2022 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN 2022: 170
TOTAL WATCHING HOURS: ?
NEW-TO-ME: 166
REWATCHES: 4
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN @THE FILMOTECA: 3
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: Buster Keaton
.jpg)
Happy 2023, dear Classic Film Lovers!
Saying goodbye to 2022 makes me realise once again how quickly the years pass by. It's just unreal that we're in 2023 now, even Covid seems so long ago. The year 2022 wasn't that eventful for me but my sister and I did move house twice. In May we relocated to Valencia to a temporary apartment, after having lived in Barcelona for more than 5 years. Since mid-December we live in a small town close to Valencia. The house prices in Valencia capital have increased considerably and we prefer to spend less rent money and have a bigger place. Living in a village has its own appeal and we love it. Now we have a spacious duplex apartment, finally unfurnished, so we can make it a home to our own taste. We pay a lot less rent than we paid for our Valencia apartment and we feel very lucky to have found this place. I hope to watch a lot of classic movies in this house.
Our move is definitely the biggest event of the year. But ... classic-movie-wise there was a huge change as well. Instead of watching more classic films than in 2021, like I intended, I ended up with only 170 films. The reason? Read on!
To do my yearly round-up post I was waiting for the email from Letterboxd HQ with my limited stats for 2022 (My Letterboxd 2022 Year In Review). As a non-paying member I normally should have received the email by mid-January, but I haven't (or I must have deleted it by accident). LB would provide me with the number for total watching hours and also reveal the names of my most watched actor and director of the year. So unless I add up the runtimes of all 170 films myself, my total watching hours will get a big question mark. As for director of the year, I have no idea. It will get a question mark as well. I did keep track of my most watched actor/actress per month (have not included minor supporting actors) so it looks like Buster Keaton will win the nomination. He was my most watched actor in January (with 6 films) and in October (5 films), and it could even be that I watched some Buster films in other months when he wasn't my most watched actor of that month. So hereby I congratulate Buster for being My Most Watched Actor of 2022!
.jpg)
Now let's see why my yearly film count for 2022 was so disappointing and let's compare it to previous years. In 2021, I managed to watch the highest number of classic films in a year's time (465 films!!!), ever since I've been keeping track. I watched 166 films in 2015; 349 films in 2016; 214 films in 2017; 244 in 2018; 250 in 2019; 337 in 2020. I wanted to beat the 2021 record of 465 films in 2022, and January and February started promising, with respectively 40 and 35 films watched.
Then March happened. And Korean Drama Series!!! My two sisters have been ardent fans of K-drama for years and were convinced I would love them too. I was convinced, though, that nothing could interfere with my love for classic films and I didn't even try to watch a K-drama. Maybe subconsciously I was afraid that I would be hooked after all. Then during a visit to Rojales, my younger sister chromecasted Crash Landing on You on the big TV-screen and I couldn't help but watch it and seriously loved it. Then there was no turning back. In total I watched 45 K-drama series in 2022, most series consisting of 16 episodes. There are a lot of things that I like about K-dramas (the beautiful actors/actresses, the inventive and original storylines, the slow-burn romances, the language, the culture, the food, the OST (original soundtrack), the cinematography) but probably the best thing about K-drama is the emotional investment and engagement with the characters. So many shows had me in tears, like literally sobbing.
I definitely want to spend more time this year watching the classics but I have an evergrowing K-drama watchlist and I will dedicate time to watching K-dramas as well.
So far my mention of K-dramas, the main reason for having watched a lot less classic films. Now let's talk some more 2022 classic film stats!
.jpg)
Like I already mentioned, I watched 40 films in January and 35 in February. Then it went downhill. In March I still managed to watch 20 films, but in April I only watched 5 classic films. The rest of the year was almost as pitiful: 5 in May, 10 in June, 5 in July, 5 in August, 10 in September, then all of a sudden 20 in October, but November ended with only 10 watched films and December 5 films.
The 1930s emerged as the winning decade with 58 films watched, followed by the 1940s with 45 films. I'm happy with that because they are my fave decades for classic films. The 1950s registered 27 films watched, the 1910s 17 films, the 1960s 9 films, 1920s 8 films and the 1900s only 6 films.
2022 was also the year that I only watched 3 films on the big screen at the Filmoteca: Limelight, The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil (all three seen in May, part of the Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles special). It's the lowest number since I've been visiting the Filmoteca. In comparison, I watched 47 films in 2017; 57 in 2018; 63 in 2019; 13 in 2020; and 26 in 2021. 2022's small number of visits to the Filmoteca was mostly due to the move to Valencia since Valencia's Filmoteca has less on offer than Barcelona's Filmoteca. *) Still, I could have seen more films if I'd wanted to because there were definitely more classis films showing than the three titles I've seen. The screenings just didn't agree with my schedule or I didn't feel like going. I also missed out on the classic musical special showing at the Museo de Bellas Artes because I didn't see the cine program in time. It was running from September through November and titles shown were 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, Top Hat, Stormy Weather, The Band Wagon, Singin' in the Rain and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I couldn't find whether the films were shown in the versión original but I would have gone anyway. Admission was free. What a bummer! Will check out their cine program more regularly now.
*) Barcelona had an outrageous July/August summer program that we missed because of our move to Valencia in May. To torture myself, I will mention here what they were showing, films I would have loved to see (again). There was a Western special with screenings of The Iron Horse, The Ox-Bow Incident, Apache, Stagecoach, Red River, High Noon, Man of the West, Forty Guns, Shane, Johnny Guitar, Secrets, The Big Country, Silver River, Saddle Tramp, Rio Grande, Woman They Almost Lynched, Terror in a Texas Town, The Outlaw, The Searchers, and many more. The Filmoteca also celebrated the Centennials of many film celebrities. They were, among others (with film screenings between brackets): Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany’s), Judy Garland (A Star Is Born, The Clock), Veronica Lake (Sullivan’s Travels, This Gun for Hire), Elmer Bernstein (The Man with the Golden Arm, To Kill a Mockingbird), Arthur Penn (The Chase, Bonnie & Clyde), Ava Gardner (Bhowani Junction, The Barefoot Contessa), Doris Day (Love Me or Leave Me, The Man Who Knew Too Much), Cyd Charisse (Silk Stockings, Brigadoon). What a shame we missed these specials. I would have loved to see The Big Country, Silk Stockings, Brigadoon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Sullivan’s Travels, The Barefoot Contessa, Love Me or Leave Me, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Silver River, to name a few. So excuse me while I'm going to cry in a corner!
Some more stats. I finished Margaret Sullavan's small filmography (she made only 16 films) in July with the last three of her films I hadn't seen yet: Cry 'Havoc', So Ends Our Night and So Red the Rose (see July 2022 Round-Up).
My highest rated films of 2022 are: The Southerner, The Navigator, What a Way to Go!, Odd Man Out, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bigger than Life, The Harvey Girls, Bachelor Mother and Arise, My Love. Two of these were rewatches (Breakfast at Tiffany's and Bachelor Mother). There were two other rewatches (Royal Wedding and The Lady from Shanghai) which makes a total amount of 4 rewatches in 2022.
I also really enjoyed the following titles: The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Grand Slam Opera, Morocco, Desire, City Streets, The Captive, Shanghai Express, The Country Doctor, Life Begins at Forty, The Mothering Heart, State Fair (1933), State Fair (1945), A Corner in Wheat, The Moon's Our Home, No Greater Glory, Two Times Lotte, White Hell of Pitz Palu, Lost Horizon, Alias Nick Beal, Back Street, That Hamilton Woman, Hot Water, Enchantment, Madame X, A Double Life, A Trip to the Moon, Royal Wedding, Asphalt, Touch of Evil, Ladies in Retirement, Another Thin Man, The Desperate Hours, Bedlam, Whirlpool, The Winning of Barbara Worth, The Mender of Nets, The Garage, The Cat and the Canary, Pushover and Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men.
My Most Watched Actor/Actress per month are (between brackets the total amount of films watched that month):
*JANUARY: Buster Keaton (6) / Sylvia Sidney (4)
*FEBRUARY: Ronald Colman, Thomas Mitchell, Charles Boyer, Richard Carlson & John Boles (2) / Margaret Sullavan, Margaret Lindsay & Merle Oberon (3)
*MARCH: Edmond O'Brien (2)
*APRIL: ----
*MAY: Orson Welles (2)
*JUNE: Dorothy McGuire (2)
*JULY: Margaret Sullavan (3)
*AUGUST: George Brent (3)
*SEPTEMBER: Charlie Chaplin (2) / Claudette Colbert & Marsha Hunt (2)
*OCTOBER: Buster Keaton (5) / Jean Arthur (3)
*NOVEMBER: Philip Carey (2)
*DECEMBER: ----
I hardly wrote any extra posts this year. There were only 3: Check-in On 2021 Classic Movie Goals, The Great Romantic Films and Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Favourite Scene. I want to improve this in 2023. Also, it's been 5 years since I started this blog in 2018, so I want to make a fun celebratory post.
I'm confident 2023 will be a better year for Classic Films. Let's drink to that! Cheers!
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Buster Keaton, My Most Watched Actor of the Year;
*Buster Keaton in The Navigator;
*Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai;
*Margaret Sullavan (I finished her filmography!); (2 photos)
*The Nine Highest Rated Films of 2022; (collage by me)
*Jean Arthur, My Most Watched Actress of the Month of October;
*Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's;
*Buster Keaton, Cheers!
For a detailed summary of all films watched in 2022, 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.