Journey To Becoming A Cinephile...Mid Year Update

Now that were half way through the year I want to reflect on the films I have watched so far and and take a look at where I am with the goals I set myself.

One of my goals was to watch every big horror franchise and rank them, this is a slightly difficult goal as being able to find every film in such big series is actually quite hard to do. So far I have managed the 28 Days series, Scream and I am about to finish the Hellraiser series. I know I am not going to be able watch all of the big franchises this year however I would still like to do at least Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. I will continue will smaller series such as Fear Street which I have also nearly completed.

In terms of horror I have watched a lot of films that I had never seen before like Ready or Not (2019) and most recently I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) which I loved.

Another goal I had was to watch a film a day which I have done pretty well with, i’m up to 161, I have fallen slightly behind over the past month or so as I have just been a bit busier than normal and I don't want to watch a film if I'm not going to be able to pay proper attention to it. I don't want to watch a film for the sake of the goal if I'm not gonna appreciate it. I want to be intentional with what I watch.

My top 4 on Letterboxd has had a slight change it is now:

1. Bridget Jones’s Diary

2. Toy Story 2

3. Shrek 2

4. Before Sunrise

Surprisingly I haven't done many rewatches( I haven’t even watched Bridget Jones’s Diary yet this year which is shocking for me), I have mainly watched new films. For a couple of months I got a subscription to BFI player in the hopes of broadening.my taste in film and discovering what countries other than the UK and USA have to offer. I'm so glad I did this as I have discovered a new favourite director. That director is Ingmar Bergman from Sweden, he tells such beautiful stories about human connection, they are so well written and the cinematography is stunning in every film, I still have many more of his films to watch as I have only done the most popular ones so far but I'm excited to see more. My favourite from him is Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander, 1984) the 5 hour TV version, that was the first one I watched and it absolutely blew me away. I really want to own the Criterion Collection DVD of this film.

I have been to the cinema a lot more this year, I go nearly every week now and have been able to keep up pretty well with the newest releases.

My goal for the rest of the year is partly to carry on what I'm doing but to also maybe try and go to a film festival.

Watching a film every day has really helped become obsessed with film again, I have such a big urge to be creative again which I have not felt for a couple of years now, I have also got back into photography, i’m really trying to improve my work and make it something to be really proud of and would maybe I might try writing again.

I am still unsure whether I would like to join the industry or not as part of me wants to make films and part of me wants the stability of a “normal” job but even just keeping up with film and going to little events at the cinemas in my city makes me feel like I m at least a little bit apart of it.

I was going to do a little list of the best films I've seen so far this year but I've seen so many good ones that I think the list would be way too long. I would love to hear what your favourite film of the year so far is, so comment below.

Laura x