Inspired by u/ PopeDarthPaul's post, I decided a year ago to start reviewing the many films I watch. Bit by bit, writing these short reviews, became my main creative project for 2021.
The combination of being retired, and alone, plus Corona, enabled me to happily watch an average of nearly 3 films per day, and reverted me to the old days 40 years ago, when I studied Film at the University of Copenhagen under Peter Schepelern, and learned about semiotics, history & film theories.
I enjoyed this year tremendously, and intend to continue spending (“wasting”) my time exploring old and new films alike.
Below are some statistics and a short list of a few curious finds.
I called my project “1,000 films” but ended up seeing a total of 'only' 885. Out of these, 122 were documentaries, 41 Shorts and 10 were stand-ups.
I thought of myself as an an all-round cineast, versed in world cinema, interested to discover rare gems old and new. But sadly, after looking at my end-year summery, I realized that this was not the case and I am far from a completist: Only 302 were “foreign films” and at least 198 (22%, and usually of my best-rated films) were films I had seen before, sometimes more than 2-3 times.
Of the “foreign” films, 64 were French, 43 were from the UK, 40 from Denmark, 19 each were Japanese and Italian, 13 from Germany, 10 from Sweden, 9 each from Poland & Israel, 6 each from Iran, Mexico and Norway. Others were from Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Catalonia, Chile, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, USSR and Venezuela.
Initially I was hoping to take a sizable bite out of the many films I hadn't seen before. But the field is much too vast: There are too many masterpieces in Russian, Thai, Arabic, Flemish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Swiss and what-not that I may never be able to see.
In the process, I also fell prey to “NEWS”, the 'Never-Ending Watchlist Syndrome', and ended up with a saved list of over 400 more selections waiting to be consumed.
The year was, to my surprise, also heavily populated by newer films, with 98 from 2021, 73 from 2020, a total of 406 from the last 10 years, and only 61 from before 1960. So, not much of Film-History flair either.
Of the individual directors, I was mostly taken by Anders Thomas Jensen (10 films), Agnès Varda (6), Céline Sciamma (4), A
... keep reading on reddit ➡Hey everyone! Hope you are well and keeping safe. I am posting one of my short stories, of course, it has a bit of Wolfeishness but it is more motivated by Italo Calvino. Like every author, it is no wonder that I also wish to be read, and thank you for your time.
Tales of The Singularity
Pioneers in Artificial Intelligence have suggested that in the near-future synthetic non-biological intelligence will dictate terms to human beings, and the human race may become second-class denizens in a world of their own creation. Human beings vs. Machines has been a recurrent theme in science fiction, and sometimes it has boiled over into the real world, such as Ned Ludd’s rebellion against machines towards the end of the 18th century, and in recent times, concerns against driver-less vehicles.
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“The first time I heard of this, I was amused” — Twrtdfle said with a giggle and continued.
“Singularity also happened a long time ago, at the beginning of the universe. Black holes are also singularities. I recently heard that someone took a photograph of a black hole.” — Twrtdfle looked at me with inquiring gestures, I nodded in reply.
“…and when technological growth is beyond the grasp of human beings, it is known as the technological singularity. I have seen all three of them. The first one was spectacular, and the third was boring!”
“It started with the looms, and Ned Ludd and his followers went on a rampage and destroyed everything in their wake, looms mostly. The Luddites became synonymous to technological redundancy. I recall Jeffery and his son Barney from Sheffield, they were petrified to know that looms can be automated, and there was John who used to shave Ned and his rag tag band of revolutionaries. He used to say that in no time shaving will also be done by machines and he and his family will die of starvation. Guess what, three hundred so years later, one of his direct descendant works in the research and analysis division at Gillette. Come on, give me a laugh! robots have not yet taken your job, neither are you turning into a robot like Zhang. Who is Zhang? hmmm…in due time.” Twrtdfle was broadly in a monologue, though answering most of the relevant questions.
“Of course, the loom became the bourgeois symbol of resilience — a totem for the farmers, the fishermen and the miners. We did not have the hammer and sickle
... keep reading on reddit ➡Do your worst!
It really does, I swear!
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
They’re on standbi
Buenosdillas
Pilot on me!!
Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
What did 0 say to 8 ?
" Nice Belt "
So What did 3 say to 8 ?
" Hey, you two stop making out "
I won't be doing that today!
You take away their little brooms
This morning, my 4 year old daughter.
Daughter: I'm hungry
Me: nerves building, smile widening
Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.
She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.
Thank you all for listening.
There hasn't been a post all year!
[Removed]
It’s pronounced “Noel.”
After all his first name is No-vac
What, then, is Chinese rap?
Edit:
Notable mentions from the comments:
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Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits
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French/Finnish art
-
Country/Canadian rap
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Chinese/Country/Canadian rock
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Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap
There hasn't been a single post this year!
(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)
Nothing, it just waved
Bob
Just to clarify, 12345678
So that I could frequently say, "I am going to walk 5 miles now."
Edit: My most popular post on Reddit! 😀 Thank you for the awards.
Me grabbing a soda from my (what I thought was) half full 12pk...
Notices there's only 2;
Me: "Awe man... This is a damn bird box!" Her: "What the hell does that mean?!" Me: (Pulls both cans out & shows them to her) "It's only got Toucans."
I'm not ashamed to admit the look on her face was glorious.
I was just sitting there doing nothing.
When I got home, they were still there.
