On Compiling A Film Canon.

A year ago my wife bought me a Moleskine Passions Film journal. I’m a Moleskine fanatic, and use a wide-range of their notebooks in my day to day life. This being as it is, the film journal seemed like the ultimate Moleskine for a cinephile. Alas it has sat on my desk, unopened and unused. A friend remarked at the time of my receiving it that she too had bought one for her significant other, only for that too to remain abandoned, sweltering in it’s factory-set clingfilm wrap.

Until today.

I’ve been trying to figure out precisely what to do with it for the last twelve months, and today set about using it to build a Hope Lies film canon. An Ambitious task, one might say, but I’m setting out to have a bit of fun really (it’ll be a handy document to have to hand in class and the like too).

There’s a satisfaction that comes with working in the physical. It takes an amount of effort, it’s not just a case of typing in a couple of words on Letterboxd and setting it free, it needs nurturing and genuine consideration.This seems like ideal circumstances in which to build a canon. Things can’t hastily be edited or deleted after being added on a whim or to fit an agenda. There’s no real-time crowd to play to either, removing the need to entertain or tick boxes. It’s the ultimate personal project.

That isn’t to say that I’ll be keeping it to myself. I’ll figure out a way to catalogue this whole thing digitally, as a means to give the canon an audience. I’ll be doing monthly updates on here and regular updates via Twitter too (possibly incorporating the hashtag #HopeLiesCanon, though I’ll admit now that I’m likely to forget about that). I’ve also started a Letterboxd list, which can be found here. I’ll be illustrating the project with supplementary features throughout too, which will include both original writing on the subject and links to existing works. To start the ball rolling, here’s Paul Schrader’s landmark essay on the subject of the film canon. It’s available as a downloadable pdf too, that’s well worth keeping hold of.

As for what is going to be going in to the canon, well, there are no hard and fast set rules. I guess it’s just about what feels right. I won’t be adding anything retrospectively; to gain entry in to the canon a film must have been watched after the launch of the project. Exceptions to this include the three films which I’m using to kickstart the thing. Jean Renoir’s The River is the film which inspired the project, while Jacques Rozier’s Maine-Océan stands as my #1 new-to-me film of 2015 to date, so that seemed like an apt candidate for inclusion. I’ve watched David Lynch Eraserhead since starting the project, so that is in there too.

Below is the inaugural entry in to the Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Second Film Canon; Jean Renoir’s The River. Apologies for the terrible handwriting.