My 2026 Classic Movie New Year's Resolutions

Another year over, and a new one just begun (to quote John Lennon)! Time to make some new resolutions, and I quite enjoyed the pace of last year, so let's replicate it. Without further ado, here are...

My 2026 Classic Movie New Year's Resolutions:

1. Watch 3 new-to-me movies from every TCM Star of the Month

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I always enjoy seeing the stars of the month and sometimes I get inspired on my own to watch their movies. This is how I discovered Miriam Hopkins, Marion Davies, and got better acquainted with Barbara Stanwyck. 

These are the rules:

• For 31 Days of Oscar, I'm going to pick a day of special programming (they usually come up with interesting ways to group all the films per day; I still think about the year when every theme day bled into the next and you had to figure out what it meant. It was a fun game to play in real time) that satisfies the requirements.
• This doesn't include Summer Under the Stars, which is already a grand slam, since I always watch a new-to-me film every day in August. For August, I'll just keep on keepin' on. 
• If I've seen every movie by a particular star of the month, say, Audrey Hepburn or Doris Day get their own star turns, then I'll flip over to one of the special programming or theme features instead, and hope I strike gold like how awesome History of the Swimsuit was in the summer of 2020. 
• If there's a star that I've seen a majority of their films on the schedule, and there are only a handful I haven't seen featured, like Jean Arthur this month (with only two new-to-me films on the schedule), then I'll either pad it out with one of my favourite films that I have seen or watch what I haven't seen but also tack on a theme or special programming feature to get 'my money's worth.'

As each month ends, I'll do a wrap-up post to add to the 'Star of the Month' tag, and then at the end of the year, we'll do a final ranking.

2. Watch more films from Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, and Toshirō Mifune

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These are just names off the top of my head as I peruse through my catalog of films watched. 

I really enjoy it when these actors pop up in a film, and I don't think it's a stretch by any definition to say that I'm extremely actress-focused around these parts. I'm also going to be honest and say that there are a lot of bland men from back in the day (so many Roberts, and while I have my favourite Robert... why were there so many bland men compared to all the dynamic actresses who came up through American films?), but internationally, the actors are a lot more interesting in comparison. 

I'm not putting a number on this, because I don't want to limit myself or stop if I feel I've hit a cap; but I don't want it to be less than five per actor cause then it doesn't feel like I've given them a shot beyond what I've seen of them already.

3. Finish my Rewatching the Best Actresses Project!

via thebittervampire

At the time of publishing this post, I've finished Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore) from 1974 and the next will be Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. 

It'd be nice to finish this mid-year, so I can add whoever wins in March to the project!

4. Cook recipes from Grace Kelly's cookbook

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There are a few published recipes she made (the veracity of which I'll leave up to the original bloggers), so why not! Maybe it'll inspire me to make those Audrey Hepburn cocktails while I'm at it!

5. Post more!

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I know I didn't post as much as I usually do, other than Rewatching the Best Actresses project posts, my monthly recaps, or the gossip posts I usually do, so I want to just be more consistent. Write more articles, join some blogathons, come up with fun ideas on a whim!

Watch this space!

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What are your New Years Resolutions?