The Story So Far...

Years ago, I met someone who had developed an interesting game: he would pick an artist he admired and then spend the year studying everything he could about them. By the end of the year, he was an amateur expert.

Three years ago, while on a Christian Bale movie binge, a friend pointed out that his first movie was Empire of the Sun, filmed when he was very young. That was when I had the idea to create my own game: to study how an actor develops by watching all their films in chronological order.

Watching all of Bale's movies that I could find took me 9 months. I started with "Empire of the Sun" in September of 2005 and ended with "Batman Begins" in May of 2006 watching everything in between that I could find. In September of 2006, I followed Emily Thompson (who had appeared in 2 films with Bale), starting with "Breaking the Waves" (from which I learned about the "Dogma 95" school of film-making) through to "Separate Lies".

At some point, I hope to give a brief review of those movies here. That's what this blog is intended for, really---to help me remember all the movies I've seen with a brief blurb about them.

This year, I chose Bruce Campbell, a B-movie actor I have come to admire for his intelligence, humor and dedication to his craft. Reading his books and listening to his commentaries have increased my appreciation for the work that goes into movies of all qualities. I get a lot more out of movies because of him. Thanks!

I make up the rules to this game as I go along. For example, I fast forwarded through most of "Pocahontas", pausing only for the scenes Bale voiced. (I just couldn't take it.) However, I did make myself watch some uggos---just for the continuity. Some films I loved so much I had already seen 4 or 5 times, not counting watching the commentary (e.g. "Equilibrium") so I gave them a pass in the interest of time.

Enjoy!