Now, let's just recap how the list is constructed. After watching a film for the first time I place it into the list. The first film I watched this year was Trainspotting. Then I watched Catfish, which was better, so it went above Trainspotting. This process carried on throughout the year, as I gradually ranked these films alongside each other.
Along the way some odd things have occurred - Fast Girls and The Hunger Games are quite low down on the list, and they should probably be higher. But they're not, because of my bizarre self-imposed rule, supposed to keep order, that I cannot change a film's placement once its written into the list. Frankly, this is bullshit and next year I might adopt a different strategy (see below) - and why I didn't drop it after last year's fiasco where The Dark Knight Rises was allegedly better than Holy Motors, I do not know.
So, here's the list:
I’m not the only person listing films. Some of my friends have been at it, too.
- Dee4Leeds set himself the task of watching 100 films in 2013, listing them all on Twitter. But not ranking them. He only managed 84, the poor guy.
- Jonathan Pitcher is a friend who hasn't seen all that many films, so he set about doing a list in the hope that it would inspire him to see more films. And boy did that work a treat, especially as he got to watch The Silence of the Lambs. There are few things more rewarding than sharing a film that somebody goes on to love. Jon allows himself to shuffle films about willy-nilly, an atypically liberal move for him.
- But pride of place must go to rawcheese/Ross Whyte - a useful co-editor, good friend, and all-round loveable chap with a penchant for Christmas - who made two lists. He has his 2013 list which, like mine, lists all the films he's seen for the first time in 2013. In the spirit of my restrictions - too much editing dilutes the list's honesty - but with more sensibility, Ross lets himself change a film's position after the next time he watches it.
- Ross's other list is his All-Time List, into which the 2013 list is integrated, where he lists all the films he watches - new or already-seen. His hope is that this list will then carry on next year, and the next, until he has a gigantic list of every film he's seen since January 1, 2013, comparatively ranked. I've pondered amalgamating my two lists for a similar effect, but I don't know if I will.
