After reading Kristina’s post over at Speakeasy, I’m considering joining other bloggers in the Blind Spot Series 2016, a pledge to watch and blog about one classic film each month, 12 movies I have not previously seen. Participating would probably help structure my movie-watching, which is always a much-needed goal, so I’ll probably do it.
Now which films to pick?
The following is a list of films I’ve wanted to watch, some of them for years, but just haven’t gotten around to yet. As far as I know, most are available to stream, buy, or get from the library. (The only one that might give me some trouble is The Man Who Laughs.)
I could use your help in narrowing this list down to 12 films. Right now I’ve got quite a few silent films on the list since that in itself is pretty much a blind spot for me. I’ve also got two Robert Altman films, but they appear to be very different from each other. I also see a lot of international films on the list. No problem, but maybe I’ve neglected some American films?
So let me know what you think…
Intolerance (1916)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Faust (1926)
Sunrise (1927)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Children of Paradise (1945)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Gilda (1946)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
Pickpocket (1959)
Floating Weeds (1959)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
The Leopard (1963)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Persona (1966)
Playtime (1967)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Nashville (1975)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
(Photos: Capital New York, Cinema, Etc., Chris Brodhead)
Journeys in Darkness and Light 
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Thanks for stopping by, Joel! I’m actually leaning strongly towards all five of the ones you mentioned. I think I’m probably with you on Intolerance – it’s a film I probably *should* see, but in many ways, I’m not exactly looking forward to it.
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Interesting list of possibles. I’d recommend Sunrise, Johnny Guitar (quite the unique film), Gilda, Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera. I appreciated the historical significance of Intolerance and the amazing amount of craftmenship involved in something of that vintage and I’m glad I watched it but I also found it a challenge to make it through.
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Pingback: Twelve Classics for 2016 – Now Voyaging
Thanks, Kristina! I’m looking forward to the Criterion edition of Gilda (and I’ve actually had Sunrise sitting on my shelf for several months!).
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Thanks, Ryan – Appreciate the input! I’ll definitely send you the links if I take the challenge. (Right now I’m about 90% sure I’ll do it.)
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1 – Welcome to The Dark Side!
2 – My top five selections would go as follows…
PERSONA, PICKPOCKET, PLAYTIME, NASHVILLE, and SUNRISE.
If you carry through with the series, make sure to email me links so I can include them in the monthly round-up
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I’ll put in votes for Gilda and Sunrise (which I just watched as part of my 2015 list and liked a lot), but you probably can’t go wrong with most of these, many I need to see myself. Availability was a concern for me too, hopefully can find all the ones I promised to watch. This will be a fun way to discover new things!
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