2018 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN 2018: 244
TOTAL WATCHING HOURS: 350
NEW-TO-ME: 218
REWATCHES: 26
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN @THE FILMOTECA: 57
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: Lionel Barrymore (according to Letterboxd stats)
MOST WATCHED DIRECTOR: Charlie Chaplin (according to Letterboxd stats)
Happy 2019 to you all!
Another year has passed and in this post I will cover my movie stats for 2018. The information for total watching hours and most watched actor and director I got from my Letterboxd 2018 Year In Review stats, received via email. (I'm a non-paying member so these are all the stats I get.)
According to the stats Lionel Barrymore is my most watched actor. I hadn't expected that, yet it makes sense since I saw the entire Dr. Kildare series and that's already 9 films. But Lew Ayres also stars in the entire series. Apparently I must have seen more other Barrymore films than Ayres films. Well ... I decided to check. I guess Letterboxd doesn't do ties because apart from the 9 films in the Kildare series I counted an additional amount of 5 Barrymore films (Guilty Hands, The Voice of Bugle Ann, Public Hero Number 1, Camille and It's a Wonderful Life) but also 5 Ayres films (Fingers at the Window, Johnny Belinda, Iron Man, Don't Bet on Love and The Capture). So it only seems fitting to give Lew Ayres the same attention. Also because he was the main reason in the first place (ánd his chemistry with Laraine Day in Fingers at the Window) why I decided to check out the entire Kildare series. I can also understand why Chaplin would be my most watched director. I saw a fair amount of his shorts in 2018 as well as some of his feature films on the big screen and the man directed his own films. I also really enjoyed them.
The total of 244 films watched in 2018 may seem like a good amount but I still found it disappointing (although it was an increase in comparison with 2017 when I watched a total of 214 films). My movie-watching habits deteriorated with the progression of the year. In the first six months I managed to watch 156 films whereas the other six months I only saw 88 films. A lot had to do with starting a new full-time job at the end of August and being too tired all the time. The year concluded with an extended holiday in my native country The Netherlands (after having quit the new job already). Though you could argue not having to work would have left me plenty of time to watch movies, this proved not to be the case. Spending time with family and friends was number one on my priority list and solitary movie-watching had to take a back seat.
My most watched decade is the 1930s with 97 films, followed by the 1940s with 72 films. This doesn't come as a surprise since these are my fave decades. Furthermore I watched 4 films from the 1910s, 9 from the 1920s, 54 from the 1950s and only 8 from the 1960s.
March saw the largest amount of trips to the Filmoteca (12 in total) and in December there were none.
The least films I watched in August (8) and the most in April (31).
There are still so many perennial classic movies I haven't seen yet but I felt fortunate to be able to cross at least a fair amount of my ever growing watchlist. All these great films were first watches and the list also includes must-see film noirs:
Angels With Dirty Faces, Swamp Water, Moby Dick, Sweet Smell of Success, The Asphalt Jungle, D.O.A., They Drive By Night, Cat People, The Roaring Twenties, Mutiny on the Bounty, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The River, Camille, The Lady From Shanghai, Paths of Glory, White Heat, The Set-Up, The Narrow Margin, Gun Crazy, Kiss of Death, The Prowler, Brute Force and Murder, My Sweet.
I also watched three German classics for the first time, all three on the big screen:
Metropolis, M and Faust.
Furthermore I enjoyed a good number of lesser-known films (although a lot of them are widely known among classic movie buffs). The following selected titles were among the most enjoyable, all first watches:
The Catered Affair, Red Dust, Hold Your Man, Faithless, The Visit, Johnny Belinda, Guilty Hands, The Gilded Lily, The Little Giant, The Great O'Malley, The Kid From Kokomo, American Madness, Union Station, Force of Arms, The Judge Steps Out, Safe In Hell, The Window, Heroes For Sale, Hobson's Choice, Monsieur Verdoux, The Chase, The Final Edition, Dead Ringer, Dragonwyck, Sadie McKee, Strangers When We Meet, Vanity Street, Marked Woman, The Girl in White, Ceiling Zero, The Breaking Point, Uncertain Glory, Joan of Paris, Transatlantic, Escape From Fort Bravo, The Voice of the Turtle, Steamboat Round the Bend, Saturday's Children and The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Although Lionel Barrymore is my most watched actor together with Lew Ayres, I didn't intentionally set out to watch his films (though I truly like him). Most of his films I watched because of another actor.
I did decide to delve deeper into the filmographies of the following actors and actresses:
Lew Ayres (January & February), Edmond O'Brien (February), Kay Francis (March), Dana Andrews (March), Pat O'Brien (April), Ann Sothern (May), Bette Davis (July & August), Rita Hayworth (September), Arthur Kennedy (September), Eleanor Parker (December) and Anne Shirley (December).
There are also favourite actors I've been neglecting. I wanted to finish the filmography of Tyrone Power (having seen the bulk of his films during marathon sessions in 2017) but did not see a single of his remaining films in 2018. I hardly watched any new James Stewart films (only You Gotta Stay Happy and Of Human Hearts). I also neglected Barbara Stanwyck shockingly and did not come closer to finishing her filmography (the score is still 62 films watched). I haven't seen a single Stanwyck film in 2018, not even on a rewatch. Shame on me! I intend to fix this in the year to come.
So, that's it! Hope you liked this little recap of 2018 and here's to another year of classic movies! Cheers!
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940) with Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day and John Shelton;
*A Dog's Life (1918) with Charlie Chaplin and cute dog;
*Cat People (1942) with Simone Simon;
*Gun Crazy (1950) with John Dall and Peggy Cummins;
*White Heat (1949) with Virginia Mayo and James Cagney;
*American Madness (1932) with Pat O'Brien and Walter Huston;
*Sadie McKee (1934) with Gene Raymond and Joan Crawford;
*Safe in Hell (1931) with Dorothy Mackaill;
*Marked Woman (1937) with Mayo Methot, Lola Lane, Bette Davis, Rosalind Marquis and Isabel Jewell.
For a detailed summary of all films watched in 2018, click here and select a month. If you want to look up a specific film and the month when I watched it, use the search bar at the top of the page and type in the title.