Monday, November 25, 2013

2014 Blind Spot Series




After finally making the decision to participate in The Blind Spot Series for 2013, I knew it was going to be a very daunting task. Especially in selecting 12 films that I had never seen before as well as to try and do something new. With 2013 set to close as I've now seen 11 and w/ the last one in Battleship Potemkin being the final for one for the year. I must say that I really enjoyed the films I chose to see for the year as I will do a ranking on the blind spots by the end of the year or early next year. After all, this is fun to do and I think anyone who is a cinephile or a film buff should participate in the series. Notably to scratch off anything where as the year ends, you can tell that person "yeah, I saw that film". Still, there are plenty of films to see as it's time to get ready for 2014.

For the films that I want to see 2014, I want do something different in not just the films that I haven't seen but also in taking some major risks on all sorts of things. Many of which involve films and filmmakers whose work I had never seen before and had been meaning to do so but never had the time to. The films I chose reflect on not just the evolution of cinema but how cinema was able to transform from something that is daring to also find new avenues of storytelling. Some of the films I chosen are definitely ones that are controversial but there are also those that are in no need to shock. So, here are the 12 Blind Spots I will be seeing for 2014:

The Birth of a Nation

Pandora's Box

Duck Soup

The Maltese Falcon

Imitation of Life

Playtime

El Topo

Salo, the 120 Days of Sodom

Stop Making Sense

A Room with a View

Satantango

Spirited Away

© thevoid99 2013

6 comments:

Chris said...

Great choices! I've seen 5 of those, and the rest are on my watchlist. I'm told Satantango is quite the endurance test due to the slow pacing, but the imagery is supposed to be beautiful-which is why I want to eventually spend a day (7 hours) watching it.

Ryan McNeil said...

DEFINITELY looking forward to your take on several of these selections!

Dan Heaton said...

Cool choices! I've seen six of these (Birth of a Nation, Pandora's Box, Duck Soup, The Maltese Falcon, Stop Making Sense, and Spirited Away) so far. I'm really interested to hear what you think about Pandora's Box in particular.

Some of the others will be "fun", especially Salo. I like that you're testing yourself and taking a shot. I'll definitely be reading your posts on these next year.

thevoid99 said...

@Chris-Yeah, I'm going to save that one for later that year. I really want to see it.

@Ryan-I hope I get to see something good.

@Dan Heaton-Pandora's Box was a last-minute change as I wanted to do something that was different and spotted every decade of film w/ the exception of anything pre-1910s and the 2010s. I already have some of the Blind Spots on my DVR as I also got one of them at the most recent Criterion sale.

Chip Lary said...

I've happened to have seen all of these, most of them because of the 1,001 Movies list. Imitation of Life is a possible exception, depending on which film you mean. I've seen the 50s version, but not the 30s version.

The Maltese Falcon, Stop Making Sense, and Spirited Away are my favorites of these twelve.

Salo is the kind of film that some people pretend is great art, but really it's just an excuse to show real teenage boys and girls being really forced to do things like really eat human shit. It's not a film to be praised, but to be endured.

Keep the remote control handy for Satantango. At more than 7 hours it's got maybe 2 to 2.5 hours of movie in it with the rest being filler. Scenes like the opening ten minute long shot of cows meandering through a village, two men counting out an entire stack of money, and a kid running towards the camera for at least a mile, all cry out for the fast forward button.

thevoid99 said...

@Chip-I really want to see Satantango just to see what Gus Van Sant got out of Bela Tarr. I know it's a long-ass film but I'm willing to take the challenge.