The Movie

I have a little obsession. Since about 2002 I have been trying to watch at least one movie a day. In college this was very easy for me, you have so much time. At first I would keep a notebook with me where I would write down the movies I had seen and the movies I wanted to see. This eventually evolved into a database where I could play with the data. I can tell you how many movies I have seen of a certain director or year or genre or country.

Finding what movies to see has never been a problem. every time you see something you like it opens up about other 10 options that might interest you. My first real quest was to watch all of the IMDB top 250. I have at times seen all the 250 top movies, but it keeps changing and it is sometimes hard to keep up. At the moment I am standing at 243/250. I am missing 5 Indian movies and a couple of recent ones that can only be seen in theaters.

Eventually I also found a great website called icheckmovies. This is the IMDB Top 250 challenge on steroids. It has a very large variety of different lists and a very easy way to check them off once you have seen them. It has become sort of a quest to keep checking movies off these lists.

Having kids does not allow as much time to watch movies as before. So, part of my plan for this summer was to use the time to watch as many movies as possible. I did watch a lot, 52 to be exact. My DVR is still 70% full though. Most of the stuff on it are TCM movies. TCM is the best channel a film junkie like me can ever wish for.

But as the summer passed I realized that it was about something bigger than watching as many movies as I could. The movies were secondary to what i was really experiencing. A unique opportunity to be the most important person in someone's life. Matias completely depended on me for two whole months. For 8 weeks I was absolutely responsible for the life of another human being. And even though I spent most of this summer feeding him, cleaning, changing his diapers and mostly working to serve his every need, it has been the best summer of my life.

What did I watch?
Viaggio in Italia: Roberto Rosselini invented Neorealism with Roma Citta Aperta and then with this movie apparently inspired Truffaut and Godard to start the French New Wave. A single person responsible for two of the most well known film movements in history. Quite an achievement.