Story and You

As part of the resurgence of this blog, I thought it was important to have a regular spotlight on the classics, as they make up such a large portion of my film viewing these days. And so here begins my new continuing series, classic film of the week, in which I will be posting a weekly review of a classic (pre-1960, any country) film I watched or re-watched that week. I thought it was only fitting to start with a pre-code film, as these are what initially got me into classic Hollywood. Luckily, I watched a really great one this week, so here it is: A Farewell to Arms from 1932, starring Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, and Adolphe Menjou. A Farewell to Arms concerns the love affair between the characters of Frederic (Gary Cooper), a lieutenant in the Italian army in WWI, and Catherine (Helen Hayes), a nurse. Major Renaldi (Adolphe Menjou), best friend of Frederic, is smitten with Catherine and makes the mistake of introducing the pair, sparking a whirlwind romance that ends in the ...

Over a year and a half ago, I started this blog with the intention of becoming a film blogger . I love movies and I love writing--what could go wrong? But as I struggled through an already incredibly lax posting schedule, I came to realize that I didn't have my own voice. I avoided long-form reviews because I couldn't come up with enough words about any of the films I watched, regardless of whether I loved them or hated them, and my short summaries of notable viewings in monthly recap posts just felt redundant even with the severely shortened word count. Worst of all, I really wasn't enjoying myself, writing for the sake of it--writing in the hopes that it would eventually improve--rather than because it was something I truly enjoyed. I never really resolved to take a break, rather I just kind of gave up and stopped posting. Here and there I tinkered with the idea of starting again--I have a few half-finished drafts rattling around this account to prove it--but I never m...