Less time, less movies.

It takes a lot of time to write updates for this blog. I need to watch a movie - and even if I’ve seen it 10 times before I need to see it again to have it fresh in my mind - and after that I’m gonna sit down, find something intelligent to say about the movie and then write it down, find a perfect poster or screenshot, post it, ping it through a couple of different services on the net, link it on IMDB and on Facebook...oh, and copy the text to Letterboxd.

Work. I work a lot. I’m home around six every evening, sometimes closer to seven, I need to fix food and just relax - and suddenly there’s very little time to watch movies. I have a boyfriend also, who I live with, and I’m not gonna be an anti-social douche and watch movies the whole evening either. So I need to spend time with him, talk, discuss, laugh - and then when the clock strikes 10 PM it’s time for bed and sleep. And I fall asleep directly. Like a log, as we say in Sweden.

The weekends are more complex, because that’s the time I have to be with Gregory, and once again, I don’t want to watch movies all the time when I have the best partner beside me. There’s so much else to do. We often take long walks, taking photos or hunting mushrooms. Sometimes we meet up with friends or check out something in the city. Those days are the most important days for me. Because I can be with my love, someone I rarely have time to be with otherwise.

I’m toying with the idea to pack away my DVDs to the basement, or sell them. But I think the first option is the best, because it’s impossible to get money for DVDs nowadays. They’re worthless unless you find someone who really, really, really wants them. And in this day and age that kind of people are hard find. We’re a dying breed, we collectors of physical media. I’m not bitter, that’s fine by me. My strong belief is that we need to stop producing shit that just fills up this earth, so downloads or streaming or whatever you call is brilliant. But I’m not ready for it yet.

No, I can’t say I wish I was young and out of work, watching movies into the midnight hours. I consider those wasted years. It’s about growing up. There’s more to life than movies, there’s love and friendship, good food, good drinks, travels and adventures - small and big ones. I prefer the small ones. I’m not saying I’m gonna quit reviewing movie, no way José. But as you might have noticed the amount of texts have decreased. I think I’m at a very okay level of movie watching for me right now. It doesn’t take over my valuable spare time and I focus mainly on writing about movies I really care and feel for. I don’t have time to for crap. I need to focus on films that touches my heart, even if they’re the cheapest form of exploitation.

Those movies are rare, no matter the artistic values of them. One movie I would love to write about but I feel just doesn’t belong on this blog is Alain Guiraudie’s 2013 thriller/drama Stranger by the Lake. It’s set only at a gay cruising area in France, by a lake, and with dense forest around. It’s so sublime, so tasteful, and still so raw and primitive. There’s graphic sex scenes and more dicks than you can count, but it never feels exploitative or pornographic. It’s just the way it is at a cruising area. Stranger by the Lake is very realistic, both in the interaction between the characters and the acting itself. It almost feels documentary, like we’re peeking into something only certain people have a chance to do, but the fact is that it has no improvisation at all. Everything is written in the script and the actors are fulfilling that vision like I never seen it before.

It’s a beautiful film, very human - and still a good, original thriller, yet very simple. This is the form of films I’m always looking for. Another title I always returning to are Laurent Cantet’s Heading South, a drama from 2005 starring Charlotte Rampling and Karen Young as women travelling to Haiti to buy sex from young men. Yet another dark, brooding and sometimes quite beautiful drama where sex is one of the leads.

But that kind of films doesn’t fit here. So that’s why it takes longer to find more commercial films to fit, because commercial films have one purpose: to make money, and the majority of those are - to be honest - quite boring. But I will continue to hunt ‘em down, wrestle them to the ground and force myself to write something about them.

But it will take time.
I don’t want to waste neither your or my time in this matter.

Comments

[Megatron]

"It takes a lot of time to write updates for this blog. I need to watch a movie - and even if I’ve seen it 10 times before I need to see it again to have it fresh in my mind - and after that I’m gonna sit down, find something intelligent to say about the movie and then write it down,"

That´s understandable...you want to deliver quality, right?

Otherwise get a job with Bonnier media or Schibstedt...where clickpimping is boss....hahhahahhahahahhahahahhah

"We’re a dying breed, we collectors of physical media. I’m not bitter, that’s fine by me. My strong belief is that we need to stop producing shit that just fills up this earth, so downloads or streaming or whatever you call is brilliant."

For me it´s mainly about extras.......for vast majority its going to be streaming, downloads etc.......totally ok.

"One movie I would love to write about but I feel just doesn’t belong on this blog is Alain Guiraudie’s 2013 thriller/drama Stranger by the Lake."

I haven´t seen it yet....but I heard alot of good stuff about it.

But maybe you should write about.....maybe more people will hear about it....?

"There’s graphic sex scenes and more dicks than you can count, but it never feels exploitative or pornographic."

Brrrrrr....maybe there is reason why I have missed this one......hahhahahhahahahhahahhah....

"Another title I always returning to are Laurent Cantet’s Heading South, a drama from 2005 starring Charlotte Rampling and Karen Young as women travelling to Haiti to buy sex from young men. Yet another dark, brooding and sometimes quite beautiful drama where sex is one of the leads."

Yeah, Rampling is very good here.......dark and complicated film.

"But I will continue to hunt ‘em down, wrestle them to the ground and force myself to write something about them."

I´m glad you do....thanks Fred.