Can  you believe the first year of the month has ended? …Neither can I. It seems a bit surreal that today is the first day of February, and I was not quite sure whether to believe the date stamp on my phone when I woke up this morning.

The quick passage of time can be a bit scary, but in this case it comes with a silver lining. With the first day of the second month comes the first “Films in 2012” wrap-up. Let’s see how I’ve spent my time in the past 31 days, shall we?

New to me films: 30

Repeats of old favorites: 12

Total watched: 42

Seen at the theater: 2 – The Artist (for a second time), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Five favorite discoveries: Wife Versus Secretary (1936), That Thing You Do! (1996), Midnight (1939), A Summer Place (1959) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958)

Five disappointments: Election (1999), Happy Go Lovely (1951), You Kill Me (2007), The Other Woman (2009), We’re Not Married (1952)

The full list (starting with the most recent; new to me are in bold):

  • Ghost World (2001)
  • Election (1999)
  • Drew Peterson: Untouchable (2012) (TV movie)
  • The Artist (2011)
  • Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
  • Wife Versus Secretary (1936)
  • Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2012)
  • That Thing You Do! (1996)
  • Supersize Me (2004)
  • The Other Woman (2009)
  • FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
  • Fancy Curves (1932) (Short)
  • Mean Girls (2004)
  • Bring It On (2000)
  • Clueless (1995)
  • Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
  • Happy Go Lovely (1951)
  • The Lady Eve (1941)
  • Midnight (1939)
  • A Summer Place (1959)
  • Lover Come Back (1961)
  • Love Story (1970)
  • American Beauty (1999)
  • Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)
  • Pillow Talk (1959)
  • Send Me No Flowers (1964)
  • Tempest (1982)
  • Cain and Mabel (1936)
  • Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
  • Blades of Glory (2007)
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
  • Gone With the Wind (1939)
  • Five and Ten (1931)
  • Blondie of the Follies (1932)
  • Thelma and Louise (1991)
  • Egypt’s Ten Greatest Discoveries (2008) (TV documentary)
  • We’re Not Married! (1952)
  • It Happened to Jane (1959)
  • Fuel (2008)
  • You Kill Me (2007)
  • St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)
  • About Last Night (1986)

And since I really, REALLY like to categorize things, let’s break the watched list down even further by decade:

  • 1920s – 0 (Why?! This needs to change in February!)
  • 1930s – 7
  • 1940s – 2
  • 1950s – 8
  • 1960s – 2
  • 1970s – 1
  • 1980s – 3
  • 1990s – 7
  • 2000s – 9 (This is less surprising than it seems. I love a cheesy early millennium flick when I get home from a 12-hour day on campus.)
  • 2010s – 3

I’m very glad I was able to reach my goal of watching more films than there are days in the month. I’m a bit (read as: very) competitive, and in the past couple of years that I’ve been tracking my film viewings, I always feel like I’m in competition with the clock. Can I at least watch the equivalent of one film a day this month, or will time win? In January, I prevailed, beating time by 11 points.

Much to my surprise, I only saw two films at the theater this month. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised considering my tastes, but I feel like I was at my local AMC an awful lot more than two times. That means I hit the big 4-0 with my at-home watching — not much of a surprise, considering the fact that if I’m not in class or at work, chances are I’m cuddled up with my beagle and a DVD. It also comes as no surprise that my favorite discoveries of the month are from the 1930s and 1950s, with one mid-’90s outlier.

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