Maybe it's my lack of interest in sports that allowed room for an increased interest in movies. I've always been drawn to them--watching them and learning how they are made--but when Veronica was born I all but gave them up for more than five years. Life took over and there was little opportunity to find 90-150 minutes during which I was alert enough to get absorbed into some fictional world.
Jump ahead to the summer of 2016. I found a good deal on a Blu-ray set of Stanley Kubrick's later films. I had watched most of his better known movies during college, and the fact that he had more out there that I hadn't yet seen nagged at me. By this time I had become a morning person and my employment status dropped to part-time. This opportunity allowed me to fit in a movie or two a week before the rest of the house was awake. Sometimes I'd have to break a movie into 2 or 3 sittings or give up a little extra sleep, which is not ideal but better than not watching movies at all.
While looking for some of Kubrick's earlier works, I discovered The Criterion Collection. This is a physical media label that is dedicated to releasing important films (classic and contemporary, foreign and domestic) in the best possible quality. The image/sound, and even the packaging, of these movies is beautiful. I fell in love. I got sidetracked from the Kubrick project because watching and researching one old film led to me wanting to see five more.
Most of what I watched in 2017 was on Criterion but not everything. My list includes rewatches, movies I watched with the kids, and a TV show that consumed my summer (Twin Peaks: The Return). I attempted to do some kind of ranking, but it was impossible with so many films I loved. These are in the order in which I watched them.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - rewatch
The Seventh Seal (1957) - three times
Breathless (1960)
The Third Man (1949) - twice
PlayTime (1967)
Scenes from a Marriage (1974)
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - rewatch
La Dolce Vita (1960)
The Mighty Ducks (1992) - rewatch
Cars (2006)
Moana (2016)
Summer with Monika (1953)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Mon Oncle (1958)
Frances Ha (2012)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Barton Fink (1991)
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Zootopia (2016)
Chungking Express (1994)
Stalker (1979) - twice
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Contempt (1963)
La Jetée (1962)
Born in China (2017)
Solaris (1972)
In the Mood for Love (2000) - rewatch
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Ugetsu (1953)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) - rewatch
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
Taste of Cherry (1997)
La Cercle Rouge (1970)
Cars 3 (2017)
Jules and Jim (1962)
8 1/2 (1963) - rewatch
Wings of Desire (1987)
The Trial (1962)
L'avventura (1960)
Winter Light (1963)
Trust (1990)
M. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
City Lights (1931)
The Shining (1980) - rewatch
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Lucky (2017)
Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
Rebecca (1940)
Vampyr (1932)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Army of Shadows (1969)
Le Samourai (1967)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Home Alone (1990) - rewatch
Yojimbo (1961)
The Grandmother (1970) - rewatch
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - rewatch
Cries and Whispers (1972)
Arrival (2016)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
