923, Fred C. Newmeyer (Harold Lloyd))


Finally got to see this Harold Lloyd film. I really enjoyed it, similiar to Keaton and Chaplin. The final climbing scene is by far the most impressive parts of the film, man did my heart beat fast and my hands sweat. Considering it isn't CGI, however stories say that they build a platform under Lloyd when he was climbing, and they used camera techniques to achieve an effect that Lloyd was much higher, than he is in reality, it's still really impressive.

Safety Last! is on my watchlist.

3. january

I also saw these two films yesterday, making it 4 films in total.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014, Peter Jackson)


It was okay, Lord of the Rings still feel like miles better though. I still ended up having fun.





Terms of Endearment (1983, James L. Brooks)


Good old Jack! How can you not love the guy? That car scene defines why the guy is so brilliant. Wow, fantastic film, but yeah Shirley MacLaine was also extremely good.

Do you speak Polish?

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Yeah I can speak and understand polish without a problem, maybe even read a bit, but I am a complete noob when it comes to writing polish.

4. january

Funny Games (1997, Michael Haneke)

Highly disturbing and f***ing brilliant! It's so funny reading critics review this film, they have no clue at all that Haneke has his old wrinkly middle finger right infront their face.

Glad to see some love for Terms of Endearment because it doesn't get a whole lot here. I remember it to be a huge movie back in the 80's, but it didn't even get a sniff at the MoFo 80's list.

I liked Funny Games a lot too.