On one particular unproductive day, when procrastination was at its highest, myself and some friends decided to play a game on IMDB: how many of the top 250 ranked films have you seen? With all of us priding ourselves in our extensive film knowledge, it naturally progressed into a very competitive activity. After furious clicking and exclamations of “you seriously haven’t seen that yet?” we calculated our scores. I was heavily embarrassed to find out that I had only seen 64 of the listed films.

64.

Now I pride myself in the hours spent watching classics, and yet my dedication had not seemed to pay off. I was also shocked at the number of films I thought of as some of the best, yet they were nowhere to be found on the Holy Grail of film information that is IMDB. The completion of the quiz soon turned into a lengthy discussion on the best and worst films, a back and forth firing of film titles in search of common ground. These conversations are not uncommon amongst my friends. No matter what, we will soon delve again into the depths of films. A prominent example of this was while I was on holiday in Barcelona with my very good friend Charley.

Picture this: it’s an uncomfortably hot day, we are lying on the beach near the water’s edge, slathered in suncream and chatting away. When the complete relaxation was becoming too much, the inevitable and never-ending discussion began. Whenever the two of us meet up (about twice a year) we always leave with a neat little list of films that we “really have to watch” tucked away on our iPhones. Promptly the phones were whipped out and additions were made. Unfortunately for many in our surrounding area, I’m afraid that our enthusiasm translated into two British women speaking a bit too loudly. And then we were suddenly asked by a lovely American teenager if he could join us (one of the many reasons why I love friendly American etiquette). It is now one of my fondest memories of that holiday. There was something so unspeakably fulfilling about sitting in the sunshine in a beautiful city, talking for hours upon end about something you love.

However, this does not take away from the awful fact that I have yet to see many of our modern classics. Needless to say, my iPhone is teeming with new titles, and it just so happens that I have a few weeks to kill before going back to university after Christmas.

Just in case you want to know how terribly behind I am, here are a list of some films that I will veg out on the sofa and watch this holiday.

  1. The Shining – I have always felt that I need someone to watch this for emotional support.
  2. Taxi Driver
  3. Amelie
  4. Full Metal Jacket
  5. Casablanca
  6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  7. The Silence of the Lambs – emotional support is definitely needed.
  8. A Clockwork Orange

Terrible I know. If you haven’t seen any of these either, why don’t you add them to your list. And if you have…         BABY