What I Watched: 2025 in Review
What a year it's been!
I said last year that it was the year I 'discovered' international films and this was the year the interest exploded. I got a Criterion Channel subscription, which was a game changer. I definitely slowed down, because of my time-consuming Rewatching the Best Actresses project. Life gets in the way sometimes, and I wasn't fully able to commit to finishing the rewatch in a calendar year, but it also meant that watching new-to-me old movies kinda took a backseat. This is my lowest output year, with 165 films watched.
You can see them all in this post (scroll to the bottom to see 2025's movies). And for the rest of my year in review posts, check out the recaps here for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Now, let's talk about the movies I did watch!
Best/Favourite Movies: Moon
Over Miami (1941), Death Becomes Her (1992), Cléo from 5 to 7
(Cléo de 5 à 7) (1962), The Swimming Pool (La Piscine) (1969), Summer
with Monika (Sommaren med Monika) (1953), Picnic at Hanging Rock
(1975), Divorce Italian Style (1961), Jeopardy (1953), The Gay
Sisters (1942), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani) (1963),
Million Dollar Baby (1941), Next Time I Marry (1938), That
Lady in Ermine (1948), Purple Noon (Plein soleil) (1960), The
Girls (Flickorna) (1968), Wanda (1970), Bay of Angels (La Baie
des Anges) (1963), Slightly French (1949), When Ladies
Meet (1941), 3 Women (1977), Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro)
(1959), Working Girl (1988), The Minotaur (1960), Electra
(1961), Damon and Pythias (Il tiranno di Siracusa) (1962), Iphigenia
(Ιφιγένεια) (1977), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), The Happy
Ending (1969), Elvira Madigan (1967), High and Low (天国と地獄) (1963), Beauty
and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) (1946), First Love (1939), Married
Before Breakfast (1937), The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949)
gif by me
Weirdest/Worst Movies: The Love Machine (1971). I hated this. Honourable mentions: Who's That Girl? (1987) is a movie that shouldn’t exist. Dead Ringers (1988) was so impossibly weird and unsettling and it was a great movie that should’ve won Jeremy Irons an Oscar, it’s disappointing that it didn’t, but god damn, I never want to watch this movie ever again. Overboard (1987) is a horror movie and I will not be convinced otherwise. The Man Called Flintstone (1966) feels like a movie you’d watch while sick with the flu and become convinced you fell into a fever dream while watching it. Something unwholesome there.
Earliest Movie: The Star
Prince (1918)
Latest Movie: Death
Becomes Her (1992)
Year with the Most Representation: Three-way
tie between 1937, 1942, and 1961, with 7 each.
Number of Silent Films Watched: 5. The
Star Prince (1918), Sally of the Sawdust (1925), Spring Fever
(1927), The New Klondike (1926), The Unknown (1927)
Number of Pre-Code Films Watched: 15. Design
for Living (1933), Lady for a Day (1933), Ladies of Leisure
(1930), So Big! (1932), Road to Paradise (1930), Follow the
Leader (1930), She Done Him Wrong (1933), The Hot Heiress
(1931), No More Orchids (1932), Night Life in Reno (1931), He
Was Her Man (1934), Rain (1932), Bureau of Missing Persons
(1933), Play Girl (1932), Ladies They Talk About (1933)
Number
of International Films Watched: 30. Daisies (Sedmikrásky)
(1966), Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) (1962), The Swimming Pool (La
Piscine) (1969), I Knew Her Well (Io la conoscevo bene) (1965), Summer
with Monika (Sommaren med Monika) (1953), Lola (1961), Hiroshima Mon
Amour (1959), The Creatures (Les Créatures) (1966), Divorce Italian
Style (1961), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani) (1963),
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Deux ou trois choses que je sais
d'elle) (1967), Capricious Summer (Rozmarné léto) (1968),
The Executioner (El verdugo) (1963), Purple Noon (Plein
soleil) (1960), The Girls (Flickorna) (1968), Bay of Angels (La
Baie des Anges) (1963), Any Number Can Win (Mélodie en sous-sol)
(1963),Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) (1959), Medea (1969), Damon and
Pythias (Il tiranno di Siracusa) (1962), Iphigenia (Ιφιγένεια)
(1977), Oedipus Rex (Edipo re) (1967), Fanfan La Tulipe (1952), One
Sings, the Other Doesn't (L'une chante, l'autre pas) (1977), Elvira
Madigan (1967), High and Low (天国と地獄) (1963), Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) (1946), Women
on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de
nervios) (1988), Weekend (Week End) (1967), Smiles of a Summer Night
(Sommarnattens leende) (1955)
Musicals: Moon Over Miami (1941), Spinout
(1966), The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945), I Married an Angel (1942),
Cabin in the Sky (1943), Nice Girl? (1941), It Happened at the
World’s Fair (1963), You Can’t Have Everything (1937), That Lady
in Ermine (1948), Follow the Leader (1930), Sparkle (1976), Slightly
French (1949), The Stork Club (1945), Two Girls and a Sailor (1944),
Carnival in Costa Rica (1947), Little Nellie Kelly (1940), Pete
Kelly’s Blues (1955), The Time, The Place and the Girl (1946), Hey
There, It’s Yogi Bear! (1964), The Man Called Flintstone (1966)
Bette or Joan? Joan Crawford had her own
Summer Under the Stars Day this year, so by virtue of that, she wins.
I did enjoy Harriet Craig (1950) the best of Joan’s
films.
Liv or Joan? I didn’t watch any Joan
Fontaine films this year, I have so few left, I’m savoring them! And I have so
few Olivia de Havilland films left as well, it’s just they were on TV so I had
more chances to watch them. Of the Olivia de Havilland films I saw, I didn’t
really care for any of them… Let’s just call this year a draw.
Traveling: Moon Over Miami (1941), Cairo (1942), Santa Fe Trail (1940), Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Divorce Italian Style (1961), The New Klondike (1926), Carnival in Costa Rica (1947), Night Life in Reno (1931), Wind Across the Everglades (1958), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), Death on the Nile (1978)
Movies With Women’s Names in the Title: Sally of
the Sawdust (1925), Marie Antoinette (1938), Romeo
and Juliet (1936), Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962), Sommaren med Monika
(1953), Lola (1961), Cinderella Jones (1946), A Letter for
Evie (1946), Wanda (1970), Electra (1961), Two Mules for
Sister Sara (1970), Medea (1969), Caesar and Cleopatra (1945),
Little Nellie Kelly (1940), Ιφιγένεια (1977), The
Americanization of Emily (1964), Diane (1956), Valerie (1957),
Cluny Brown (1946), Samson and Delilah (1949), John Loves Mary
(1949), Harriet Craig (1950), Elvira Madigan (1967), The
Story of Esther Costello (1957)
Lady! Lady for a Day (1933), That
Lady in Ermine (1948), Lady in a Jam (1942), The Lady Takes a
Sailor (1949), Ladies of Leisure (1930), When Ladies Meet (1941),
Ladies They Talk About (1933), Nice Girl? (1941), The Girls
(Flickorna) (1968), Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Working Girl (1988),
Who’s That Girl? (1987), Forty Naughty Girls (1937), Play Girl
(1937)
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (1936), The
Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Favourite TCM Star of the Month: I learned
a lot about Barbara Stanwyck (March), and
this is coming from someone who wasn’t really a fan prior to this. I’m not sure
I’m 100% a fan now, but there’s definitely a stronger appreciation.
I also loved the theme of Greek mythology films in July, though it wasn’t the star of that month (‘80s Ladies were the stars, which was also a great theme!).
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