Damn foreigners

Last summer, I undertook my film watching project, which was a daunting task, but I had a lot of free time. So using the AFI 100 Films list, I watched a lot of movies.
This summer my film watching project will be far less structured. I decided that I wanted to get some more foreign classics under my belt, since the AFI list is all American films. So I am going to use the "Best Films" list on Jim Emerson's Cinepad website. This list has many good features, one of which is that it includes foreign films. The site also compiles information from other sources, all of which are very reputable, and puts this information into some sort of silly algorithm. This list gathers info from the following other lists:

• AFI 100 -- American Film Institute survey (1998) of American movies
• National Film Registry
  
• Sight & Sound international critics survey -- ten best films of all time; polled every decade (1952-1992)
• Academy Awards -- annual film industry awards, 1927-present
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association -- annual film critics group awards, 1975-present
• National Society of Film Critics -- annual film critics group awards, 1966-present
• New York Film Critics Circle -- annual film critics group awards, 1935-present

I have already started watching some of the films on this list (which of course has a lot of overlap with last year's list, but again, I am focusing on foreign films), and will be offering my thoughts on these and other films as I watch them.

But here are some of the foreign classics on the list that I will be blogging about throughout the summer:

• The Rules of the Game
• 8 1/2
• Battleship Potemkin
• L'Avventura
• The Bicycle Thief
• The Passion of Joan of Arc
• L'Atalante
• Persona
• Seven Samurai
• Tokyo Story

. . . and whatever else I have time for.

So it is a much different project, since it does not have a truly set-in-stone goal line, but it provides a little structure to my film watching.