As John notes in the "Why 100?" section of this blog's homepage, the podcast Craig's List (https://soundcloud.com/craig-cackowski) inspired me to start this project. Every episode, comedian/improver Craig Cackowski counts down his top 100 films with his wife, Carla. It's been one of my favorite podcasts to listen to recently. Not only are Craig and Carla both funny and insightful, but the podcast also gives me a chance to either rewatch movies I haven't seen in awhile, or check out classics for the first time. If you do listen to podcasts regularly, I recommend it.
What I was reminded of today, actually, is that one of Craig's list qualifications is that he needs to have seen the film at least three times. Obviously we do not have any rules like that (in fact, I think the only rule I had was that the movies had to be feature length), so no need to alter your lists.
Looking at my own list, there are several movies on there that I've only seen once. Maybe that's a crazy revelation, given that this is a 100 favorites list, but as I've aged, I've found myself rewatching movies less and less. But given my terrible memory, now might be a good time to revisit some of the films that I haven't seen since I was a teenager.
As I countdown my own Top 100 list, I will borrow some ideas from the podcast. Craig usually talks about the first time he saw the movies on his list. Again, my memory is piss poor, but I will try to recall those moments. I will also keep track of stats. For example, "this is the only time John Actor/Jane Actress/Joe Director/etc. appears on this list," and "this is one of two animated films on my list."
I also think it will be interesting to keep track of the movies that we all have in common, which decade/actor/actress/director is featured the most on all of our lists, and more. I'm happy to see that John and Brandon are excited about this, so much so that they reached out to everyone involved. This year-long project should be a lot of fun, and I hope we can all stick to it...unless we are all wiped out by Trump first.
Sorry...where was I? Ah, right...our top 100 films. Tomorrow we will all post movie 100 and on Sunday we'll reveal movie 99. 98 next Saturday, 97 next Sunday, and so on....for the next fifty weeks!
I told John that I liked the idea of us all sharing this site, so that we can easily discuss each other's lists in the comment's section of each post, without having to sift through multiple sites. Thanks again, John, for setting this up.
One last thing - I mentioned to some of you that we wouldn't post movie 99 until everyone has posted 100. Now that we've moved to this blog, there is no need for that. If you aren't able to post on Saturday and/or Sunday, you can use the impending week to catch up.
But anyway, let the Top 100 Films Project begin...
I don't think I ever told you that I started listening to Craig's List after you recommended it to me. I haven't listened to every episode, but I do like it. Carla's laugh is the best part.
ReplyDeleteThe "seen it 3 times" rule is a good one, but I've ignored it too. I'd have to go through my list to see what the ratio is. I have seen the majority of the films on it at least three times, but there are definitely some on there that I haven't (these are typically films that I discovered while doing the film blog, but that I never bought personal copies of).
There are some films that I've probably seen 50+ times that aren't going to make the list. Back to the Future. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Stuff like that from the 80s or early 90s that were important to me, but haven't grabbed me as much as an adult. There are a few films on my list that I haven't watched in 15+ years that may fall off the list after I actually do re-watch them. We are doing this again next year with our revised lists, right? ;-)
I should also mention here that my list does break the one and only rule that you gave us. I have one (and only one) short film on my list, pretty high up, because I just couldn't ignore it. 28 minutes.
"as I've aged, I've found myself rewatching movies less and less."
Me too. I think that this is a combination of personal aging and the cultural "age" we find ourselves in. When I was younger, I either rewatched what I had in my VHS (later DVD) collection or rewatched one of the ten movies that was cycling through HBO that month. Even though I own most of my list (at least half of it) on DVD or Blu-ray now, I too find myself chasing something new or watching another episode of Cheers instead of rewatching a favorite. Part of the appeal of this project is forcing myself to go back and enjoy old favorites.
I'll post my #100 later today.
Nice, I had a feeling that you would check out the podcast. Yeah, Carla's laugh is great.
DeleteI did the math and there are twenty-nine movies on my list that I've only seen once. And I do own some of them.
I like that Craig revises his list as they record the podcast. I think that's a good idea. I'll try and rewatch some of the movies on here to see if they're worthy of staying on. I'm down for next year :)
And yeah, the one rule I did have won't really be enforced. I didn't expect people to have a lot of shorts of their lists anyway. If you love it, you love it; who am I to stand in the way of love?
Just counted and I only own 55 of the movies on my list.
I'm the same, TV dominates my free time viewing.