Introduction

My name is Jamie and I’m an aspiring film buff. I love movies but I don’t assume to know much about them. Up until recently, I only watched romantic comedies and maybe the latest blockbuster. I didn’t like suspense, gore, or anything scary. Then I had this epiphany – the more you put into a movie, the more you get out of it. I figured out that even though some movies are very difficult to watch (scary, gory, slow paced, or sub-titled), the pay off is huge.

So I started watching some older “great” movies that I had never bothered to watch before, and wow, I was blown away! I couldn’t believe I had missed out on all these movies! I decided to get a list of the greatest movies ever made and watch them, one by one, so I don’t miss out on any more. It’s been an amazing journey and I want to remember it, so I’m blogging about my reactions to some of these awesome films. I call this a laymen’s guide to great movies – because I've never taken a film class, I don’t know much about film theory or anything like that. I’m just a girl who is just now getting around to watching the classics that everyone considers great, and I want to tell you about them too.

The list I am using is from this website called They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? http://www.theyshootpictures.com/ I like this list because it includes foreign movies as well. I was using the American Film Institutes top 100 list, but I really wanted to watch foreign movies as well. The list I’m using actually has 1,000 movies on it but I plan on only documenting my experiences watching only the top 100 of that list, a much more attainable goal!

I hope you enjoy reading about my viewings and I hope you consider renting some of these movies you haven’t seen!