I’ve had a bit of an odd year. Not as odd as 2020, admittedly, but a weirdly disjointed twelve months nonetheless. I had covid in early February, which knocked me sideways energy-wise for a couple of months, and left me feeling like I was playing catch-up during the first half of the year. By the summer I was feeling more myself and making plans for various things (including writing intentions alluded to in my viewing posts), but then I had gastroenteritis in August, which completely knocked me off my stride and effectively buggered all plans I had intended for the remainder of the year. September and October seemed to solely consist of going to work and sleeping. So although my viewing picked up considerably this year, it’s still not what it might have been, and you’ll see that my reading is significantly down on the past few years.

Viewing:

My stated aim at the end of 2022 was to manage to watch 40 films in 2023, and to watch something every month; I surpassed the first target (I got to 67), but failed at the second (mainly because of the afore-mentioned gap in activity this autumn, a time of year when my viewing usually picks up). I had also intended to fill in some gaps from Sight & Sound‘s once-a-decade poll (mainly in terms of Japanese cinema), and I didn’t do that at all.

Top 5:

1. As bestas (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022) – probably no surprise, given I watched it four times (and bought the soundtrack). I delayed writing about the film because – to do it justice – I wanted to do some broader contextualisation in terms of the director and actors, but this means that it is in pole position among the projects that didn’t come to fruition this year. I’d like to return to it, but I’m aware that I usually don’t manage to go backwards and maintain momentum. It’d be nice if it got a UK release on DVD/Blu-ray – it’s currently only available to stream here (I have imported the Spanish Blu-ray, but that doesn’t have English subtitles and watching French subtitled into Spanish (or vice versa) tends to make my brain explode).
2. I Know Where I’m Going! (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945) – another film I watched more than once this year. I like the number of wayward and recalcitrant women in the Archers productions, even if they quite often end the narrative somehow tamed (or dead). This one casts an otherworldly spell. Also recommended: Pam Cook’s BFI Film Classics book on the film.
3. La fin du jour (Julien Duvivier, 1939) – the main reason I want to continue with Tavernier-inspired viewing is uncovering gems like this. Plus, Louis Jouvet. I wrote about it in my first viewing post.
4. Seules les bêtes (Dominik Moll, 2019) – I just really, really liked the tricksy narrative structure, and the refusal to patiently explain everything to the viewer. Another film that is not available on DVD/Blu-ray with English subtitles – I watched it on MUBI and wrote about it briefly in my second viewing post.
5. Tout le monde aime Jeanne (Céline Devaux, 2022) – I don’t think I’d ordinarily classify this as ‘my sort of film’ (I don’t watch a lot of romantic comedies). I was drawn in to watching it (on MUBI) because I was intrigued by the animated sequences in the trailer – and those are among the scenes that have stuck most in my mind – but I was also taken with the performances by the two leads (Blanche Gardin and Laurent Lafitte are both capable of being extremely funny, but here they are also affectingly vulnerable).

Honourable mentions (A-Z): Les adoptés (Mélanie Laurent, 2011), Au Revoir Là-Haut (Albert Dupontel, 2017), La chagrin et la pitié (Marcel Ophuls, 1969), Remorques (Jean Grémillon, 1941), and Seul dans la nuit (Christian Stengel, 1945).

Cinematic moments that lingered:

• The communal collection of voices in incantation/prayer at the end of Remorques (Jean Grémillon, 1941) [I couldn’t find a better copy to share than the above]
• Louis Jouvet being monstrous (throughout most of) Le fin du jour (Julien Duvivier, 1939).
• The funeral oration for Michel Simon’s character in the same.
• Some of the jaw-dropping lack of self-awareness displayed by interviewees in La chagrin et la pitié (Marcel Ophuls, 1969).
• The “Comme au thêatre” sequence in Peter von Kant (François Ozon, 2022).
• Multiple scenes in As bestas (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022): in the bar, the one with the game of dominoes, and the one where Antoine (Denis Ménochet) makes a final attempt at connection/conciliation with brothers Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenz (Diego Anido); the tomato harvest; the confrontation in the car at night; the duel in the woods.
• The opening of Tenéis que venir a verla (Jonas Trueba, 2022).
• François Civil with the energy of a Labrador puppy in the scenes with the kitten in Deux moi (Cédric Klapisch, 2019).
• In Tout le monde aime Jeanne (Céline Devaux, 2022): Jeanne’s animated internal commentary; and Jeanne throwing herself into the sea in pursuit of her sinking life’s work.

In 2024: My viewing got increasingly random as the year progressed, so I’d like to impose a bit of order in 2024: to pick up the Tavernier-related thread of my film choices; to catch up with some key Spanish titles; to continue down the Denis Ménochet rabbit hole (and hopefully return to As bestas as a writing topic); and pay a bit more attention to contemporary/recent French cinema. I started learning French around Easter time (or re-learning, given I studied it at school) with the aim of being able to watch films that aren’t available with English subtitles – I realise that’s a slightly outlandish intention, but I managed it with Spanish… – so I’d like to at least attempt a few films in that scenario over the course of the year. I’m also going to double my target to 80 – I’m not sure I’ll manage to reach that, but I’ll give it a go. I also want to get into a writing habit, but I need to give some further thought to what is realistic in terms of frequency and content, so I won’t state a firm intention until I’ve worked out what I think is doable.

Reading:

I did not get into a reading groove this year, which I think is visible in the image above; not only because there are fewer books than is normally the case, but also because of the lack of cohesion in my choices. It’s not that my reading usually has a theme, but that I can normally see what the rationale was for moving from one book to another – those connections were few and far between in 2023. For example, I picked up the Virginia Woolf inspired by Olivia Laing’s musings on the same, but apart from that (and when in doubt, pick up a Margery Allingham) the only through line I can see is in relation to France – trying to get a broader context for some of the older films I was watching, I tried fiction and then turned to history books. I’ve only included books that I read cover to cover – I did some reading around different collections of French films, but that generally involved reading the odd chapter but not a whole book, so those ones aren’t included. I discovered a crime series (St-Cyr and Kohler) set during the Occupation, which I thought was potentially a great premise (how would a French policeman negotiate solving crime in a France under the control of an occupying force?) – and good crime fiction can offer an acute reading of the state of the nation at a given time – but the potential was squandered (even after putting aside the stereotypical exclamations of “Mon dieu!”), with repetitive sexual sadism and what seemed to be a statistically-disproportionate number of violent lesbians. I dropped them after four books (there are sixteen to date). Ho hum. I still think that crime fiction would be an interesting way to gain further insight, but very little crime fiction written by French authors seems to be translated (any suggestions in the comments, please). I’ll continue to look for different ways into the culture.

Ordinarily the back end of the year is when I pick up the fiction I’ve been looking forward to, but I just never got into that this year, which I guess at least means that I’ve got plenty to read in 2024. Reading – more than viewing – was the loser towards the end of the year because I had to decide what to prioritise and I went with trying to catch up on the language course (having not done anything for about ten weeks). That used up my brain power, and I didn’t read anything for pleasure during November and December.

Top 5 (A-Z):

• Alison – Lizzy Stewart. A graphic novel about a young woman who finds herself through art.
• Continental Films: French Cinema Under German Control – Christine Leteux. This was probably my favourite book of the year, a fascinating read about the people who worked at Continental Films during the Occupation, the films they produced, and where they ended up in the aftermath (if they survived the war).
• The Faraway Nearby – Rebecca Solnit. Part memoir, part meditation on family, storytelling, and empathy.
• Hide My Eyes – Margery Allingham. I’ve come late to Allingham, having read her for the first time towards the end of 2022, but I returned to her repeatedly during 2023. I’ve yet to read a duff book by her, but this was the standout. Atmospheric and a real page-turner.
• Ultra-Processed People – Chris van Tulleken. Will change the way you think about food and probably at least turn you into someone who reads the ingredients while in the supermarket. It has made me put things back on the shelf. I don’t really eat ready meals or takeaways, so I thought I was doing comparatively well but this is a real eye-opener about how much of what we eat is processed before it reaches us.

Honourable mention: once I’d settled into the stylistic pastiche, I really enjoyed The Second Murderer – Denise Mina.

In 2024: Try to get my reading groove back (I’ve started on The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime). More explorations of French (and other translated) fiction. Work my way through my backlog of books from this year. I’d like the pace to pick up a bit and to not have long periods where I’m not reading.

Hopefully by the end of 2024, my reading and viewing will have been sustained, my writing will have become a habit, and I’ll have spent more time in the garden than I did this year. The garden is a great illustration of the notion that everything goes in cycles and will get better again – fingers crossed that applies to governments this year as well. Thank you for reading – as ever, I wish you health and happiness in 2024!