100 Film Facts About Me

1. During my final year of high school, I studied only four subjects. This meant that I had an abundance of free periods. In these spares I use to go to the cinemas by myself.
2. I have never walked out of a film. Period. 
3. It was mostly my dad who fostered a love of films in me. English is only his second language and yet he has seen more Alfred Hitchcock films than I have. He loves The Godfather and even shed a tear in The English Patient. 
4. He is my favourite movie companion after Clea Moon, over at Spreepark.
5. I have a soft-spot for British rom-coms. These include Notting Hill, Four Weddings & A Funeral, About Time, Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Diary and About A Boy.             

   

   
   

6. My earliest memory of going to the cinema was of watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I remember hiding under my chair when Professor Quirell takes off his turban.
7. I never quite understood the power of the score (music) of a film until I saw Atonement. The integration of typewriter clicks and the men's choir during the war scenes was revolutionary. At least for me it was. 
8. I have never watched a film and not read its Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes and IMBD page.
9. I am beginning to understand how bad The Help is. But I still think that final Emma Stone scene is heartbreaking.
10. I learn more about a film writing about it, then actually watching it.
    
    
    
11. It was from Sofia Coppala (i.e. Lost In Translation, Somewhere) that I learnt its never the first impressions that last.
12. I have only ever cried twice of happiness in my life - one of those being the pen giving scene in A Beautiful Mind.
13. The only other times I have ever cried from a film is in the middle of Dear John when John reads his letter aloud to dad and in 12 Years A Slave. 
14. I've seen it twice and yet I still don't see the fuss around When Harry Met Sally. 
15. I have never watched Pulp Fiction and it is my biggest flaw. 
    
16. The first 20 minutes of The Perks of Being A Wallflower annoys me no end – the rest I find endlessly compelling and perfect.
17. I enjoy films more without watching the trailers but often cant help myself and go ahead and watch them anyway.
18. I have always appreciated the selection of films they showed us at my high school including: A.1: Artificial Intelligence, the Matrix, To Kill A Mockingbird, My Year Without Sex, Slumdog Millionaire, The God's Must Be Crazy.
19.  My favourite contemporary directors are Joe Wright, Sean Penn and Sofia Coppola. 
20. I have always harboured a distaste for Baz Lurhman films particularly the Red Curtain series: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! All of which I find to be incredibly overrated.
21. Ironically enough, I have met the male lead of Baz Lhurman's live musical of Strictly Ballroom, Thomas Lacey.
22. Ironically enough, Baz Lhurman also came to my high school to give a talk. 
23. The film, which has most, endorsed my fascination for the cinematic world is, though clichéd, the Martin Scorsese children’s adventure film Hugo.
    
24. I’ve always loved all the Avengers films but found Thor to be out of place. Whilst each of Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America are products of science fiction Thor is fantasy. What?
25. My favourite director of all time is without a doubt, Woody Allen. 
26. Although I appreciated Cate Blanchett's performance and I believe she fully deserved the Oscar for best actress, Blue Jasmine is probably one of my least favourite Woody Allen films. 
27. I can't quite make up my mind about Scarlett Johansson. 
28. I have a new obsession of attending preview screenings. I get a buzz out of getting ahead of the film scene. 
    
    
    
29. I can't stand Jim Carrey but he did impress me in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 
30.  I am a huge Jane Austen fan. Thus, by default, I am also a huge fan of Jane Austen adaptations and have seen really too many.
31. I am actually an avid classic-novel collector so I enjoy watching adaptations particularly those by Dickens and the Brontë sisters. The 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre had me.
32. I can appreciate a good Martin Scorsese film but I really haven't seen enough of his films.
33. I absolutely adore watching films about mental illness. 
34. I'm saving up to study film part-time. It might not even happen. But I can trick myself into thinking it may. 
35. My two favourite mini-series ever are the 2002 adaptation of Daniel Deronda and the BBC adaptation of Emma. 
36. Following on from that, my favourite British actress is Romola Garai, the star of both these series'. 
    
    
    
37. Frances O'Connor is my most adored Australian actress. She was utterly captivating in Madame Bovary. 
38. I despise genre-satirics like Epic Movie, Not Another Teen Movie, Dance Flick and Vampires Suck. With the exception of course, of The World's End. 
39. I love that painful yet wonderful feeling of wanderlust you can get out of travel movies. 
40. The thing I love about preview screenings is that the audience claps afterwards. 
41. I have always thought that The Blind Side received way too much praise and attention. 
42. I absolutely love the Oscars and have watched it every year for the past five years. Only in 2013 had I managed to see every film nominated (except 2 foreign films and 3 documentaries)
    
43. I absolutely love action films. Liam Neeson and James MacAvoy all the way baby. 
44. My favourite young actors are Logan Lerman and Jeremy Irvine. 
45. My favourite young actresses are Kaya Scodelario and Shailene Woodley.
46. I don't particularly like Kiera Knightley but she is known for her collaborations with Joe Wright e.g. Atonement, Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice and these are amongst my favourite films. 
47. I find Saoirse Ronan endlessly compelling. She's been in a string of mediocre films but she's really quite a good actress. She was the true star of Atonement. 
    
48. I fucking love Michael Fassbender. 
49. I am yet to see Steve McQueen's debut film, Hunger, and I can't wait. 
50. I have a box set of 20 Woody Allen films spanning all of his films from the 60s to the 80s
51. I use to be obsessed with chick flicks. Now I can't watch the average American rom-com without incessantly making faces and cringing. 
52. I can't stand Kate Hudson. 
53. I love the idea of horror films but I'm still too chicken to watch them. This summer, I plan on watching a series of horror films in the morning - starting with Silence of the Lambs.
    
54. The most disappointing film for me in 2013 was Saving Mr Banks. 
55. My favourite most-hated film is the political thriller Lions for Lambs. 
56. My curiosity lands me in strange places in film. I have absolutely no shame and have seen some of the most disturbing, banned films in the world. These include Lars Von Trien's entire depression trilogy (Antichrist, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac Vol I&II), I Spit on Your Grave, A Serbian Film, Afterschool. If its controversial and completely screwed up then I've most likely seen it. 
57. I'm terrible at watching musicals. I find it really difficult to sit through them. Even when I was watched My Fair Lady I had to fast-forward through the musical numbers. 
58. I went to watch Les Misérables on its premiere day. It was big mistake. The woman next to me was such a big fan she cried the whole way through and sang the lyrics to nearly every song. It was horrible. The film itself was merely passable. 
59. I have never seen a Star Wars film.
    
60. I watched the 2009 adaptation of Star Trek and rather enjoyed it.
61. I use to love Glee. Not so much anymore.
62. I actually use to watch alot of bad American television: Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars.
63. Now all I watch are British series': Misfits, Skins, The Inbetweeners, Downton Abbey, Fresh Meat, My Mad Fat Diary and Drifters. 
    
64. The thing I love about British television is the film-scale level of production. Each episode equates to the quality of film which is more than you can say about the average CW television show.
65. I also love Game of Thrones. 
66. I still can't get over how great The Social Network is. It blew my mind. 
67. As a child, I was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid and The Wizard of Oz. 
68. I have no idea why I do it. But I always watch movies on television even if I own it on DVD. 
    
    
    
69. I have watched so many films on television that now I know the Melbourne television film cycle: No Reservations, Back to the Future, Groundhog Day, National Lampoon's Vacation, Home Alone, The Witches, Matilda
70. I recommend the film Up in the Air to everyone. It's been awhile since someone made such a great film. 
71. I don't like Avatar. I remember being coerced into watching it at a friend's place. I got really bored; the visuals were stunning but the plot was so unoriginal and cliché. I also remember being heavily criticised for not liking the film, being told I had bad taste in films.  
    
    
    
72. I was so glad having seen The Counselor. I have decided that I am going to wait until I know much more about film to make a judgment on this one. 
73. My favourite documentary of all time is The Cove.
74. My favourite family cast of all time is in the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. The five sisters: Kiera Knightley, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Talulah Riley, all went on to do great, great things. And of course Donald Sutherland as Mr Bennet to top it all off. 
    
75. I can't stop thinking that Rooney Mara needs to be appreciated more.
76. My favourite short films are by are YouTuber called Anna Akana. She's currently doing a project of releasing a short a month for the year and her latest one, Afflicted Inc., is brilliant. 
77. This is unconfirmed, but I think that Into The Wild may be my favourite film. It literally made me question everything. 
    
78. I honestly believe that Australia has the best actresses in the world: Mia Wasikowski, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, Naomi Watts, Emily Browning, Teresa Palmer, Rachel Griffiths
79. Julie & Julia inspired me to cook. I now cook dinner, voluntarily, once a week. 
80. My favourite travel film is Under the Tuscan Sun. 
81. I am not particularly fond of Australian television. I can't stand Home and Away, Neighbours, Winners & Losers or Offspring. 
82. I do however enjoy Dance Academy - the first season was merely bearable and the final season impeccable, and SLiDE - a brilliant, spot-on representation of Australian teens. 
    
83. My favourite Canadian television series is Being Erica. 
84. I watched Silver Linings Playbook twice in the cinemas but I still don't think it was worthy of a best film nomination at the Oscars. 
85. The film I have watched the most in the cinemas is the final Harry Potter film. 
86. I have watched too many Lifetime movies. They are terrible but they have taught me two things: 1. what bad film-making looks like and 2. about low-budget film-making
87. I love hearing Bon Iver in film. The music they make is just so appropriate for films. 
88. I'm a law student and everyone in my course loves Suits which I find to be good but not great. 
    
89. My favourite legal dramas are Eli Stone and Judging Amy. 
90. I have seen many, many law films including: To Kill A Mockingbird, Erin Brockovich, A Few Good Men, 12 Angry Men etc.
91. I am so sick of formulaic cancer films. Which is why I can't wait for The Fault In Our Stars to come out and sweep them all out of the water. I can't think of a single good film about cancer. The Bucket List, My Sister's Keeper, Stepmom and A Walk to Remember are all laughably bad. Now Is Good is probably the best of them.
92. When I met Jodi Picoult (author of My Sister's Keeper) a few years back she likened the adaptation of her novel to giving a daughter up for adoption and discovering it became a prostitute. 
93. Generally, I find British film to be better than American film. This applies primarily to comedy. Americans find toilet humour way too valuable, British comedy relies on wit, irony and intellectual banter. 
    
    
    
94. I use to love dance movies. Until I saw the pattern. That formula of two dance genres clashing and then coming together. I yawn. 
95. I share my blog posts on Facebook but I don't really enjoy talking about my blog with other people. Its like the first rule of Fight Club. I guess its because I don't know how to explain it. I do however love talking about films with other people of course. 
96. I love the first part of Eat Pray Love, (the "eat" part). The rest is shit. 
97. I have met 3 Academy Award nominees and winners in my lifetime: Ralph Fiennes (i.e. Schindler's List, The English Patient, Skyfall, Harry Potter), Sean Tan (director and writer of The Lost Thing) and Jeffrey Katzenberg (producer of Shrek, The Lion King, Chicken Run)
    
98. I find Italian films very intimidating. They are often so culturally rich, I am often fascinated and way out of my depth.
99. I have never been to a film festival. Mostly because I find the Australian film scene to be rather tedious. 
100. The film which has influenced me the most is Revolutionary Road where it is said "If being crazy means living life as it matters, then I don't mind being completely insane". Finally, someone understands me. 

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