Well, what an honor it is to celebrate the second anniversary of Film Club! It is such a pleasure to sit (in the interweb) with three brilliant film lovers and just talk about the 7^th art. It is one of the highlights of the month for me. If the weather cooperates, I will set up on my back porch, prepare some cheese, crackers, a little vino, a square of chocolate and a cigar. Then sit back and enjoy the meeting. We take turns talking about each movie. Of course, the best bits are when we disagree. By now we have a good sense of who is going to like which films, so we have an excellent rapport.

This month we are slowing down a bit to only two films: Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and the American Western it inspired: The Magnificent Seven.

And the movies! Every month exploring four films in whatever genre we choose for our turn. I ventured off from a genre in July, to explore Meryl Streep’s acting. It was sad we could only watch four of her films, August Osage County was so good I wrote about it here. Another innovation this year was inviting a guest curator, Russian Literature, Film, and Culture professor Anthony Anemone (yes, he is the dad of one of our members) who recommended four brilliant films and had a great presentation for each.

I would write more about the films we watch every month, but I do not want this blog to be a film review blog, there are plenty of those and only one with my silly stories, so there.

Here is what we have watched this year. (For last year’s list, click here)

War (March)

Bridge over the River Kwai (1957)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

Come and See (1985)

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Crime and Punishment (April)

The Killing (1956)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2006)

Un Prophete (2009)

Art (May)

Tambien la Lluvia (2010)

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Mr. Turner (2014)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Meryl Streep (July)

Kramer vs Kramer (1979)

Sophie’s Choice (1982)

Julie & Julia (2009)

August: Osage County (2013)

Fantasy (August)

Princess Mononoke (1995)

Tale of Tales (2015)

A Monster Calls (2016)

The Green Knight (2021)

The System is Broken (September)

Brazil (1985)

I, Daniel Blake (2016)

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

The White Tiger (2021)

Spy (October)

Dr. No (1962)

The Lives of Others (2006)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

An Officer and a Spy (2019)

RomCom (November)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

The Birdcage (1996)

Punch Drunk Love (2002)

Childhood (December)

Paper Moon (1973)

Stand by Me (1986)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Moonlight (2016)

Russian/Polish as Curated by Tony Anemone (January)

Taxi Blues (1990)

Hipsters (2008)

Ida (2013)

Leviathan (2014)

Documentaries (February)

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Icarus (2017)

Gunda (2020)

Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020)

Women (March Women’s month)

Todo Sobre mi Madre (1999)

Lady Bird (2017)

Revenge (2017)

TAR (2022)