letterboxd, the vexing and sometimes OK film logging website

Finally finished up matching everything in my movie log db with its imdb id so something like importing the last sixteen years of movie watching Letterboxd is super-easy.

https://letterboxd.com/quartzcity/

I'm doing March Around The World this year, trying to focus on films I've not seen a single movie from. Basic idea is for users to watch 30 films in the month from 30 different countries (each year also has one obligatory entry - this year it's Denmark, so I've included a film by Riders Of Justice guy because I loved that one, despite having seen Danish films.=

My list:

https://letterboxd.com/reifferschizzle/list/march-around-the-world-2022/

Further to that, the challenge has a spreadsheet which is a pretty cool resource for those wanting to explore movies from less well known areas:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSux4XMP-nKjVh22Qcx148aDalBauYH_u3bJ4flO6tnRbUxfsZ2CZt0Eydyh0RD2WrDg-jyNCYqAMcg/pubhtml#

lmao

I enjoy this interpretation of the film, since it makes the girls feel more like the anarchic heroes of the piece. However, I think that it is better to read the film in a way that paints Marie I and Marie II as Lenin and Stalin. The girls are incredibly selfish and steal from both the rich and poor, leading people on and lying so that they can get everything they want. Their indulgences are the disgusting consumption of the Soviet Union and its expansion at the cost of human life and resources. The two Maries destroy and consume the entire bourgeois feast at the end (right after taking corn from working-class farmers) and this stands in for the Soviet goal of eating the West. At the end they have eaten everything, and feel regret for the first time, only because they have nothing else to eat. The film ends by punishing them for their indulgence, holding the belief that a system like the Soviet Union cannot last forever, and that eventually those in power will be punished for their wrongdoings.

(re: Daisies)

otoh this looks potentially super useful: https://letterboxd.com/oldfilmsflicker/list/classic-films-1910s-1980s-on-paramount/

Haha: https://letterboxd.com/jazzvampire/list/noir-westerns-with-titles-that-sound-like/

https://letterboxd.com/schlockvalue/list/100-essential-all-male-films/

(NSFW.)

xp Lol too easy

This queer film student whose into silent comedy, classic animation, Hitchcock, Kate Bush, Twin Peaks, and the absolute dregs of holiday-themed TV specials is perhaps my fave letterboxr: https://letterboxd.com/kissthem4me/

Recommended list: https://letterboxd.com/kissthem4me/list/1-film-1-year/

Added!

I only got into films during lockdown after decades of just not being interested so my tastes might be a bit 18 years of age discovering films but I like what I like and if anyone would like to follow me then please do. https://letterboxd.com/pfunkboy/

You can be reassured that I don't review many films.

I might get a wild hair to review on a rare occasion but I just log 90% of the time. Thanks for linking up!

I'm doing March Around The World this year, trying to focus on films I've not seen a single movie from. Basic idea is for users to watch 30 films in the month from 30 different countries (each year also has one obligatory entry - this year it's Denmark, so I've included a film by Riders Of Justice guy because I loved that one, despite having seen Danish films.

Prepping for this again, once more trying to get 29 blank countries filled in green. This year's obligatory country is Egypt - there's a lot of classic Egyptian films on YT but alas few of them with subtitles.

http://letterboxd.com/reifferschizzle/list/matw-2023/

xxp TSI, you are definitely underselling how much you've caught up since lockdown.

I only got into films during lockdown after decades of just not being interested

Feel you. I got back into films during lockdown and have been going ham ever since. LB suggests that nearly a third of the films I've seen in my life were watched over the course of the few years that I've been on LB. Which can't be right. But which might not be far off.

Kinda want to start a Letterboxd account. It looks fun.

It is as long as you don't worry too much about ratings. There's some users who frown if you give anything 4 stars or over. Thankfully its nowhere near as bad as RYM.
I just decided to use my own system for my own use. If there's a lot of 4.5 or 5 reviews and people dont like it - then tough. One review by me will not in anyway change the overall ratings of any film.

The ratings do come in handy for some lists though such as "Official Top 50 Narrative Feature Films Under 5,000 Ratings"

https://letterboxd.com/offensivename/list/official-top-50-narrative-feature-films-under/

Found a lot of gems in that list over the past year (and subsequently those films passed the 5000 mark) this one https://letterboxd.com/film/anantaram/ has become one of my favourite films. It really deserves to be seen by more people.

In the interests of accuracy I've made sure my diary includes films watched with the my daughter

https://i.imgur.com/wI7MRCl.png

There's some users who frown if you give anything 4 stars or over.

Anything that's less fusty and involved than the g-d 100-point scale is fine by me

I refuse to log all the Barney videos my cousins eldest made us watch repeatedly in the late 1990s

xp

I would also say find people you like and follow what they're up to. A lot of the frustration I hear from ppl regarding letterboxd mostly comes from just checking the most popular reviews of films, which can often be jokes or bad criticism, especially if it's a big mainstream film (mainstream here in relative terms - I wouldn't look up reviews for Tár or Triangle Of Sadness for example). If you manage to create a good ecosphere of ppl you respect you almost never have to do this.

xposts

Nobody really cares about the ratings too much on Letterboxd - which is good because let's face it nobody uses a 5* rating system the same exact way

Honestly i just love having a diary/journal of all my movie watching to look back on to figure out the last time I saw something was, and to commiserate with my local filmgoers in short bursts

^ this -- I rarely read reviews (and dislike the lowercase, sub-twitter wisecrack ones) and mostly use it just to track when and what I watch, and bookmark films for our household's weekly movie night. I will consult the average star ratings, though; I have to really be interested in the premise/vibe/subject matter to watch a 3.2 or below.

Also, my memory tends to collapse/blur together periods of my life a bit, but when I go back and see a film I logged (or a book on Goodreads), it helps me remember what was going on in my life when I watched or read that particular item. "Oh yeah, I watched this when I was in that folk horror phase because of X and Y" etc.

The average star ratings are not to be trusted imo, especially when it comes to stuff doing the rounds at festivals - way too many hot shot 18 year old Cinephiles giving stupidly low ratings. There's an Angolan movie that has a 2 star rating and none of the reviews make the slightest effort to understand its cultural context or get on the film's wavelenght.

Fundamentally I feel a 3/5 rating should be "average", watchable, decent etc. while most people seem to treat it as a failing test grade

On the flip side, I've given many "trash" films 5* because they're the best at what they are and immensely enjoyable, just as worthwhile if not more than what's been established as canon

If you really do like a film or watch it repeatedly or get something out of it then there's nothing wrong with giving it 4 and a half or 5 stars.

You can always change the rating later if you watch it again and it doesn't hold up.

If you’re going to use star ratings at all it only makes sense to do it your own way. I’ve only given two films star ratings and they’re both 5 stars.

i shd write more reviews, i only wrote one so far (independence day, 1.5 stars)

i watch films all the time and have opinions which make u think

Or you could write another book of those opinions?

also possible yes

Xp

I'm kind of leaning towards giving no star ratings lately tbh

Otoh, Independence Day deserves 3 stars - it's fun and entertaining trash!

it's boring and annoying

u shd read my review

What's your lb handle?

p_nk_s

hope u write a second review mark s

i shd and one day i will

btw silby, I really dug your recent lb review of The Long Goodbye.

ty I felt nice abt that one

Elliott Gould #2 on my Hottest Movie Men list (#1 Mifune)

i also liked that review ty silby!

I sometimes worry my ratings are inflated but then I'll see something so many degrees worse than most of what I watch, not even an infinite scale could put it in perspective

Yeah, I just don't watch bad films that often anymore. Refusing to go see things just because there's #discourse has helped.

You can always change the rating later if you watch it again and it doesn't hold up.

This is a great aspect of LB imo - star ratings always in flux, to be changed upon rewatch.

I think I've posted this before, but this is usually my dumb guide:

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/rating-scale.jpg

I like this Dan S. Rainbow scale

Truly, no one I follow has more alluringly idiosyncratic favorite film lists: https://sallittfavorites.wordpress.com/

I like using Letterboxd but whenever a review calls any movie whatsoever “boring” I get incandescently mad

rt