A Guy With An Idea

In the past I’ve heavily focused on aspirational goals each new year – goals that push me outside of my comfort zone, or are all about achieving something somewhere along the way I thought would be worth achieving. Some of those goals (run 5 half-marathons in a year) I achieved. Others (learn to play the cello) I did not.

For those I did not achieve, the problem with the goals were not the goals themselves – but with the goal-setter. Setting a goal on January 1st that the me on May 1st or September 30th needs to keep is disingenuous to how I operate. My interests change. I chase what fascinates me. And sometimes that fascination is fleeting (like playing the cello).

This year I’m doing things a bit differently. I’m leaning into my long-term loves and making goals to simply do more of those things that bring me joy. One of those joys is film. I’ve been in love with film since my childhood, checking out Charlie Chaplin super-8 films from the library, projecting them onto a hung sheet in my sister’s bedroom for us to watch. This year I plan to really dig into my love of film – particularly my love of black and white film. So a goal for 2024 is to watch 24 black and white films during the year. That’s roughly 1 film every other week. Given how much I watch movies (sometimes 2-3 a week) this should be achievable. But the black and white requirement will make for an interesting year.

Here are the films on my list, in no particular order:

1. Carnival of Souls
2. Anatomy of a Murder
3. La Haine
4. 8-1/2
5. The 400 Blows
6. Bicycle Thieves
7. Ida
8. The Lighthouse
9. The Great Dictator
10. The Grapes of Wrath
11. Roma
12. 12 Angry Men
13. Le Trou
14. The Elephant Man
15. Paths of Glory
16. Alphaville
17. Rashomon
18. Raging Bull
19. Wild Strawberries
20. The Passion of Joan of Arc
21. Umberto D.
22. Dementia 13
23. La Dolce Vita
24. The Last Picture Show

I’ll post periodically as I watch these films. What else should be on my watch list?