Any Call for a sort of Classic Movie/1001 Before You Die film club?

December 6, 2017 10:47 AM

I'm on a personal project to watch my way through all of the films in the "1001 movies to see before you die" book series (I found a list that encompasses all editions). Anyone want to start discussions now and then as we go?

Some of the films on the list are already covered in their own Fanfare threads (especially some of the more recent ones). But some of the earlier ones are missing (including anything with Buster Keaton).

posted by EmpressCallipygos (13 comments total)

I'm always interested in discussing older movies since I don't get much chance to see new releases until long after the excitement about them has died, but, fair warning, I do tend to go on a bit so I'm not sure how conducive my posts are for conversation.


Did you have a schedule in mind or some particular movies you were interested in discussing? If the list is the same as posted here there's a lot of really excellent films to choose from, though a few not so crucial ones as well. (Like maybe skip The Jazz Singer, its historical importance has nothing to do with its quality. It's not even one of Jolson's best films, Hallelujah, I'm a Bum being the best and pretty amazing at that.)
posted by gusottertrout at 10:40 PM on December 6, 2017

I have no idea how a movie club usually works, so I don't know if there IS a schedule. I was indeed looking at that list (although a more complete version is here).

I'd be down with doing all of 'em - I'm already doing that on my own blog, so why not. And I actually disagree withou about whether Jazz Singer is worthy of discussion.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:55 AM on December 7, 2017

I'm open to pretty much anything, but I think having some general schedule makes it easier for anyone interested to plan which movies to watch, or maybe rewatch, to join the discussion, but for my part I'd be willing to wing it for a lot of them.

Fair point about The Jazz Singer being worthy of discussion, I was more giving the side eye to "must see" notion for it.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:13 AM on December 7, 2017

Oh, and if you've already done some on your blog, then starting with some of them would definitely be fine as well, though I might need to refresh my memory on some or find a few I haven't seen before. If you have a list of the movies you're most interested in discussing we could start from there perhaps.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:33 AM on December 7, 2017

At the moment, I wouldn't mind a reason to watch Gaslight and Foreign Correspondent.
posted by rhizome at 9:18 PM on December 8, 2017

I'd be up for it, a schedule would be very useful. Only problem I could see would be getting hold of some of them, especially if not available (for me) on Netflix, so a schedule would mean time to source them too.
posted by Fence at 10:16 AM on December 10, 2017

Well, I could base the schedule on things I have been able to find - although I've found many things on the DVD part of Netflix. Is it safe to say that works for folks?

If so I can draw some kind of schedule up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:12 PM on December 10, 2017

Oh - I've also been able to find some of the REALLY old things on Youtube as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:17 PM on December 10, 2017

Yeah, some of the movies should be online, particularly those from outside the US or made in the early part of last century. The more popular stuff shouldn't be too hard to track down. Amazon and youtube had some on a online rental set up and a lot of local libraries or video stores would have them.

Even some of the less well known films are in many library systems, mine, for example has Ucho (The Ear) and Cairo Station, both outstanding films, as well as many of the more well known "arthouse" titles. College libraries are also great for finding some of these for anyone willing to go the extra mile. Some though, like the Ken Jacobs and Bruce Conner films, will be more difficult to get a hold of.
posted by gusottertrout at 4:27 PM on December 10, 2017

I've been thinking it would be really cool to organize viewings of movies and things online again (we did this with the old art show I used to run when we had technical problems) and that could be a fun format / gimmick for it. I wonder what options there are for simultaneous streaming to a small set of folks via password or something...
posted by zerolives at 11:15 AM on December 16, 2017

I would be interested. One of the issues of films being available on Netflix and Amazon Prime outside the US.
posted by jadepearl at 1:19 AM on December 30, 2017

Hmm. I'm realizing that the outside-the-US part may be a somewhat problematic issue - I've found some things on streaming video, but am realizing that about 80% of what I've seen so far has all been via Netflix's DVD program, where they mail you a physical DVD still (yes, that plan still exists).

So this actually may cause some serious problems for outside-the-USA members.

....Um, if anyone else has any other ideas about how to get around that, go for it, otherwise I think this may be non-workable after all. The only other thing I can think of would be to tag more recent films that have already been discussed (GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL and the first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, for instance, are both on the list).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:05 PM on December 31, 2017

I've had an eye on this list for awhile, there's some interesting stuff in there.
posted by rhizome at 11:18 PM on December 31, 2017