You'd be forgiven for thinking, judging by the title of both this introduction and of the blog itself, that the purpose of this already-destined-to-fail venture into internet based opinion spouting was to talk about films. For the most part, you'd be right. Whenever I've blogged in the past it's always lacked purpose and cohesion and that, alongside my inability to stick at anything for more than about twelve seconds, is why it has always collapsed into obscurity (if it's possible for something as obscure and unpopular as one of my blogs to 'collapse' any further...) very quickly indeed. So I thought I needed some sort of purpose or theme to focus on this time. The theme I settled on, after wrestling with the idea of publishing some dreary, angsty blog about politics or some mundane account of my attempts to cook meals, a la Julie & Julia, or my attempts to lose weight, a la 50% of all blogs on the internet, was film. It's something I'm quite interested in, it's something I can get quite passionate about and it's something that people might - shock horror - want to read. Or it's a massive waste of everyone's time and patience. But we shall see...
The aim of this blog is simple. It's to chronicle my attempt to find a film that I love more than The Silence of the Lambs. It's an odd raison d'etre admittedly but since I was about 12 years of age, I've always thought it was the single greatest movie ever made and no amounts of Gone With The Wind, Metropolis or The Godfather Part II have managed to convince me otherwise. I'm the first to admit that it doesn't have the timeless elegance of Casablanca, nor does it have the artistic qualities of (the mindnumbingly boring) Citizen Kane, not to mention that its cinematography is far bettered by countless other films. Yet, there's just something about it. No other film has ever enthralled me so much and yet, at the same time, I'm sure there's at least one film out there that I'd like more. And so the purpose of this blog is to find such a film. You can leave suggestions if you wish and I'll make sure I watch as many of them as I can but just because IMDb thinks The Shawshank Redemption is the greatest movie of all time doesn't mean I don't find it contrived and, in all honesty, a bit shit (clearly I'm in the minority there) so if you suggest something amazing and I say it's crap, it's either because I'm being purposefully obstructive or because my taste in films is dreadful. But I digress.
To help me on this little journey, I've made a watchlist of over 200 films that I need to get through over the next few months. Some of them I've seen before but the majority are new to me. In some cases, I'm ashamed that I've never seen the films before. In others, I'm actually quite glad...
I almost pride myself on having not seen this film before...
You may also have noticed, particularly if your internet connection is as shit as mine, the veritable feast / modest three-course meal of trailers down the right hand side of the page. Basically, they're the trailers for the next five films I plan to watch (so, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is first, Midnight In Paris second and so on...) and everytime I update the blog, I'll update the list. Hopefully there's some poor soul out there with nothing better to do who might be interested in that although in fairness, I only put them there because I couldn't think of anything else to put there. I also think they look quite pretty but what do I know, I think Frankie Cocozza is pretty. Well, not pretty. Not even attractive but... Oh you know what I mean.
Anyway, as I suggested in my now long forgotten opening paragraph, I won't just be writing about films. Up until about three years ago, I used to love creative writing. I was always working on a novel (I must have about twenty unfinished opening chapters lying around somewhere) or some poetry. Then, once University came along and sapped all my passion for literature and writing, I just stopped. I'd love to get back into it but I need serious practice. So, this blog is going to serve both as a testing ground for some creative writing projects and as a place where I can just write random bollocks, like this, and get back into the swing of the whole thing. Feel free to ignore it. I would if I were you...
Anyway, as I suggested in my now long forgotten opening paragraph, I won't just be writing about films. Up until about three years ago, I used to love creative writing. I was always working on a novel (I must have about twenty unfinished opening chapters lying around somewhere) or some poetry. Then, once University came along and sapped all my passion for literature and writing, I just stopped. I'd love to get back into it but I need serious practice. So, this blog is going to serve both as a testing ground for some creative writing projects and as a place where I can just write random bollocks, like this, and get back into the swing of the whole thing. Feel free to ignore it. I would if I were you...
And now I shall leave you with this video of Stewart Lee slagging off Top Gear. It serves no other purpose than to cheer you up and stop you reaching for the xanax after getting this far... enjoy! =)
No comments:
Post a Comment