11/22/2002 Entry:
"100"

Welcome to the 100th entry on Cineblog. I've been doing this for about 7 months now, which is fairly weird frankly. Its pretty common for me to start something, be excited about it for about a month and then get distracted by something else. I had every reason to believe that would happen with this website as well. For some reason it hasn't, and I continue on here. If anything amazes me, its that people actually read this rambling text. Yet according to my logs I have about 20 or so semi-reguar visitors. Shout outs to all of you, especially those of you I haven't corresponded with at all. Drop a line or leave a comment someday.

When I embarked on this experiment, I wanted to make an effort to change the way I looked at films. I had a film project I was set to embark on, and I needed to explore some ideas and start concentrating on filmmaking and what it involves. I wanted to try and analyze things I liked and didn't, make more of an effort to take notice of technical details and how they affect my responses, just generally pay more attention to how the craft affects storytelling and my response to it. I think this has happened, but it has changed my film viewing experience in other ways too. For instance, I often find myself sitting in a film thinking of what I'm going to write about it as it's going on. Not just what I'll write, but how I'll write it...forming sentences in my mind. This I find pretty annoying, but I don't quite know how to turn it off. It should be obvious from reading these entries that writing a coherent narrative and forming well crafted sentences is not exactly what I'm after. Yet a few recent entries have turned into something resembling real reviews, which is nothing I ever wanted. Although to some extent this has probably come about because I've been reading a lot of film criticism lately, and I'm starting to absorb that. As an aside, I highly recommend The Material Ghost by Gilberto Perez. An obvious precursor to Rosenbaum in some ways, his text is readable and thought-provoking. Thanks to reader Kent Beeson for pointing me towards it.

I also feel like some of that comes from actually knowing people are reading the site. There's a curious freedom that comes with writing only for yourself, and a curious self-consciousness that comes from knowing you have an audience. There was an article in Salon recently from a woman who had been keeping diaries for years. She describes a subtle change that took place over time, as she began writing her diaries with the thought that someone else might read them someday rather than as a dumping ground for whatever might be on her mind. I sometimes find myself thinking about who will read what I write, and their reaction to it, and that was never why I started this. Thus I promise to myself to be less self-conscious in the future (note that I write this in a post which has absolutely no purpose other than to address the audience. Oh, the irony.)

On another topic, I have some ideas about some new content for the site that could turn out to be interesting if I can get off my ass and get it off the ground. Keep an eye out. Thanks for stopping by.

Replies: 6 comments

After reading your Cineblog for a while I decided to start documenting my own reactions to movies seen on my site, although the entries so far are mostly pale imitations of "real" film criticism. Oh well, I shall try to get better. Posted by Scott @ 11/23/2002 11:39 AM CST

Congratulations on #100! I, for one, am enjoying the longer, "more like a review" reviews. I thought the "Bowling For Columbine" entry was great, because you took the time to really document your mixed feelings about the film. (In some ways, that makes it better than a "real" review, since it didn't have a concrete "here's what I think" answer, if that makes any sense. Embrace Ambiguity!) "I often find myself sitting in a film thinking of what I'm going to write about it as it's going on. Not just what I'll write, but how I'll write it...forming sentences in my mind." I do this as well, but hey! at least you have a place to put those sentences, and the discipline to do it every day (or so). Me, without a web site, doing it is the epitome of uselessness. Posted by Kent M. Beeson @ 11/26/2002 12:26 PM CST

forgot to mention... Glad you're enjoying The Material Ghost. I really dig the chapters on Buster Keaton and the Gangster film. Totally changed my thinking on "Casino". Posted by Kent M. Beeson @ 11/26/2002 04:24 PM CST

Every day? Man, I'm lucky if i get it in twice a week lately. I also really enjoyed the chapter on Keaton in Material Ghost, I have not gotten to the gangster chapter yet. One of my problems with books of film criticism is I really hate reading about movies I haven't seen, and since my knowledge is relatively small, I am at a disadvantage. This was one of the nice things about reading the Keaton section in Material Ghost - it really made more of an impact since I've seen most of those movies. Plus I didn't have to worry about the spoilers and whatnot. Anyways I'm glad people seem to be enjoying the site. Posted by gdd @ 11/27/2002 07:03 AM CST

congratulations on 100...hopefully you'll keep it going for a long time. i'm not sure how i found cineblog, but i'm glad i did. you end up writing about a lot of films that i've seen or want to see, so you obviously have excellent taste. and like scott said, reading your site has made me want to write more about the films i see. i haven't really done much of that yet, but i'm planning something for 2003 if i can overcome my laziness. Posted by chris @ 12/02/2002 11:21 AM CST

Laziness? You've seen way more movies than I have this year. I'll be stretching to hit 200 I think. Thats always a tradeoff, I could watch more movies if I wrote less (not that I write all that much.) Anyways, I get the same from your blog too since you write more about Asian stuff that I know next ot nothing about. Posted by gdd @ 12/02/2002 01:57 PM CST