Chronological Journey Through Film History - Blu-ray Forum

steel_breeze · 11-24-2019, 06:09 AM

Never started a thread before; I’m sure someone will point out if this isn’t correct for some reason, lol. I already know it's too long-winded.

I’ve just embarked on an admittedly eccentric but undeniably epic journey I’ve made only twice before: a chronological viewing of my Top Tier “Film History” library. Even though I actually own around 250 titles in my library, this “Top Tier” is a carefully curated collection of 150 Blu-rays and UHDs (and a smattering of DVD holdouts) that span the entire sweep of film history, from the work of the Lumiere Bros in 1895 to Terrence Malick’s TREE OF LIFE in 2011 (I don't love modern movies, so that's as recent as my Top Tier gets). I’ve completed this chronological journey twice before: in 2006 when I got my first projector, and then again in 2011 after my wife and I had moved into our house and established my current home theater.

The whole thing takes awhile — about a year and a half, ‘cuz of course it’s not ALL I’m doing with my life. And I’ll still be watching new releases as they come out, and even continue to watch other movies outside of the chronology, whenever we have friends over or simply feel like watching something else — it’s not meant to be an all-consuming chore, after all. But any time I do dedicate myself to watching the next chronological installment, I like to take myself back to that particular moment in history, like an actor falling into a role, and try to feel what these movies felt like to audiences that were watching them when they were “new”. Thus, when titles like KING KONG, GONE WITH THE WIND, BREATHLESS, or 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY arrive, I’m actually able to catch a glimpse of the “original experience”, and enjoy the full impact of these masterpieces as if no one has ever seen them before. It’s really the most amazing way to experience the whole magnificent sweep of cinema history: from silents to talkies, from the studio system to the French New Wave, from the film school auteurs of the 70’s to tent-pole blockbusters.

So tonight I kicked it all off with the wonderful “Landmarks of Early Film” DVD, which contains a collection of Lumiere Shorts dating from 1895, including “Workers Leaving the Factory" and the infamous “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat”, which terrified audiences upon initial exhibition. The DVD also contains Edwin S. Porter’s THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY from 1903, and D.W. Griffith’s THE GIRL AND HER TRUST from 1912, along with much much more. And of course I capped off the night’s viewing with the magnificent Blu-ray of Georges Melies’ A TRIP TO THE MOON from 1902, restored to its original hand-painted glory. It’s easy to fall back into a sense of wonder at these moving images as they’re paraded up on the big screen. What must people have felt when these films first arrived? Fantastic stuff.

Anyone else want to join me by taking a chronological journey through your own “sub-collection”? I know many of you have thousands of titles… but remember, I’m not even watching MY whole collection; only those titles that represent “Film History” to me — as viewed through the lens of my own personal taste, of course, ‘cuz this sort of thing is never entirely objective. But it’s pretty easy to edit down my own collection and see that Hitchcock’s VERTIGO will be included, whereas XANADU will not. I can’t recommend this experience highly enough; you’ll appreciate cinema in a way you never have before.

Tonight I covered 1895-1912, so next stop for me is the Blu-ray of D.W. Griffith’s epic INTOLERANCE from 1916. What would be first for you?

movieben1138 · 11-24-2019, 07:40 AM

This is considerably more far-reaching than my own journey from last year. I watched all 92 Oscar winning Best Pictures (counting both SUNRISE and WINGS in that first year) in chronological release order. It was quite the experience. And I threw in some bonus stops along the way; mostly historically significant winners/nominees that had somehow eluded me over the years like A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.

I'm considering a similar endeavor now with the Best Foreign Language Film category, but the difference there is that I don't own them all. It will either take some tracking down of what I'm missing, a willingness to watch some via YouTube or what-have-you, or accepting the fact that I'll have to skip over a couple.

If I were doing as you are, I imagine my first disc would be that very same Landmarks of Early Cinema disc. I never got around to purchasing Kino's massive The Movies Begin box set, or that would be another option. (I do have The Magic of Melies disc that was part of it, though. And a handful of their Slapstick Symposium DVDs which are great collections of silent comedies.)

steel_breeze · 12-05-2019, 05:22 AM

I've completed Night Two of my "Chronological Journey Through Film History" with the amazing Cohen Media Blu-ray of DW Griffith's (less racist) masterpiece INTOLERANCE, from 1916. Once you get into the "historical context mode" I wrote about in this thread's first post, Griffith's sprawling epic becomes a genuinely jaw-dropping achievement: juggling four parallel timelines, with intercut action sequences in the third act that (for their time) rival anything you'll find in a modern STAR WARS flick. A true tour de force, with faithful cameraman Billy Bitzer pioneering the art of the Close-Up and the Tracking Shot. And of course one MUST mention the iconic "Crane Shot" of the vast Babylonian courtyard -- which was used as the design basis for the current-day shopping complex located at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles. It actually wasn't a crane shot at all, but an elevator tower set on a track. Ingenious and ground-breaking.

I know Griffith's earlier BIRTH OF A NATION technically did more to pioneer cinematic language, but I simply don't own that unwatchably racist film in my collection -- no matter how historically important it is. So INTOLERANCE is my Griffith representation in this "Chronological Journey"... and I've always found it to be more impressive and entertaining anyway!

The Cohen Blu-ray is a huge leap forward from all other editions I've owned. Crystal clear and rock solid registration. Maybe a little TOO rock-solid, lol; I don't mind a little gate weave in my silents. But I do have to say: the tinting gets a little too intense at times for my taste, especially down the home stretch. I find that I prefer to lower the Color saturation by 6 points on my projector before the intermission, and then an additional 4 points for everything AFTER the intermission. Gets pretty distracting (for me) otherwise.

Loved revisiting INTOLERANCE "in context" of this chronology. Head-shakingly impressive feat of cinema, from over a hundred years ago.

Next stop: Criterion's excellent Blu-ray of Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925 version, of course).

steel_breeze · 12-28-2019, 04:24 AM

Night Five of the slow-but-steady "Chronological Journey" through my personal Blu-ray/UHD collection is in the books.

Since I started this series in my home theater a few weeks ago, I've covered:
--LANDMARKS OF EARLY FILM (on dvd, unfortunately) featuring shorts by the Lumiere Bros, Edwin S. Porter, D.W. Griffith and many others, covering the years 1895 - 1913... along with the outstanding Blu-ray restoration of George Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902)
--DW Griffith's INTOLERANCE (1916) on Blu-ray
--Charles Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925) on Blu-ray
--Rupert Julian's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) on Blu-ray, complete with magnificent 2-strip Technicolor sequence

and tonight, on Night Five, it was Sergei Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) on Blu-ray.

I'm tellin' ya, nothing gets my cinephile blood pumpin' more than watching these flicks chronologically. I've seen POTEMKIN many times since that first time my professors showed it to us in film school, in the early nineties... but man, you FEEL the power of it again when it's placed in proper historical context. The editing is absolutely like a bolt of lightning, coming out of those films before it -- magnificent as they are in their own right. And the Odessa Steps sequence.... it's brand new again when you see it with fresh eyes like this. Head-shakingly good.

Next up for me... the final year of silents' dominance before the coming of sound: 1927, with Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL, William Wellman's WINGS, and FW Murnau's SUNRISE. All looking spectacular on Blu-ray. Dammit I love my library.

This is the way to experience cinema!

Jaymole · 12-28-2019, 10:48 AM

I think this is a great way to watch your film library. And you have the perfect size library for such an endeavor.

I myself could never do it as I own way too many films (over 12,000 including DVDs). The closest I come is watching a director's resume again from first to last (or latest). I am doing that with Woody Allen right now and have gone through his first 17 films.

Now that I have Criterion's Bergman set, I might do that with his.

I wish you good luck and happy viewing!

steel_breeze · 01-29-2020, 04:48 AM

Just finished Night Nine of the "Chronological Journey" through my personal physical-media library.

To review, the previous nights stretch back to November; it's a slow and steady process...
1. LANDMARKS OF EARLY FILM (1895 - 1913) Image Entertainment DVD, plus A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) Flicker Alley Blu-ray
2. INTOLERANCE (1916) Cohen Media Blu-ray
3. THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Criterion Blu-ray
4. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) Kino Blu-ray
5. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) Kino Blu-ray
6. METROPOLIS (1927) Kino Blu-ray
7. THE GENERAL (1927) Kino Blu-ray (tinted edition)
8. WINGS (1927) Paramount Blu-ray

And now on Night Nine, I've finished off the silent era with SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1927) on the 20th Century Fox Blu-ray. I also own the Masters of Cinema UK edition, but I experience audio drop-outs on that disc, so I only keep it for the original poster art on the case.

Man, what an amazing experience to watch these silents in chronological order. We've reached a crescendo of artistic achievement with SUNRISE, with its swooping magnificent camera movement over swampland and through city streets... just in time to have sound come along and make the whole industry virtually start from scratch. I love the original Movietone soundtrack to SUNRISE, an early sound-on-film solution that didn't feature sync dialogue but does contain a full orchestral score (a revelation for smaller markets that may only have known piano accompaniment) as well as "non-sync" sound effects like bells ringing, car horns honking, people hollering and clapping, etc. It's an amazing transition piece at the dawn (or "sunrise") of a new era.

I pride myself on having most of the "important" pieces of cinema in my collection, but I do not own THE JAZZ SINGER (1927); just not particularly "rewatchable" for me... so next stop on my Chronological Journey will be the first "sound" film in my collection: DRACULA (1931). This is a fascinating piece because as moody as it is, DRACULA's sync soundtrack only includes the production sound; there's no score whatsoever, except a brief opening and closing title theme and a "source" musical moment when the characters go to the theater. Otherwise, the only sounds in those quiet moments within Dracula's spooky castle are the cracks and pops of the old optical soundtrack. Love it.

steel_breeze · 02-05-2020, 03:45 AM

Night Eleven of the Chronological Journey through my personal Blu-ray/UHD/DVD collection (see thread above for explanation)... 1933's KING KONG. This is one of the main reasons I enjoy going through my library chronologically; when you get to a film like this "in historical context", it's like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. There was nothing like Kong before Kong, with Willis O'Brien's jaw-dropping stop-motion animation and Max Steiner's ground-breaking score combining to make audiences feel real empathy for a character made of metal, foam rubber, and rabbit fur. So good; never gets old. And the Blu-ray is spectacular, with wonderfully preserved film grain and beautifully restored monaural track.

Next stop on my Chronological Journey: the gorgeous Criterion Blu-ray of Frank Capra's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), and then the first animated feature -- in glorious Technicolor -- SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES (1938). Creeping my way toward STAGECOACH and GONE WITH THE WIND from 1939. What an amazing era of innovation and artistry.

steel_breeze · 05-09-2020, 04:41 PM

I’ve been watching my Blu-ray/UHD/DVD collection in chronological order since late November, when I started in 1895 with the Lumiere Bros, Melies, and Porter. I’ve been through the Silent Era and German Expressionism with names like Griffith, Chaplin, Eisenstein, Lang, Keaton, and Murnau; early sound films and the Studio System with the likes of Capra, Ford, Disney, Selznick and Cukor; 1940’s wartime-then-post-war, film noir and Italian Neo-Realism with Welles, Curtiz, Wilder, Powell & Pressburger, Lean, Hitchcock, and De Sica; then the Hollywood Blacklist, expansion of widescreen formats, and proliferation of international cinema with Zinneman, Kazan, Ozu, Kurosawa, Bergman, and more Hitchcock… and now I’ve arrived at a sea change — arguably the dividing line between "ancient history" and modern cinema: the French New Wave, represented in my collection by the Criterion Blu-rays of Truffaut’s 400 BLOWS (1959) and Godard's BREATHLESS (1960). This is the first generation of “movie fans making movies", who will in turn inspire the New Hollywood of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Love that my eccentric “Chronological Journey” enables me to experience each cinematic movement in its proper historical context!

11-24-2019, 06:09 AM	#1
steel_breeze Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2012 Location:Los Angeles 4K collection:72 Blu-ray collection:256	Chronological Journey Through Film History Never started a thread before; I’m sure someone will point out if this isn’t correct for some reason, lol. I already know it's too long-winded. I’ve just embarked on an admittedly eccentric but undeniably epic journey I’ve made only twice before: a chronological viewing of my Top Tier “Film History” library. Even though I actually own around 250 titles in my library, this “Top Tier” is a carefully curated collection of 150 Blu-rays and UHDs (and a smattering of DVD holdouts) that span the entire sweep of film history, from the work of the Lumiere Bros in 1895 to Terrence Malick’s TREE OF LIFE in 2011 (I don't love modern movies, so that's as recent as my Top Tier gets). I’ve completed this chronological journey twice before: in 2006 when I got my first projector, and then again in 2011 after my wife and I had moved into our house and established my current home theater. The whole thing takes awhile — about a year and a half, ‘cuz of course it’s not ALL I’m doing with my life. And I’ll still be watching new releases as they come out, and even continue to watch other movies outside of the chronology, whenever we have friends over or simply feel like watching something else — it’s not meant to be an all-consuming chore, after all. But any time I do dedicate myself to watching the next chronological installment, I like to take myself back to that particular moment in history, like an actor falling into a role, and try to feel what these movies felt like to audiences that were watching them when they were “new”. Thus, when titles like KING KONG, GONE WITH THE WIND, BREATHLESS, or 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY arrive, I’m actually able to catch a glimpse of the “original experience”, and enjoy the full impact of these masterpieces as if no one has ever seen them before. It’s really the most amazing way to experience the whole magnificent sweep of cinema history: from silents to talkies, from the studio system to the French New Wave, from the film school auteurs of the 70’s to tent-pole blockbusters. So tonight I kicked it all off with the wonderful “Landmarks of Early Film” DVD, which contains a collection of Lumiere Shorts dating from 1895, including “Workers Leaving the Factory" and the infamous “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat”, which terrified audiences upon initial exhibition. The DVD also contains Edwin S. Porter’s THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY from 1903, and D.W. Griffith’s THE GIRL AND HER TRUST from 1912, along with much much more. And of course I capped off the night’s viewing with the magnificent Blu-ray of Georges Melies’ A TRIP TO THE MOON from 1902, restored to its original hand-painted glory. It’s easy to fall back into a sense of wonder at these moving images as they’re paraded up on the big screen. What must people have felt when these films first arrived? Fantastic stuff. Anyone else want to join me by taking a chronological journey through your own “sub-collection”? I know many of you have thousands of titles… but remember, I’m not even watching MY whole collection; only those titles that represent “Film History” to me — as viewed through the lens of my own personal taste, of course, ‘cuz this sort of thing is never entirely objective. But it’s pretty easy to edit down my own collection and see that Hitchcock’s VERTIGO will be included, whereas XANADU will not. I can’t recommend this experience highly enough; you’ll appreciate cinema in a way you never have before. Tonight I covered 1895-1912, so next stop for me is the Blu-ray of D.W. Griffith’s epic INTOLERANCE from 1916. What would be first for you?

11-24-2019, 07:40 AM	#2
movieben1138 Power Member Member since:Jan 2012 Location:Saint Louis, MO 4K collection:1138 Blu-ray collection:11702 DVD collection:2447 Trading Score:1004	This is considerably more far-reaching than my own journey from last year. I watched all 92 Oscar winning Best Pictures (counting both SUNRISE and WINGS in that first year) in chronological release order. It was quite the experience. And I threw in some bonus stops along the way; mostly historically significant winners/nominees that had somehow eluded me over the years like A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. I'm considering a similar endeavor now with the Best Foreign Language Film category, but the difference there is that I don't own them all. It will either take some tracking down of what I'm missing, a willingness to watch some via YouTube or what-have-you, or accepting the fact that I'll have to skip over a couple. If I were doing as you are, I imagine my first disc would be that very same Landmarks of Early Cinema disc. I never got around to purchasing Kino's massive The Movies Begin box set, or that would be another option. (I do have The Magic of Melies disc that was part of it, though. And a handful of their Slapstick Symposium DVDs which are great collections of silent comedies.)

12-05-2019, 05:22 AM	#3
steel_breeze Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2012 Location:Los Angeles 4K collection:72 Blu-ray collection:256	I've completed Night Two of my "Chronological Journey Through Film History" with the amazing Cohen Media Blu-ray of DW Griffith's (less racist) masterpiece INTOLERANCE, from 1916. Once you get into the "historical context mode" I wrote about in this thread's first post, Griffith's sprawling epic becomes a genuinely jaw-dropping achievement: juggling four parallel timelines, with intercut action sequences in the third act that (for their time) rival anything you'll find in a modern STAR WARS flick. A true tour de force, with faithful cameraman Billy Bitzer pioneering the art of the Close-Up and the Tracking Shot. And of course one MUST mention the iconic "Crane Shot" of the vast Babylonian courtyard -- which was used as the design basis for the current-day shopping complex located at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles. It actually wasn't a crane shot at all, but an elevator tower set on a track. Ingenious and ground-breaking. I know Griffith's earlier BIRTH OF A NATION technically did more to pioneer cinematic language, but I simply don't own that unwatchably racist film in my collection -- no matter how historically important it is. So INTOLERANCE is my Griffith representation in this "Chronological Journey"... and I've always found it to be more impressive and entertaining anyway! The Cohen Blu-ray is a huge leap forward from all other editions I've owned. Crystal clear and rock solid registration. Maybe a little TOO rock-solid, lol; I don't mind a little gate weave in my silents. But I do have to say: the tinting gets a little too intense at times for my taste, especially down the home stretch. I find that I prefer to lower the Color saturation by 6 points on my projector before the intermission, and then an additional 4 points for everything AFTER the intermission. Gets pretty distracting (for me) otherwise. Loved revisiting INTOLERANCE "in context" of this chronology. Head-shakingly impressive feat of cinema, from over a hundred years ago. Next stop: Criterion's excellent Blu-ray of Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925 version, of course).

12-28-2019, 04:24 AM	#4
steel_breeze Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2012 Location:Los Angeles 4K collection:72 Blu-ray collection:256	Night Five of the slow-but-steady "Chronological Journey" through my personal Blu-ray/UHD collection is in the books. Since I started this series in my home theater a few weeks ago, I've covered: --LANDMARKS OF EARLY FILM (on dvd, unfortunately) featuring shorts by the Lumiere Bros, Edwin S. Porter, D.W. Griffith and many others, covering the years 1895 - 1913... along with the outstanding Blu-ray restoration of George Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) --DW Griffith's INTOLERANCE (1916) on Blu-ray --Charles Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925) on Blu-ray --Rupert Julian's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) on Blu-ray, complete with magnificent 2-strip Technicolor sequence and tonight, on Night Five, it was Sergei Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) on Blu-ray. I'm tellin' ya, nothing gets my cinephile blood pumpin' more than watching these flicks chronologically. I've seen POTEMKIN many times since that first time my professors showed it to us in film school, in the early nineties... but man, you FEEL the power of it again when it's placed in proper historical context. The editing is absolutely like a bolt of lightning, coming out of those films before it -- magnificent as they are in their own right. And the Odessa Steps sequence.... it's brand new again when you see it with fresh eyes like this. Head-shakingly good. Next up for me... the final year of silents' dominance before the coming of sound: 1927, with Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL, William Wellman's WINGS, and FW Murnau's SUNRISE. All looking spectacular on Blu-ray. Dammit I love my library. This is the way to experience cinema!

12-28-2019, 10:48 AM	#5
Jaymole Blu-ray Samurai Top contributor Member since:Feb 2010 Location:NYC 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Trading Score:5	I think this is a great way to watch your film library. And you have the perfect size library for such an endeavor. I myself could never do it as I own way too many films (over 12,000 including DVDs). The closest I come is watching a director's resume again from first to last (or latest). I am doing that with Woody Allen right now and have gone through his first 17 films. Now that I have Criterion's Bergman set, I might do that with his. I wish you good luck and happy viewing!

01-29-2020, 04:48 AM	#6
steel_breeze Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2012 Location:Los Angeles 4K collection:72 Blu-ray collection:256	Just finished Night Nine of the "Chronological Journey" through my personal physical-media library. To review, the previous nights stretch back to November; it's a slow and steady process... 1. LANDMARKS OF EARLY FILM (1895 - 1913) Image Entertainment DVD, plus A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) Flicker Alley Blu-ray 2. INTOLERANCE (1916) Cohen Media Blu-ray 3. THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Criterion Blu-ray 4. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) Kino Blu-ray 5. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) Kino Blu-ray 6. METROPOLIS (1927) Kino Blu-ray 7. THE GENERAL (1927) Kino Blu-ray (tinted edition) 8. WINGS (1927) Paramount Blu-ray And now on Night Nine, I've finished off the silent era with SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1927) on the 20th Century Fox Blu-ray. I also own the Masters of Cinema UK edition, but I experience audio drop-outs on that disc, so I only keep it for the original poster art on the case. Man, what an amazing experience to watch these silents in chronological order. We've reached a crescendo of artistic achievement with SUNRISE, with its swooping magnificent camera movement over swampland and through city streets... just in time to have sound come along and make the whole industry virtually start from scratch. I love the original Movietone soundtrack to SUNRISE, an early sound-on-film solution that didn't feature sync dialogue but does contain a full orchestral score (a revelation for smaller markets that may only have known piano accompaniment) as well as "non-sync" sound effects like bells ringing, car horns honking, people hollering and clapping, etc. It's an amazing transition piece at the dawn (or "sunrise") of a new era. I pride myself on having most of the "important" pieces of cinema in my collection, but I do not own THE JAZZ SINGER (1927); just not particularly "rewatchable" for me... so next stop on my Chronological Journey will be the first "sound" film in my collection: DRACULA (1931). This is a fascinating piece because as moody as it is, DRACULA's sync soundtrack only includes the production sound; there's no score whatsoever, except a brief opening and closing title theme and a "source" musical moment when the characters go to the theater. Otherwise, the only sounds in those quiet moments within Dracula's spooky castle are the cracks and pops of the old optical soundtrack. Love it.

02-05-2020, 03:45 AM	#7
steel_breeze Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2012 Location:Los Angeles 4K collection:72 Blu-ray collection:256	Night Eleven of the Chronological Journey through my personal Blu-ray/UHD/DVD collection (see thread above for explanation)... 1933's KING KONG. This is one of the main reasons I enjoy going through my library chronologically; when you get to a film like this "in historical context", it's like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. There was nothing like Kong before Kong, with Willis O'Brien's jaw-dropping stop-motion animation and Max Steiner's ground-breaking score combining to make audiences feel real empathy for a character made of metal, foam rubber, and rabbit fur. So good; never gets old. And the Blu-ray is spectacular, with wonderfully preserved film grain and beautifully restored monaural track. Next stop on my Chronological Journey: the gorgeous Criterion Blu-ray of Frank Capra's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), and then the first animated feature -- in glorious Technicolor -- SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES (1938). Creeping my way toward STAGECOACH and GONE WITH THE WIND from 1939. What an amazing era of innovation and artistry.

05-09-2020, 04:41 PM	#8
steel_breeze Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2012 Location:Los Angeles 4K collection:72 Blu-ray collection:256	I’ve been watching my Blu-ray/UHD/DVD collection in chronological order since late November, when I started in 1895 with the Lumiere Bros, Melies, and Porter. I’ve been through the Silent Era and German Expressionism with names like Griffith, Chaplin, Eisenstein, Lang, Keaton, and Murnau; early sound films and the Studio System with the likes of Capra, Ford, Disney, Selznick and Cukor; 1940’s wartime-then-post-war, film noir and Italian Neo-Realism with Welles, Curtiz, Wilder, Powell & Pressburger, Lean, Hitchcock, and De Sica; then the Hollywood Blacklist, expansion of widescreen formats, and proliferation of international cinema with Zinneman, Kazan, Ozu, Kurosawa, Bergman, and more Hitchcock… and now I’ve arrived at a sea change — arguably the dividing line between "ancient history" and modern cinema: the French New Wave, represented in my collection by the Criterion Blu-rays of Truffaut’s 400 BLOWS (1959) and Godard's BREATHLESS (1960). This is the first generation of “movie fans making movies", who will in turn inspire the New Hollywood of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Love that my eccentric “Chronological Journey” enables me to experience each cinematic movement in its proper historical context!

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