On Compiling A Film Canon. November 2016 Update.

Welcome to the latest update of the Hope Lies Canon.

31 Days Of Horror-style challenges illustrate the problem with sticking with the same horror films every year (or perhaps they simply don’t make good ones anymore?). Last year we had a whole bunch of new entries in to the canon thanks to halloween, but this year I found myself watching much the same movies that I did last year. I treat Halloween a little like Christmas, in that I binge on this particular kind of film en-masse around October, but tend to stay away from them for the rest of the year. That being said, there are a number of newly-inaugarated additions to the Hope Lies Canon that are of the Horror variety. A quality release of Jim Wynorski’s Chopping Mall has been long-requested, and thanks to the newly-launched Vestron Video label (so named for the iconic 1980s peddlers of film on tape) that’s now the case. Chopping Mall is the inaugural disc from the organisation. Similarly Criterion brought new life to Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People last month.

Speaking of Criterion, their release of Robert Altman’s McCabe And Mrs. Miller is one for the ages, and is an easy candidate for the canon.

October marks the anniversary of the premature death of Francois Truffaut, and in addition to paying tribute in other ways I also basked in the glory that is The 400 Blows, a foregone conclusion, re: canon status if ever there were one.