2020 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN 2020: 337
TOTAL WATCHING HOURS: 467
NEW-TO-ME: 326
REWATCHES: 11
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN @THE FILMOTECA: 13
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: Kirk Douglas (according to Letterboxd stats)
Happy 2021 everyone!
Who would have thought that 2020 had such an unthinkable crisis in store for us! With my previous yearly round-up post of 2019 (here) I wished everyone a happy new year and expressed my sentiments about how weird it was to go into the next decade. Now, a year later, the first year of the new decade has proved to be much more memorable and weird than any of us would have ever imagined. Let's hope that things will turn back to normal very soon.
Classic Hollywood-wise 2020 meant the loss of two of its legends: Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland. I wrote R.I.P. posts here and here.
Now let's talk about what I watched in 2020!
Because of Covid-19 (home confinement and working from home) I've seen more films in 2020 than in the three previous years (214 films in 2017; 244 in 2018; 250 in 2019). Yet in 2016 I watched 349 films! (The first full year I kept track of what I watched was 2015, with a total amount of 166 films.) I hope to beat the record of 2016 this year, with at least one film a day on average, so 365 films will be my goal.
As a non-paying member of Letterboxd I only get limited stats sent to me via email. My Letterboxd 2020 Year In Review reveals the names of my most watched actor and director and also provides me with the number for total watching hours. I was already thinking in advance about who could be my most watched actor. First I thought maybe Boris Karloff, and it's true I watched 10 Karloff films in October, but the rest of the year I cannot remember having seen any of his other films. Then Kirk Douglas popped into my mind and I realised I had binge-watched his films in February (10 films) and had also seen a couple of his films in the last half year. I counted them and it added up to 13. So when I received the email from Letterboxd HQ with the few stats for my year in review, I wasn't surprised to see Kirk's name for Most Watched Actor. Yet I was eager to read the big revelation of my Most Watched Director. He is .... drum roll ... none other than Michael Curtiz.
I checked the watched Curtiz films and counted 11. I like his work but none of the films I sought out for the director himself. The films are (between brackets the reason why I watched them): Mildred Pierce (Filmoteca), Flamingo Road (Joan Crawford), Private Detective 62 (William Powell), Passage to Marseille (I think randomly picked), My Dream is Yours (because of a positive review on Letterboxd), Stolen Holiday (Claude Rains), Black Fury (Karen Morley), The Walking Dead (horror films in October), Doctor X (horror films in October), Mystery of the Wax Museum (horror films in October) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (Filmoteca).
In 2020 I watched less films in the first half of the year (147) than in the second half (190). Still, the month with the highest figure of watched films was April (55), due to a complete lockdown in Spain and not working. The last three months of the year I watched more than one film a day on average (40 films in October, 35 in November and 40 in December). The only months with less than 20 films watched were the first two months of the year (10 films in January and 15 in February).
Breaking down the total amount of films in decades, the 1930s emerged as the winning decade with a total of 140 films watched, followed by the 1940s with 103 films. Furthermore I watched 64 films from the 1950s, 20 films from the 1920s, 9 from the 1960s and only 1 film from the 1910s.
It won't come as a surprise that my Filmoteca viewings were few. Only 13 in total. (In comparison, I watched 57 films on the big screen in 2018 and 63 films in 2019.) I watched 5 films before the Covid crisis manifested itself in Spain (Mildred Pierce, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Romola, Pursued, The Big Sleep) and 8 films during the pandemic (Detective Story, Lonely Are the Brave, Niagara, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Ninotchka, Bus Stop, The Misfits and The Heiress). Because of the low amount of theater visits, the figure for rewatches this year was also low, only 11 (in the past my rewatches have been mostly Filmoteca viewings).
My highest rated films of 2020 are rewatches: It's a Wonderful Life, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Misfits, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Mildred Pierce and Ninotchka.
My most loved first watch is the silent film The Phantom Carriage.
The following selected titles, all first watches, were among the ones I enjoyed most: Night and the City, Cry of the City, Plunder Road, The Curse of the Cat People, King Kong, Arsène Lupin, The Invisible Man, The Marrying Kind, Detective Story, The Silver Cord, Gentleman’s Agreement, Way Down East, The Last Command, The White Sister, The High Sign, Show People, The Story of Temple Drake, Pursued, True Heart Susie, The Damned Don’t Cry, The Clock, Tomorrow Is Forever, Lady for a Day, Driftwood, Undercurrent, Music for Millions, Road House, The Body Snatcher, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mr. Skeffington, The Clairvoyant, Kings Row, Pride of the Marines, The Road to Glory, The Eagle and the Hawk, It Happened in Hollywood, A Free Soul, Ride the Pink Horse, Blonde Venus, Three Secrets, The Freshman, City for Conquest, Yours for the Asking, Summer Stock, It All Came True, Side Streets, The Glass Bottom Boat and The Constant Nymph.
Like I did in previous years, I also delved deeper into the filmographies of certain actors/actresses. These are my most watched actors and actresses per month for 2020:
January: Barry Sullivan (4 films in total) and Joan Crawford (4); February: Kirk Douglas (10) and Joan Fontaine (3); March: William Powell (4) and Lillian Gish (4); April: John Litel (7) and Ann Sheridan (8); May: Thomas Mitchell (3) and Geraldine Fitzgerald / Maureen O'Sullivan / Marsha Hunt (all 3 in total); June: Herbert Marshall (7) and most watched director Robert Wise (4); July: Richard Dix (6) and Norma Shearer (4); August: Joel McCrea (5) and Eleanor Parker (7); September: Claude Rains (6) and Irene Dunne (7); October: Boris Karloff (10) and Karen Morley (8); November: George Raft (5); and December: Marilyn Monroe / Florence Rice (both 3 in total). I mostly sought out the films especially for these actors, but John Litel and Boris Karloff just happened to be in a lot of films I chose to watch for another reason or actor.
Apart from the monthly round-ups I wrote 9 articles (in comparison, I wrote 13 in 2019). Well, articles is a big word, some of them are just lists with favourite films. Actually, these lists are among my favourite Not A Round-Up's: My 10 Recommended Feel-Good Classic Films, Another 10 Recommended Feel-Good Classic Films and My 10 Favourite Classic Film Dads. I also like the personal The Films From My Youth and my exploration of Spain's History With Classic Hollywood. I really hope to write more articles and make more lists this coming year.
Now let's start watching movies and beat the 2016 record!
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Kirk Douglas, my Most Watched Actor of 2020;
*Mildred Pierce (1945), on the set with Joan Crawford and Michael Curtiz, my Most Watched Director of 2020;
*Olivia de Havilland, R.I.P. (1 July 1916 – 25/26 July 2020);
*Lonely Are the Brave (1962) with Kirk Douglas;
*Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), on the set with director Michael Curtiz and Fay Wray;
*The Misfits (1961) with Thelma Ritter and Marilyn Monroe; (screenshot by me)
*It All Came True (1940) with Ann Sheridan, my most watched actress of April;
*Ball of Fire (1941) with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, one of my recommended feel-good films;
*To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) with Gregory Peck (my fave classic film dad) and Mary Badham;
*Marilyn Monroe, most watched actress of December (together with Florence Rice).
For a detailed summary of all films watched in 2020, 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.