New to me in September: 30

Re-watches in September: 12

Total watched in September: 42

Total watched in 2012 so far: 472

Surprisingly, my viewing didn’t slow down much this month, despite the start of the new semester. I wasn’t expecting to surpass 30 films in total. It is possible that I’m a bionic paper-writing, movie-watching machine. A few of the films are accounted for by the fact that I’m taking a class on ethnographic film this semester… but more on that in a minute.

The September “new to me” list (Full list can be viewed at Listography, as always):

  • The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
  • Holy Ghost People (1967)*
  • The Grass is Greener (1960)
  • The Party Crashers (1958)
  • Trance and Dance in Bali (1952)*
  • Les maitres-fous (1955)*
  • Descendant (2003)
  • China Seas (1935)
  • Nine to Five (1980)
  • Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)
  • Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)
  • Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)*
  • Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1985)*
  • Dead Man on Campus (1998)
  • La piel que habito (2011)
  • Take Shelter (2011)
  • The Innkeepers (2011)
  • Eclipse (2010)
  • Witness to Murder (1954)
  • Murder in Greenwich (2002)
  • Charlie Bartlett (2007)
  • Love Affair (1939)
  • Crazy on the Outside (2010)
  • As Young As We Are (1958)
  • Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
  • Employees’ Entrance (1933)
  • Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
  • 12 Dates of Christmas (2011)
  • The House of Yes (1997)
  • Parents (1989)

*These are the films that I’ve been watching in class. With the exception of Meshes, they’re all documentaries and I’m not quite sure what to do with them in terms of this blog. I’ve been writing about them for class, but in a journal format that wouldn’t really work here. I’m contemplating doing a series of posts once the class is finished since our viewings are split into sections based on subject matter anyway, but I might do one larger post on them. Regardless, you probably won’t be seeing much about them soon, since I’ve got the October schedule for TMP all booked up.

Favorite discoveries: The House of Yes, La piel que habito, Meshes of the Afternoon, Holy Ghost People, The Bitter Tea of General Yen

There weren’t any real disappointments this month. The few films I didn’t enjoy were chosen with low expectations and were often laughably bad, so I still got some enjoyment out of ’em. As you may know from the review a few days ago, though, I wasn’t crazy about The Party Crashers.

Tally by decade:

’20s – 0
’30s – 4
’40s – 1
’50s – 9
’60s – 4
’70s – 0
’80s – 4
’90s – 6
’00s – 9
’10s – 5

You may have noticed some changes to the blog in the past few days. I’ve changed the design a few times, shifted the layout around – and settled back on the one I was using before (but with fancier fonts, a new color scheme and some of the widgets flipped around). I really like the new look and hope you all like it as well! I may continue to change the colors up from time to time, but other than that I think this look is here to stay.

While I’ve got your attention I’d like to announce a few new features coming up on TMP:

  • In addition to lots of thriller/horror reviews throughout this month, I’m dedicating October 28 – 31 to a series of posts I’m calling Horror Half-Week. These posts will explore horror through four decades: the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I’ve selected one film from each decade to watch and review. This is not a blogathon (because, just as with Adaptation Month, I didn’t think ahead enough!), but if you’re interested in borrowing the idea for your blog, feel free to do so – just give a link/credit to TMP in the post(s) :)
  • As I mentioned in a previous announcement, each Thursday this month will feature a “Reviews in a line or two” post, simply because I have a ton of them stacked up and need to get them out of the draft abyss.
  • In addition to continuing the Favorite Things About Favorite Films series, which has had a great response (I’m glad you’re enjoying it!), I’ll be starting up a “Childhood Favorites Revisited” series soon, in which I watch films I haven’t seen in years and tell you whether or not they hold up now. My childhood criteria of films consisted of “I LIKE PUPPIES AND EGYPT” and little else, so this should be an interesting adventure in viewing.
  • I’m thinking up a series similar to Horror Half-Week for December with a focus on films set in winter/the holidays, but nothing is set in stone yet. Watch this space.