This year I tried to watch more films from directors I was unfamiliar with. For next year, I’d like to finish the mammoth Olympics set, as well as watch more films in German and Japanese.

ARIK DEVENS


2017

For the third year in a row, I’m going to try and sum things up with a final post. I really enjoy this tradition, as it gives me a great excuse to look back over all the watching and writing I’ve done throughout the year. In 2017 I attempted to post at least once a week, and was mostly successful. Watching and writing about these films continues to provide a much needed relief from the stresses of life.

This year I wrote 74 entries, each covering a single film. I watched each film before writing about it, for a total of 6857 minutes, or 114 hours spent enjoying the history of cinema. Of those films I’d seen 6 before I started this project, meaning 92% of what I watched was new to me.

In my recap last year, I said I wanted to watch more films by directors I was unfamiliar with. Of the 74 films I watched this year, 31 were from new directors, meaning 42% of the films I watched achieved that goal.

My average rating was a 4. My most common rating was also a 4, which was given to 30 of the 74 films. My lowest rated film of the year was a three way tie between Sanders of the River, The Flowers of St. Francis, and The Mikado, each with a rating of 1. I gave a rating to every film I watched this year.

Ratings Bar Chart Ratings Spread

I watched films from 14 countries, in 14 languages. The most common country was the United States, followed by France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, and Sweden. The most common language was English, followed by French, and Japanese.

Countries Pie Chart Countries

The oldest film I watched was The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 from 1924. The most recent films were Cameraperson, David Lynch: The Art Life, and The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 from 2016. The most common decade was the 1960s, and I watched at least one film from every decade since the 1920s.

Decades Pie Chart Decades

36 films featured the narrowest aspect ratio I saw this year at 1.33:1. 1 film had the widest at 2.40:1. The most commonly used ratio, was 1.33:1, otherwise known as standard 4:3.

Aspect Ratios Pie Chart Aspect Ratios

I wrote 23,913 words this year, for an average entry length of 323 words. My longest entry was 515 words about David Lynch: The Art Life. My shortest was 187 words about La chambre. The most essays I posted in one week was 7, and the most common day I posted on was Monday.

Days Bar Chart Days

I mostly kept to my decision to take a break from Blogathons this year. After taking part in 7 last year, I only participated in 1 this year. I expect that trend to continue, as I mostly write this site for my own enjoyment, and external deadlines tend to add unneeded stress. The rating I gave the film, Agnès Varda’s Le bonheur, was a 3. The film is from the 1960s. It is from France.

Le bonheur

My primary podcasting output this year wasn’t film related, but rather my new A History of Jazz show. I did participate in some film podcasts for CriterionCast, and I hope to continue to do so next year. I really appreciate the opportunity to get to chat with like-minded folks about this obsession we all have.

A History of Jazz CriterionCast

This was a crazy year, one in which I took a long sabbatical, got engaged, and traveled the world for months on end. It was a challenging year, and it was also a great one. Through it all, this project kept rewarding me with new experiences and perspectives. Hopefully 2018 will do the same. Thanks to everyone for reading!