every movie i watched in 2024
in 2024, i watched over 200 new-to-me, feature-length films.
I always keep two notebooks, one for writing projects and another for ideas and journaling. Every year, I turn them over and every year I separate the last few pages of the journaling notebook to keep a running list of the movies I watch. (I do the same for the books I read.) The criteria are simple: They must all be feature-length films I watched for the first time within the given calendar year. No television shows, no short films, no video/film art. Rewatches aren’t counted or logged.
By July 2024, I had watched over 120 movies. Lists like these have a way of reminding me of where I was — literally and figuratively — when I finished each movie. My pace significantly slowed once I stopped living alone and started sharing a TV. I let things like the weather and my writing determine what I watch and when. I pair movies with specific meals, outfits, errands. I sometimes plan outfits or even weekends around them, spinning whole moods from them. It’s how I fall back into myself.
This year I decided to guide what I watch with a bit more intention: I set out to go deep on 20th century Italian cinema and spend more time at indie theaters, and I did. I had also hoped to spend more time watching Spanish-language films, which proved much harder than expected: WTF are there so close to no Spanish-language film on The Criterion Channel? Or any other streamer, for that matter? Anyway, I have successfully p****ed plenty of gems so I’ll catch up in the new year.
In total, I watched just over 200 new-to-me films in 2024. Scans of all the pages as of December 11 are included in this post.1 They are listed in the order in which I watched them, along with the release year and country of origin.
What follows is a far cry from the “Best of 2024” roundup this type of list would typically merit. Instead, I thought I would group and discuss these films according to how I experienced them: There is a lot that won’t be discussed here, if ever. And again, I’m very particular about when and how I watch movies, so this roundup will be more about that when and how. An affective and aesthetic summary of the images that played through my head throughout 2024.2
Ken Russell
I remember starting the year wanting every part of my life to look and feel like the dinner scene in Victor, Victoria: The velour booth, a table cluttered in glassware, frosted windows and an explosion of red carnations bursting out of a silver vase in the background. I started wearing perfume again and lived off amaro and tinned fish while replaying that scene of Julia Andrews and James Garner smoking cigars, staring each other down in their twin tuxedos. I’m becoming more aware of a very specific type of kitsch and decadence associated with the theatrical: dusty silk flowers in a dressing room, the smell of makeup, pearls clattering over a cold countertop, the boozy insides of a cherry cordial. Whatever connects these things in my mind, is further articulated in Ken Russell’s films: I saw it in Twiggy’s Pierrot in The Boy Friend (1971), in Alma Mahler’s striptease in Mahler (1974) and the play-within-a-film of Salome’s Last Dance (1988).
After that, I watched all the Ken Russell I could find: Crimes of Passion, (with Kathleen Turner) Altered States, Women in Love, Savage Messiah, Lair of the White Worm (with Hugh Grant). His are stories about art-making, empires in decline, aesthetic decadence, and extremes. His is a thoroughly theatrical world of dancing Nazi’s and lascivious priests. 1971’s The Devils starred Vanessa Redgrave as a horny nun. He cast Redgrave’s daughter, Natasha Richardson, as a young Mary Shelley in 1986’s Gothic, a fictionalized retelling a trippy weekend spent in Lord Byron’s Italian villa.
Italian Cinema
Before returning to my Ken Russell winter in New York, I spent the first few weeks of the year diving into Italian cinema: Starting with Federico Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits, where I learned I was partial to the candy-colored melodrama of the directors later, less-celebrated works. Juliet of the Spirits chronicles the psychological unravelling of an overkept-yet-lonely housewife, played by Fellini’s own wife and frequent collaborator, Giulietta Masina. The film roughly parallels the couple’s own marital problems in the kind of art-imitating-life synergy that never gets old.
To no surprise, I learned that I am, above all, a Pasolini girl: Teorema, Porcile, Accattone are all devastating and beautiful in their philosophical heft. Even his shittiest movie, Medea starring Maria Callas, is so indelibly him. But I felt I got the closest look at the cultural conservative-turned-Marxist in his documentary “Scouting Palestine.” The film follows the director location-scout for 1964’s Gospel According to Matthew. There is no mention of Israel’s genocidal atrocities and the director leans of stereotypically racist language to describe local Palestinians.3 But he catches himself “looking for the grandeur of Roman depictions of the New Testament in the humility of Palestine,” and, “as far as I am concerned, I think I have completely transformed my imagination.” I look forward to reading his essays about scenesters and watching Love Meetings.
Lightning round: I can’t get enough of Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1971) and I was not disappointed by Tenebrae (1982) and Inferno (1980). Abel Ferrara has some gems like Ms. 45, The Addiction, and Body Snatchers, but I haven’t been able to connect to it. Michelangelo Antonioni makes very sexy and Italian “mood compositions” I’ll rewatch for the vibes, but can’t say Blowup blew my mind. In terms of Roberto Rossellini, I prefer Isabella. Ditto re: Fellini, Giulietta is far more interesting.
Luis Buñuel
Belle de Jour is one of my favorite movies. I can’t say I have the deepest reasons for saying so: I enjoy the beauty of the costuming and set design, like Ken Russell’s movies, there is an element of theatricality and back-stage grit underwriting Belle’s (Catherine Deneuve’s) every move. My fixation with this film is what finally pushed me to watch the rest of Luis Buñuel’s oeuvre: I started with The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), Exterminating Angel (1962), and my new favorite: Viridiana (1961). Like all the best 20th century movies, Viridiana was denounced by the Vatican for being “blasphemous.” After watching it three times all I found was a complex, sumptuous, and, at times, violent, portrayal of faith’s delusions and the cruelty of Francoist Spain.
Andrei Tarkovsky
Dreamy. Ambient. Tonal. But also, profoundly insightful, feeling, and intelligent. I watched five Tarkovsky movies this year: Mirror, Andrei Rublev, Nostalghia, Solaris and Stalker. In that order. I watched Nostalghia at the Film Forum with a friend and I witnessed the entire theatre fall in and out of sleep in as the film progressed. The rest of these movies, I watched at home, letting myself fall alseep when my body asked. I would pause the movie, nap, wake up, and continue watching. Repeat as needed. The nap haze enhanced the Tarkovsky. This is how I immersed myself into the hypnagogia of his films, by letting them pace my heart-rate, by letting the score rock me to sleep and inviting the dialogue into my dreams. What better way to enjoy the work of an artist who deals with the nature of memory through famously long-takes, than to let yourself dip into the dreamlike?
L’Histoire d’Adele H (1975)
According to my notes, the first new-to-me movie I watched this year was L’Histoire d’Adèle H: the story of a Victor Hugo’s second daughter, Adèle H, as she obsessively follows her crush from town to town, stalking him despite his lack of interest. Under François Truffaut’s direction, a pre-Possession Isabelle Adjani portrays Adèle in all her fraying chaos. Adjani is frizzy-haired behind her wire-framed glasses, bringing intensity to this otherwise gentle movie about a very famous man’s very sick daughter. It’s dark, moody, obviously sad, but most of all, an underrated Adjani performance.
A very incomplete list of my favorite first-time watches of the year + micro reviews: Santa Sangre (1989) a movie that makes me want to make films — Son of the White Mare (1981) the best animated film I’ve seen in a long time —The Children’s Hour (1961) Sapphic yearning starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley McClain! — Kuroneko (1971) best black and white film: frigid, haunting, and airy — Monkey Man (2024) Dev is daddy — Extreme Private Eros; Love Song 1974 (1974) an intimate documentary made between exes — India Song (1975) see 001: My Writing —the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, 🔥 — Our Father, The Devil (2021) just thrilling, and to think it’s the director’s debut film?! — Martha Clarke Light & Dark: A Dancer’s Journal (1980) beautiful dance documentary — Secretary (2002) sexy stuff! — Water Lilies (2007) my favorite Céline Sciamma —Summertime (1955) Venice porn starring Katherine Hepburn — Maison du Bonheur (2017) the sweetest, feel-good documentary about a snazzy elderly Parisian lady — The Holdovers (2023) new favorite X-mas movie — Problemista (2023) I love Julio Torres — Ring (1998) catnip for my media theory-loving ass — Dead Ringers (1988) best Cronenberg thanks to Jeremy Irons playing both Mantle twins. — In 2025 I want to spend more time watching movies by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pedro Almodóvar + Carlos Saura. 🎬
Update, December 17: I prepared this post on December 11 and since then I have watched a few more new-to-me films and they are: Autumn Sonata (1978) and Summer Interlude (1951), both by Ingmar Bergman. The former is for those who love La Pianiste starring Isabelle Huppert, the latter has become one of my new all-time favorites. I also watched: The Color of Pomegranates (1969) and The Witches (1967), an Italian anthology film starring Silvana Mangano.
To tally it up: This list includes two (2) films that have been banned by the Vatican, Viridiana and The Devils. And three (3) very publicly-Catholic directors: Ken Russell converted in the 50s, Pier Paolo Pasolini at one point called himself a “Catholic Marxist” and Luis Buñuel worked from within the conflicts inherent to Catholicism. Can’t even pretend I’m shocked.
I only found this film because it was the only film about Palestine I could find on the Criterion Channel, which is…telling. I have posted plenty of other playlists and websites in the past few months where you can stream Palestinian films for free. And I remember Another Gaze Journal has a sister steaming service that once shared free-to-watch program of Films by Palestinian Women, that is no longer streamable but still a good source to reference.
Loved this! Feeling inspired to be more deliberate with my movie selections. Also would *love* to read your thoughts on Ring!
i watched barbie and saltburn back to back in which i can only describe as a fever dream