Saturday 31 December 2011

What was 2011?

       2011 is ending. Great for me personally because it was possibly the worst year of my life and let's hope history doesn't repeat itself. However, this is mostly a film blog and we will focus on all things celluloid. Thus a few things that happened in 2011, film-wise:

1) The Social Network lost to The King's Speech and David "God-like" Fincher lost to bloody Tom Hooper in the Oscars. These Oscars were the first one I properly followed, unlike earlier when I would have seen a few films and performances. I am probably never going to forget it... too much devotion towards TSN.

2) My childhood, along with hundreds of thousands of others from "my generation", ended with the final installment of the Harry Potter film series hitting the theatres. A lot of tears were shed as we said goodbye to the Boy Wizard and his friends and Hogwarts.

3) Pirates of Caribbean 4 came out- honestly who remembers this? Me neither, and I actually liked the film...

4) Loads of superheroes- some were terrible and green, and the others were better than I expected, most notably the film with Fassy in the turtlenecks and the film in which Chris Evans is a scrawny kid from Brooklyn.

5) A few nice surprises like Midnight in Paris and Bridesmaids. Even Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with the ridiculous name, is one of the better reviewed films of the year.

6) Two absolutely stunning films about the cosmos and human life came out- The Tree of Life and Melancholia. One won the Palme D'Or, the other suffered due to the director's big mouth. Still, I'm pretty stoked about Kirsten Dunst winning the award for her brilliant performance.

7) This year will be looked back as the year when Ryan Gosling came on his own, hence it was the Year of the Gos. I for one, was always a fan, even before The Notebook, and it gave me a lot of joy. People were left gobsmacked at his photoshopped-esque beauty in Crazy, Stupid, Love; they felt the thrill of the Driver in Drive; and they were totally won over by his charm in The Ides of March. So much so that the crowning of Bradley Cooper as the Sexiest Man Alive for 2011 led to protests and petitions being signed (I signed one myself). In all of this though, the Gos has remained completely oblivious and awesome- breaking fights and making comedy videos and oh what a lustrous career ahead!

8) The biggest breakthroughs this year was ofcourse Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender. Seriously, how many people knew about Chastain existing before 2011? But she was in everything, and was lovely. Fassy fever hit me and many others this year, and this is only the start. Along with them, four other actors, who were quite brilliant this year, I am looking forward to see are Asa Butterfield, Elizabeth Olsen, Ezra Miller and Tom Hiddleston.

9) Quite a malnourished year when it comes to animated films. People really enjoyed Rango, though I was totally won over by The Adventures of Tintin. What this year did have was two very well received films about films,  Hugo and The Artist, which is always great.

10) This year was also when one of the greatest and most beautiful actresses ever, Elizabeth Taylor, died. She will be sorely missed.

(So those were the 10 things that pop into my head when I think 2011. For cutesy purposes I guess, I shall talk about an 11th thing, that isn't film-based so much, but meh- my list!)

11) I discovered the brilliance of Doctor Who (the Eleventh incarnation no less) and Sherlock, and went gaga over the genius that is Steven Moffat. Also since we're taking a personal route here, I finished Quentin Tarantino's filmography, started and finished watching all of P.T. Anderson's films, and started on auteurs like Pedro Almodóvar and David Lynch. Yaay :D

All in all, a pretty decent film year I think. Goodbye 2011, hello 2012!

3 comments:

  1. Seems like you've had a good year for 2011 (as said, film-wise)!

    Sorry to hear that it wasn't good on the 'living' side of the pond, though - that always sucks.

    I can join you on that club as it could be seen as the worst, but also best year I've had in a while...(it's complicated haha.)

    Hope 2012 is better for you, Nikhat!

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  2. Jessica Chastain...oh how I'm thankful for her existence. It's funny, because I'd heard of her in 2010 because her name was on the poster for The Tree of Life, and I had to wonder why they'd stick another one of those small indie actresses that no-one knew about on a poster with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Boy, how I was wrong. Her name is now the selling point for any film that she's in!

    I'm still pissed about The Social Network. I refuse to move on...

    Anyway, I hope 2012 is better for you! Thanks for all of your support in 2011 :)

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  3. @Cherokee- It was a pretty good year filmwise. It does suck, but thank you for your concern. And I hope 2012 rocks for you too :D

    @Stevee- Haha, I remember reading about how she's going to be in random films and I didn't care much. But yes, totally agree.
    I refuse to move on either -.-
    Thank you so much! No problem, you are a lovely blogger :) Have a good year!

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