Movies I Watched in 2021

 

I know, I know, over 3,000 movies is too many movies to watch in one year. Please remember that at least half of these are shorts ranging from 10 seconds to 20 minutes in length. 

To my surprise and disappointment, I still haven't seen a movie in theatres since 2019 (The Rise of Skywalker, blech). 

Some of my favourites from 2021, along with a graph of when I was watching.

In 2021, I continued my efforts to broaden the geographical and genre range of the films I watch. The United States still dominates, but I'm glad to see strong representation from Japan and Europe. I need to watch more Indian films. My ratings follow a pretty typical bell curve, and I think that's because I'm not seeking out good or bad films in particular; I'm just watching anything that seems interesting. 

You'll probably remember a lot of these faces from last year. Mel Blanc, James Stewart, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Willis, and Gary Cooper made my most-watched list last year and return this year as I work to complete their filmographies. Tracking down their older and lesser-known films can be pretty challenging, but between streaming services, YouTube, TCM (before we cut our cable), and physical media, I've managed to screen virtually all of the well-known works and a sizeable portion of obscuria. 

I really want more women on my all-time stars list, hence Bette Davis' strong showing here. It helps that she's great. But who's John Livingston? Well, in a fit of nostalgia, I tracked down and watched all of those Hinterland Who's Who you might remember from Canadian television back in the 70s and 80s. John Livingston narrated them all. 

There are a lot of big names on this list, but I'm betting most audiences today will only recognize Woody Allen, John Ford, and maybe Neill Blomkamp. Anime fans will recognize Hideaki Anno; he's here because I watched all of his Evangelion work and went on from there to watch some of his earlier efforts. Ford and Allen are here because I'm working through their filmographies; the rest mainly because I'm watching many, many films from the 1890s to the 1910s. Alanis Obomsawin is an Indigenous Canadian; she's here because I spent some time exploring films from the NFB. 

Here's the map for 2021. North America, Europe, and Oceania dominate the numbers, but I did try to add more movies from South America, Africa, India, Russia, and the Middle East. 

If you're masochistic enough to be curious about what I watched in 2021, you can find the entire list on my Letterboxd page in reverse chronological order. 

My New Year's Resolution for 2022: fewer movies, more books. This is not a diss on movies; it's just that I clearly need more balance in my leisure time. 

P.E.Island Romance

Here's a cute little gem from the National Film Board: Island Paradise, a straightforward made-in-Canada boy-meets-girl story set on Prince Edward Island. There's nothing truly groundbreaking or special about this short film, but it does feature some lovely footage of the island as it was in the 1950s. And the finale is a bit of a surprise. 

Canada Vignettes: Flin Flon

In 1978 the National Film Board released this short film about Flin Flon, my birthplace. As noted in the film, Flin Flon is "...the only place in Canada named after a science fiction hero." Where else could I have possibly been born?

Beware of Falling Canoes

Upon reading my last post, friend and colleague/boss Rick Miller pointed me in the direction of another Bill Mason NFB great, "The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes." This 1968 short is new to me - either that, or I've forgotten it - but it's nonetheless delightful, with slapstick humour, some really terrific special effects, and an ecological message that resonates to this day. Mason's dynamic and colourful cinematrography is still very much in evidence, too. Also, it looks like the main actor in this film played the lighthouse keeper in "Paddle."

These films remind me of what a treasure we have in the National Film Board. Talk about a great return on our tax investment - decades of classic films of all kinds!

Does anyone else out there have fond memories of films and/or filmstrips they saw in school? Drop me a line in the comments, and a link to the film would be even better.

Paddle to the Sea of Memory

One spring afternoon sometime in the mid-1970s, one of my grade-school teachers rolled a film projector into our classroom in Leaf Rapids. He darkened the lights and turned on the projector, flecks of dust visible in the cone of light. The projector’s fan whirred to life and film clattered from front reel to back, unspooling the beautiful and gentle tale of a young boy’s dream and his wooden creation’s incredible journey from Nipigon country to the Atlantic Ocean. The film was “Paddle to the Sea,” Bill Mason’s 1966 adaptation of the 1941 children’s book by Holling Clancy Holling. Another timeless gem from the National Film Board of Canada, the film was nominated for an Academy Award.

Over the years two or three other teachers played this film for my classmates and me; I probably saw it for the last time in grade seven or eight. Perhaps because I grew up in a remote wilderness very similar to that portrayed in the film, the story of Paddle-to-the-Sea’s improbable trek fascinated me. Like the boy who carved the little man and his canoe, I grew up surrounded by vast forests interrupted only by remote streams and rivers. And like the young carver, I dreamed of what wonders the world beyond might hold.

I love this film for a number of reasons: the beautiful colour cinematography, the whimsical sense of humour, the gentle, evocative narration, the understated but genuine performances of actors human, animal, and inanimate. (Paddle-to-the-Sea himself expresses a wide range of emotions thanks to Mason’s clever direction.)

But most of all, I love the film’s faith in the essential goodness of human nature. “Please put me back in the water,” reads a plea carved into the bottom of Paddle-to-the-Sea, and this plea is duly obeyed by all who read it, even though the beautifully crafted toy is a unique and wonderful treasure. Those who discover the little man and his boat are compelled by empathy for the boy; they help fulfill his dream that Paddle should reach the sea.

Whenever I feel disappointed in humanity’s foibles – our rush to war, our careless destruction of our environment, our everyday cruelty to each other – stories like this remind me that we are just as capable of greatness and good. I’m grateful to Holling C. Holling, the NFB, Bill Mason and my teachers, who all helped me see some of the beauty in man and the world.

After you’ve watched the film,  be sure to read the original book. It’s just as wonderful as the film, with an expanded storyline and beautiful illustrations.

Logdriver's Waltz

In honour of Canada Day, I present what I believe should be our second official national anthem: The Log Driver's Waltz.