Cherished Cinema

Hello all.

Today is championship Sunday, which is my favorite day of football of the year. Also, the Flyers are playing the Penguins on NBC here in a few minutes. Today will (hopefully) be a great day for sports. This post may be more personal than those that follow this site are familiar with due to the fact that I am making a decision on whether or not to keep my personal blog. “Keep” is probably not the right word; I should say update as frequently as I do. What I am leaning towards is keeping it so I am able to link to things that I do not want to clutter this site. It’s a difficult decision because I have had the other site for two years and to be honest I get a good deal of views per day over there as well.

As a huge fan of Denis’ Beau Travail and Jonathan Rosenbaum, I really enjoyed this article. Check it out if you’re a fan of the film and if you haven’t seen, then you should treat yourself to it. I have a bit of time off this week, at least in comparison to last week’s work-filled week, so I will be working through a bunch of films. I am starting to work my way through Bergman and I will keep you all updated on what I am watching and thoughts. I started with The Seventh Seal and was absolutely blown away.

Here are my last.fm stats for last week (people who follow my personal blog will be familiar with this as I post it on Sunday/Monday over there)…

This upcoming week’s playlist will have both of Los Campesinos! previous albums and will feature their newest on Tuesday when I pick it up. I have been a huge The Good Life kick lately, so I will probably include their Help Wanted Nights as well.

Thanks for reading this quick update and I hope everyone has a great Sunday.

Hello all.

I thought I would post some random sites and links that I have enjoyed the past week. I would also like to put out a friendly reminder to follow me on Twitter, be it my personal or this site’s account. I personally recommend checking out Closely Watched Trains (a running list of films the writer gets through on the They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? list) and Film Fidelity (the writer there is currently going through 2009 releases). I read Commentary Track daily and always enjoy what’s written there.

This sort of post won’t be recurring, it’s just an attempt at getting something written seeing as how I have yet to go back to my Year 2000 in Film project. To be fair to myself, I am working on a certain piece, but it’s been a couple of months since I have seen the film so I am having a bit of difficulty with it. It should be up on Monday morning (no promises though!). I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Thank you for reading!

Hello all.

My unofficial vacation is over. I took a bit of time off from everything: obviously this site, work, and writing in general. Seeing as how today I returned to work, it only makes sense to continue everything else. In this post I would like to set out what I am attempting to get accomplished with this website in the New Year and any other general information I want to put out there.

Naturally, the “project” system I have gone by will stick, and hopefully I will be consistently better about getting through new films but at the same time, I want to start reviewing newer films occasionally and put forth my opinions on some film-related topics. As it stands, I will be starting back with the “Year 2000 in Film” project on Wednesday and will be looking to have that done as soon as I can.

I am slowly establishing my New Year’s Resolutions and only one has to do with film so I thought I would put it out here. Last year, I decided to try and watch three hundred and sixty-five movies in 2009, a goal I have passed by nine, as I am re-watching The New World as we speak which puts me at three hundred and seventy-four. This may be the most beautiful film that I have seen on Blu-Ray to date, keep in mind I have yet to pop in either Inglourious Basterds or District 9. I could not be more excited for The Tree of Life and Criterion’s BD release of Days of Heaven. My Resolution is that of reducing that number to around one hundred and fifty (certainly not a limit but I am honestly hoping that I do not reach three hundred next year). We’ll see how it goes.

My holidays were great and I hope everyone else’s was too. Thank you for the brief, but great, 2009 we have shared together. I look forward to the new year/decade and what it has to offer.

Thank you for reading!

Hello all.

I still need to finish off the Best Picture nominees from the year 2000 but High Fidelity came from Netflix and I wanted to watch something lighthearted that evening, so it won out. I love this film, although I have only seen it two or three times. My first viewing really should not count because I was twelve and unable to understand a good bit of the humor or substance. I think this may be the first time I have ever discussed the film in any way; I really do not think I have before whether it be in conversation or my other blog.

I am not typically a fan of films that are “narrated,” except for situations where it is necessary and/or makes the film that much better. This film is certainly an example of that case (another film that comes immediately to mind is Layer Cake) due to the personal aspect of the film. The viewer is learning as much as possible about Rob Gordon, and there is no better source than Rob Gordon himself. High Fidelity has so many great quotable lines, but one of my very favorites is not as funny as most of the main ones, but an extremely sharp point, I suppose it helps that I agree with it. “I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films – these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the fuckin’ truth, and by this measure I was having one of the best dates of my life.”I sat on this film for a few days after watching it. I wanted to reflect on what the film means to me at this stage in my life. In the past, I have appreciated it as a great film (I consider it at least an eight out of ten) but seeing at this point in my life is definitely different. I was concerned that it would affect, most likely negatively, my judgment of the film.

High Fidelity is such a great look into a personality that I am all-too-familiar with. I am not like Rob Gordon but I have known and do know several people who are extremely similar (and even some who are similar to Dick and Barry, Gordon’s employees). I unfortunately have not read the book but I have added it to my list of books to read in 2010. I have seen this film pop up in several decade lists so far, but interestingly, I have seen the film that High Fidelity beat out to get here even more frequently (and much higher on people’s lists). For this reason, I am considering expanding this year to sixteen films in order to eliminate the possibility of a glaring omission.

This is a great film, and if I were to make a list of Top Film Characters of the Decade, I would be inclined to include Rob Gordon on that list. He is entertaining, at least sort of relatable (more importantly, this connection is far from necessary), and interesting. I am interested in other people’s thoughts on this film as I am a definite fan but as I said before, I have never discussed it with anyone.

Thank you for reading!

Hello all.

For eighteen years I lacked a real passion. I may have gotten excited from time-to-time for things such as sports (primarily baseball and hockey) or a particularly good/interesting book. As a high school senior, taking a film class just to fill my schedule, I was exposed to two movies that had a profound effect on me: Taxi Driver and Unforgiven. Coincidentally, these films were part of an out-of-class assignment due to my lack of work in the class (as a senior I was naturally lazy). From that day forward, I began asking around various family members as to find out what films I should see- at the time more importantly what I should have already seen- and compiled a list. I started a Netflix account and went to work. That being said, three years have passed and exposure to a rough estimate of about six hundred films, and the passion has stayed. Rarely do I ever find myself wishing that I was not so passionate about cinema.

Out of this obsession grew two more passions: DVD collecting and auteur theory. Just about every day, I browse various websites looking for the latest on DVD news and bargains. I have accumulated roughly four hundred DVDs in just about two years of serious collecting. For auteur theory, prior to any sort of formal film training, I found myself fascinated with how certain films from the same director could be so different and so similar at the same time. Auteur theory was later revealed to me through the various film courses I took throughout college, and the passion only continues to grow every day.

This website’s intention is to help further my love for cinema and to develop some form of writing skills. It took me almost a month to decide on the title Cherished Cinema. I should clarify by saying that I thought of the title almost immediately, found it to be “cheesy” but in the end, it best describes the reasoning behind this site. I love film, and I sincerely hope that the work posted on this site will help others love it as well.

This site will consist of various projects I intend on taking on (exploration of genres, directors, and particular years in cinema will be the primary focus) and sometimes film-related news. Recommendations are beyond welcome; always feel free to leave me thoughts/ideas in the comments or write me at thomasbalkcom@gmail.com.

Personal blog – thomasbalkcom.wordpress.com

Twitter – www.twitter.com/thomasbalkcom

Twitter (for this site) - www.twitter.com/cherishedcinema

Facebook – www.facebook.com/thomasbalkcom