The Year of the 365 Movies

Doublehex

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I am going to attempt something that some would consider insane. Others would call it a brilliant move. Others will just be envious.

For one year -365 days - I will watch a single movie, ever day, until this day next year. Wherever it will be online, at the movies, or on my very small DVD collection, I will watch a different movie every day.

I want your help in selecting the movies. I already plan on using AFIs 100 Years...100 Movies list as a way to start, but there is still 265 movies which remain.

I do have a few rules, in accordance with this:

1. A different movie must be watched ever day.
2. If should I ever miss a day, I must watch two movies on the next day, to make up for it. This will add up until I am back on track.
3. There must be no repeats. Every movie must be unique.
4. Every movie must be watched, from beginning to end, regardless of length, content, or quality.
5. All genres are allowed.
6. Popcorn is optional.
 
In a way, I suppose I already do this, but in a more abstract kind of way... Pretty much every day I watch at least an hour of media I have never seen before. Whether its a movie, a few episodes of various TV shows, or what have you. I can't think of a single day in the past 3 months I haven't managed to find a few hours for film and television.

As for building your film list, I'd recommend to vary it up. Make sure you watch some foreign films, some animated films, some very old films, some very new films... Obscure, less obscure, and so on... Don't waste your yearlong experiment only watching the sorts of things you're familiar with.

You going to wait until January 1st to start, or start sooner?

I'm going to try to put a list together of the more obscure great films that I would recommend to you.

If you keep us updated on what you're watching, perhaps I'll even join in on a film I've been intending to see but for one reason or another have yet to watch.
 
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I think I'll start on January 1st.

I plan on starting off with Citizen Kane. :)

Day 7 is Godfather Part 1, 14 is Part 2, and 21 is Part 3. Casablanca is going in there somewhere.
 
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This is actually a pretty cool idea. Sounds fun.

Glad that you agree.

Here is my list so far:

Day 1 Citizen Kane
Day 2 The Graduate
Day 3 Lawrence of Arabia
Day 4 Casablanca
Day 5 Raging Bull
Day 6 The Wizard of Oz
Day 7 The Godfather Part 1
Day 10 Gone With The Wind
Day 14 The Godfather Part 2
Day 21 The Godfather Part 3
 
Man, you can't keep everything so top-heavy... There are certainly a lot of great movies out there, but you plan on watching The Godfather and Citizen Kane with just a week apart from eachother? Both of those movies are considered by various people to be the best films ever. I'd say keep them a month apart... But at the same time, It'd be a pretty great week of film-viewing.

Just keep in mind what I said about keeping it varied... jump between decades and countries as often as possible.

Also: Watch Godfather on the biggest TV you can with the highest resolution you can rent or afford. It is truly one of the most masterfully filmed movies of all time, and if you (like me) often watch things on your computer, this is the film to take over the house TV for.

(I'm having a ton of fun putting together a list...)
 
Glad that you agree.

Here is my list so far:

Day 1 Citizen Kane
Day 2 The Graduate
Day 3 Lawrence of Arabia
Day 4 Casablanca
Day 5 Raging Bull
Day 6 The Wizard of Oz
Day 7 The Godfather Part 1
Day 10 Gone With The Wind
Day 14 The Godfather Part 2
Day 21 The Godfather Part 3

This is a serious question: what about movies that (I presume) you haven't seen that are widely considered to be terrible, like Gigli or Hudson Hawk? Or is that not really the intent with this project?
 
I am going to attempt something that some would consider insane. Others would call it a brilliant move. Others will just be envious.

ppt... That's not insane. Now if you said, you where going to do nothing but watch movies for a year... That would be insane.

I recommend, if you're going to do this. To do a really good movie every other day, to keep you going. If you do a line of "Ok" movies you'll just get board with this idea and want to stop.
 
I would add the 23 movies removed from the original AFI list to your movies you need to see (or if you were operating on the new list, the 23 that were added in later editions).
 
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Ernest goes to jail.

And you should try to keep the movies seasonal, like watch most of whatever Christmas movies during December, like the greatest Christmas movie of all, Die Hard followed closely by Ernest saves Christmas.
 
From Justin to Kelly.

And Hudson Hawk was far from terrible.

I mean, come on, this scene is gold

[youtube]tVAVCW2t_TE[/youtube]
 
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HUDSON HAWK is awesome. Love it.

I like this idea a LOT.

Best of luck!

I'll give you some recommendations:

Anything by the Coen Brothers
Anything by Stanley Kubrick
Anything by Hayao Miyazaki
Anything by Akira Kurosawa
Anything by Pixar
THE WAR OF THE ROSES
ROCKETEER
AMADEUS
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
FALLING DOWN
SEVEN
THE GAME
THE FUGITIVE
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
MISERY
THE PRINCESS BRIDE
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
MICHAEL CLAYTON
ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES
THE MISSION
MYSTERY MEN
SHAOLIN SOCCER
HAPPY GILMORE
BIG
AIRPLANE
BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY
WAYNE'S WORLD (and WAYNE'S WORLD 2)
HOT FUZZ
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
MY COUSIN VINNY
RUTHLESS PEOPLE
MURDER BY DEATH
CLUE
KUNG FU HUSTLE
DUMB & DUMBER
MIDNIGHT RUN
GROUNDHOG DAY
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?
THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE
THE KING OF COMEDY
THE PRODUCERS
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
BLAZING SADDLES
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
THE LIFE OF BRIAN
SERENITY
THE LION KING
KISS KISS BANG BANG
HEAD OF STATE
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
 
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Bass has a pretty great list, here are some from me, in completely random categories... Well, at least one completely random category (that is still an important part of American Film)

Foreign Films

The Rules of the Game – Jean Renoir – France – 1939 (This is my all-time favorite movie)

Breathless – Jean-Luc Godard – France – 1960

I Vitelloni – Federico Fellini – Italy - 1953

Persona – Ingmar Bergman – Sweden – 1966

Los Olvidados – Luis Bunuel – Mexico – 1950

Bad Education – Pedro Almodovar – Spain – 2004

Sansho the Bailiff – Kenji Mizoguchi – Japan – 1954

The Bad Sleep Well – Akira Kurosawa – Japan – 1960

The Man With The Movie Camera – Dziga Vertov – Russia – 1929 (Make sure you get your hands on the Nyman scored version. The other common score is nowhere near as good)

The Battle of Algiers – Gillo Pontecorvo – Algeria – 1967 (They showed this film in the Pentagon in the early stages of the Iraq War to help generals understand the insurgency)


High School Movies

Rebel Without a Cause - Nicholas Ray

Fast Times at Ridgemont High – Amy Hekerling

Dead Poets Society – Peter Weir

The Breakfast Club – John Hughes

Heathers – Michael Lehmann

Mean Girls – Mark Waters


Classics

Touch of Evil – Orson Welles

The Great Dictator – Charlie Chaplin

Monsieur Verdoux – Charlie Chaplin

Manhattan – Woody Allen

Hannah and Her Sisters – Woody Allen


Modern Classics

Being John Malkovich – Spike Jonze

Blue Velvet – David Lynch

Miller's Crossing – The Coen Brothers

Almost Famous – Cameron Crowe

The Royal Tenenbaums – Wes Andersen

Quiz Show – Robert Redford

JFK – Oliver Stone


Science-Fiction Masterpieces

Brazil – Terry Gilliam

Alien – Ridley Scott

Aliens – James Cameron

The Day The Earth Stood Still – Robert Wise


Animation

Walt Disney Feature Animation, Chronologically from The Little Mermaid until Mulan

Fantasia – Walt Disney

Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki

Princess Mononoke – Hayao Miyazaki

Yellow Submarine – The Beatles

Les Triplettes de Belleville – Sylvain Chomet


More to come some other time!
 
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Brazil = :rockon:

If you haven't already, I recommend doing absolutely no research whatsoever on it, it's cast, anything. Don't even look at the IMDb page. Just get it and prepare to be engaged.

But I'd say this about any movie, really.;)

Also, see Vanilla Sky.
 
This is a serious question: what about movies that (I presume) you haven't seen that are widely considered to be terrible, like Gigli or Hudson Hawk? Or is that not really the intent with this project?

The intent of this project is just to watch a movie every day.

Regardless of quality.

I know I am going to regret that decision, at one point or another.
 
If you're between a rock and a hard place, watch bad movies... But there are too many good movies to pass up out there!
 

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