# 🎥 CINEMA Approximately 600,000 movies (feature length films) According to a Redbox study, Americans watch more than 5,000 movies in their lifetimes, an average of about seven per month. The average person spends $273 a month on subscription services Derek Malcolm said, "A great movie is a movie I cannot bear the thought of never seeing again." Cult films are like Domino’s pizzas. You can’t scrimp on ingredients, deliver at midnight and expect everyone to love it. A film is made 3 times (paraphrasing). 1st when it's written, 2nd when it's shot, and lastly when it's edited. Roeper said, "there's no good movie that's too long and no bad movie that's too short." Cinema is darker, longer Cinema sucks now - movies no longer feel "real" because modern filmmaking neglects techniques that create perceptual realism — deep focus, natural environments, and tangible details — in favor of digital effects, shallow depth of field, and heavy post-production assembly = rough cut fun fact: the oscar statue was modeled after Mexican actor/director Emilio Fernandez [How Watching Movies Can Benefit Our Mental Health](https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-watching-movies-can-benefit-our-mental-health#1) Rewatching Movies * Comfort movies * All-time classics I haven’t seen in 10+ years * Films I love that are getting a theatrical revival/showing * New releases I really respond to and want to catch again in theater ## HOW TO SELECT MONTH THEMES - GENRE (e.g., horror, western) - FILM ERA (e.g., Pre-code, Golden Age of Hollywood, New Wave) - DIRECTOR (e.g., Hitchcock, Kurosawa) - ACTOR (e.g., Nic Cage, Barbara Stanwick) - INVENTION (e.g., Technicolor, CinemaScope) - CRITICS (e.g. Oscar Award Winners, Ebert Great movies) - COUNTRY (e.g., Japanese cinema, French cinema) - CULTURE/COMMUNITY (e.g., Black, LGBT, Female) - QUALITY (e.g., low-budget, arthouse) - TIME PERIOD (e.g. 1980s, 1930s) ## HOW TO SELECT MOVIES - Films that are on popular lists (e.g AFI) - Award winners - Exemplars & Archetypes - Genre Defining Movies - First and last movies of a genre - "Modern" & Neo takes - Weird and Usual takes ## HOW TO WATCH MOVIES: [Tips on Film Viewing - How to Watch Movies Intelligently and Critically](https://www.filmsite.org/filmview.html) ## FILM ERAS - The Silent Era (mid-1890s to late 1920s) - German Expressionism (1919-1933) - French Avant-Garde / French Impressionism (1918-1930) - Soviet Montage( 1924-1935) - Hollywood’s Golden Age (1927-47) - Pre-code Hollywood (1929-1934) - Italian Neorealism (1942-1952) - Film Noir (1940s-1960s) - Japan’s Golden Age of Cinema (1950s) - French New Wave (1959-1964) - New Hollywood Cinema (mid 1960s to early 1980s) - Hong Kong New Wave (late 1980s to early 1990s) - Nuevo Cine Mexicano (1990s) - New Bollywood (1990s–present) [Guide to Film Movements](https://www.reddit.com/r/Letterboxd/comments/llrr4z/guide_to_film_movements/) [All the Critic Major Lists Combined](https://letterboxd.com/filmlifestyle/list/all-major-critics-lists-combined/) “Cinema before and after La Roue, just like there is painting before and after Picasso” Jean Cocteau ## Commentary Tracks - [x] Casablanca -- Commentary track: Film critic Roger Ebert. Rating: 8.3 - [x] Evil Dead II -- Commentary track: Director/co-writer Sam Raimi, actor Bruce Campbell, co-writer Scott Spiegel, and special effects make-up artist Greg Nicotero. Rating: 8.3 - [ ] Sunset Boulevard -- Commentary track: Ed Sikov, author of "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder". Rating: 8.4 - [ ] Dark City - ebert commentary - [ ] Hot Fuzz -- Commentary track: Screenwriter/director Edgar Wright and screenwriter/actor Simon Pegg. Rating: 8.2 - [ ] Evil Dead -- Commentary track: Actor Bruce Campbell. Rating: 8.2 ## COUNTRY 🇫🇷 [French Cinema](http://simp.ly/p/xylXcs) 🇷🇺 [Russian & Soviet Cinema](http://simp.ly/p/QZPPQw) 🇰🇷 [Korean Cinema](http://simp.ly/p/bGy6LB) 🇨🇿 [Czechoslovakia Cinema]() 🇩🇪 [German Cinema](http://simp.ly/p/cmBlnv) 🇬🇧 [British Cinema]() 🇲🇽 [Mexican Cinema]() 🇮🇹 [Italian Cinema - Neorealism & Giallos](http://simp.ly/p/vHDhWY) 🇮🇳 [Indian Cinema - Bollywood](http://simp.ly/p/y6W9zT) 🇨🇳 [Chinese Cinema](http://simp.ly/p/M5K503) 🇸🇪 [Swedish Cinema]() 🇮🇷 [Iranian New Wave]() 🇵🇱 [Polish Cinema]() 🇳🇬 [Nigeria Cinema]() 🇳🇱 [Danish Cinema]() ## GENRES * Action & Adventure - Spy & Espionage - Wuxia - Disaster - Superhero - Swashbuckler / Pirate * Animation - Stop Motion + Claymation - Puppetry * Comedy - Dark comedy - Road comedy - Buddy Comedy - Slapstick - Parody - Satire - Screwball * Crime - Caper - Heist Gangster Detective Courtroom Procedural * Drama * Fantasy * Historical - Biography / Biopics * War * Horror - Ghost - Monster + Kaiju / Tokusatsu + Vampires - Psychological Horror - Satanic - Slasher - Splatter - Found Footage - Zombie * Romance - Rom-Com * Science Fiction - Post-Apocalyptic - Utopian/Dystopian - Cyberpunk - Space Opera - Tech Noir * Thriller - Psychological - Mystery - Film Noir - Political - Giallos * Westerns * Musical * Experimental - Surrealist - Absurdist Roger Ebert called film an “empathy machine” ## DIRECTORS - [x] Alfred Hitchcock 40/55 - [x] Wes Anderson 10/10 ~1 - [x] Akira Kurosawa 12/31 ~ 4 - [x] Stanley Kubrick 10/13 ~2 - [x] Quentin Tarantino 11/13 ~ 1 - [x] Hayao Miyazaki 9/14 ~ 1 - [x] James Cameron 7/8 - [x] Martin Scorsese 11/26 ~ 10 - [x] Coen Brothers (Joel) 12/25 ~7 - [x] Francis Ford Coppola 8/30 ~3 - [ ] Brian De Palma 8/30 ~8 - [ ] Paul Thomas Anderson 3/9 ~6 - [ ] John Ford 5/113 ~8 - [ ] Steven Spielberg 22/40 ~ 7 - [ ] Buster Keaton 2/8 ~5 - [ ] Yasujiro Ozu 4/49 ~13 - [ ] Paul Verhoeven 5/18 ~5 - [ ] Charlie Chaplin 3/18 ~5 - [ ] Ingmar Bergman 2/58 ~ 8 - [ ] François Truffaut 1/22 ~5 - [ ] Andrei Tarkovsky 1/9 ~4 - [ ] Tim Burton 15/20 ~3 - [ ] Ron Howard 9/38 ~5 - [ ] Gus Van Sant 4/24 ~ 6 - [ ] Billy Wilder 6/26 ~5* - [ ] Howard Hawks 9/42 ~4 - [ ] Fritz Lang 2/44 ~5 - [ ] Rainer Fassbinder 0/49 ~3 - [ ] Werner Herzog 3/62 ~ 4 - [ ] Woody Allen 2/54 ~ 4 - [ ] Luis Bunuel 3/32 ~3 - [ ] Robert Altman 5/48 ~ 4 - [ ] Jean-Luc Godard 1/83 ~3 - [ ] Kenji Mizoguchi 3/49 ~2 - [ ] Eric Rohmer 0/40 - [ ] Orson Welles 3/38 ~3 - [ ] Federico Fellini 0/26 ~4 - [ ] Elia Kazan 2/19 ~3 * - [ ] John Huston 6/40 ~ 3 - [ ] Frank Capra 6/52 ~2 - [ ] David Lynch 8/18 ~2 - [ ] Michael Powell 2/53 ~ 6 * ## ACTORS - [x] Nicolas Cage 42/103 ~ 6 - [ ] Willem Dafoe 27/120 ~ 17 * - [ ] Tilda Swinton 18/65~ 8 - [ ] Frances McDormand 14/52~ 6 - [ ] Anthony Hopkins 14/110 ~13 - [ ] Nicole Kidman 13/104 ~ 11 - [ ] Susan Sarandon 9/155 ~14 * - [ ] Bette Davis 3/132 ~9 * - [ ] Meryl Streep 14/111 ~13 - [ ] Cate Blanchett 15/82 ~ 7 - [ ] Dustin Hoffman 13/104 ~7 - [ ] Denzel Washington 9/70 ~11 - [ ] Daniel Day-Lewis 4/32 ~ 4 - [ ] Clint Eastwood 15/117 ~6 INVENTIONS: - [x] Technicolor - [ ] Cinemascope / VistaVision - [ ] 3-D / Stereoscopic Widescreen - Cinerama, CinemaScope, Vistavision, Todd-AO, Superscope, Ultra Panavision, Cinemiracle, Super Panavision, Technirama and more. QUALITY AND FUNDING: - Low budget / B-Movies - Indies - Avant-Garde - Art House - Guerrilla IDEAS: - Road Films https://www.filmsite.org/roadfilms.html - Tearjerkers https://www.filmsite.org/melodramafilms.html - "Chick" Flicks -Period Pieces - Courtroom Dramas - Epics - Remakes - Banned - NC-17, X, above or unrated X & NC-17 https://letterboxd.com/kornd001/list/x-rated-by-the-mpa/ https://letterboxd.com/thenomad/list/nc-17-rated-films-by-the-mpaa-since-1990/ According to a Redbox study, Americans watch more than 5,000 movies in their lifetimes, an average of about seven per month. The Big Five majors: - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Paramount Pictures - 20th Century Fox - Warner Bros. - RKO Pictures The Little Three majors - United Artists - Columbia Pictures - Universal Studios Poverty Row (top four of many) - Grand National - Republic Pictures - Monogram Pictures - Producers Releasing Corporation (aka PRC) Poverty Row was a slang term used in Hollywood from the 1920s[1] through the 1950s to refer to a variety of small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. https://www.reddit.com/r/Letterboxd/comments/llrr4z/guide_to_film_movements/ 40 Most Inventive and Creative Films of All Time https://www.imdb.com/list/ls073453316/ https://letterboxd.com/ben_macdonald/list/guillermo-del-toros-twitter-film-recommendations/ building narrative w/ multiple images in their mind My job as an editor is to gently prod the attention of the audience to look at various parts of the frame. And that - I do that by manipulating how and where I cut and what succession of images I work with. The Criterion Collection, Masters of Cinema, Facets, Vinegar Syndrome and Kino cater to cinephiles, often including large amounts of supplemental and critical material with their releases. Ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Masterpiece ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ = Amazing ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Very Good ⭐⭐⭐½ = Good ⭐⭐⭐ = Enjoyable ⭐⭐½ = Fair ⭐⭐ = Meh ⭐½ = Dislike ⭐ = Hate ½ = Hate with Fire / Didn't or Barely Finished 5.0 = you were an absolute masterpiece 4.5 = you were amazing 4.0 = you were very good 3.5 = I had fun with you 3.0 = You were a pretty easy watch and enjoyable 2.5 = you were fairly ok 2.0 = you didn’t entertain me 1.5 = I really don’t like you 1.0 = I don’t like you whatsoever; hate 0.5 = I think very badly about it; hate w/ fire; didn't/barely finished ★★★★★ Favorite / Masterpiece / Divine Encounter ★★★★½ Exceptional / Well-Crafted Work of Art / Enriching and Transformative ★★★★ Great / Exciting, Affecting, Memorable Achievement / Enlightening ★★★½ Very Good / Interesting Concept and Execution / Evoking ★★★ Good / Interesting Concept or Execution / Eye-Opening ★★½ Mixed Feelings / Flawed but Worthy / Moderately Insightful ★★ Disappointing / Mediocre and Uninteresting / Soulless ★½ Regrettable / Notably Flawed and Frustrating / Guilt-inducing ★ Enraging / Wholly Deficient / Shameful ½ Failure / Offensive / Toxic Dump months - The term "dump months" comes from the belief that studios use the time periods in question as a "dumping ground" for movies they are contractually obligated to release but believe to have limited commercial prospects at best; January/February & August/September Releases during those times primarily include films that would have been released at other times of year had they done better at test screenings, films with less prominent stars, genre films (particularly horror), movies that cannot be easily marketed and films intended for a teenage audience, which has fewer entertainment options outside the home Awards season, winter weather Tentpole - holiday movie season, when the studios release both tentpole movies, such as the latest installments in popular franchises Cucoloris - device for casting shadows or silhouettes to produce patterned illumination; called a cookie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucoloris Up until the 1950s, films had a very set format for the credits: (1) credits at the start, (2) a "The End" title card following the film, and (3) a cast list with character names. Recently, most films immediately begin with a plot sequence, with 'opening' credits ("main title") super-imposed over them after a few minutes, and extensive rolling 'full credits' ("end title"), usually white text on a black background, after the film concludes. Film Length Most feature films are between 75 and 210 minutes long. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute, a feature film runs for more than 40 minutes, while the Screen Actors Guild asserts that a feature's running time is 75 minutes or longer. Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation claims that "half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever." A study by the Library of Congress states that 75% of all silent films are now lost. BOOKS Film Art: An Introduction Key Concepts in Cinema Studies (Susan Hayward) How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media (James Monaco) Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film, 4th ed. New York: Norton, 2004 Braudy, Leo and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism, 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 Typical theatrical release window is 90-day (but more recently 45-day) D.C. Area’s Best Theaters For Old Movie Screenings https://dcist.com/story/14/10/02/the-best-theaters-to-watch-old/ The first movie theater in the U.S. opened in 1905, in Pittsburgh. By the end of the 1920s, the country boasted a whopping 20,500 movie theaters. (As of 2020, the total number of movie theaters had shrunk to less than 5,500.) Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, California Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, New York Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California Wildwood Ray Gunn Double Features Scarface 170m + Shrek Retold 7.4 90m Seasonal Rewatch Ideas Feb 2 - Groundhog's Day March 6 – Day of the Dude - Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998) April 8 - Rex Manning Day - Empire Records (1995) November 3 - Godzilla Day Dec 24 - Die Hard Recent studies have shown that Americans, on average, pay for 2.9 streaming services a month, costing them about $46. Other studies show that 62% of Americans think there are too many streaming options, each with its own unpredictable rotating library. Letterboxd Bestie https://letterboxd-besties.glitch.me/ Bring Your Own Brigade (2021) https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bring-your-own-brigade/ https://letterboxd.com/hershwin/list/all-the-movies/ https://letterboxd.tools ’68 Pontiac LeMans Palmetto Green rarelust.com/ + rarefilm.net/ + ok.ru/ + ololo.to/ + sleazemovies.com Letterboxd Stats Combined (Master List) https://letterboxd.com/mrdys/list/letterboxd-stats-lists-combined/