Coming Soon To A Blog Near You!

(Or, if you prefer, "a specially selected blog"):

The 50 For 50 Summer Film Festival (sound the trumpets!).

Yes, that's right - I am finally ready to pull the trigger on what may be the biggest fool's errand in the history of this blog. Namely, listing (and writing something about) my favorite 50 films.

Why am I calling it a "Summer Film Festival?" I'm glad you asked.

In the summer of 1979, I took a summer course at the local community college on the History of Film, and it was there that I saw - for the first time - some of the greatest films in the history of cinema: "The Birth of a Nation," "Metropolis," "Citizen Kane," "The Bicycle Thief," "The African Queen," "Hiroshima, Mon Amour..." The professor, whose name escapes me but was from Czechoslovakia, was a really interesting guy who had strong opinions on just about every film ever made. As a matter of fact, he showed us "African Queen" as an example of what he hated in the cinema - namely, action movies. I can only imagine, if he is still with us today, what he would think of stuff like "Knight and Day."

And in the summer of 1980, the local independent television station (which is now a Fox affiliate) ran the first of their own summer film festivals, and it was that summer that I saw - for the first time - such classics as "High Sierra," "The Caine Mutiny," "The Apartment," "Red River," and "Some Like It Hot."

Since then, I've always associated summer with movie-going, even if they do save most of the Oscar contenders for the fall.

This was a lot harder than I expected, and I'll probably change my mind numerous times during the whole exercise. But I'm holding myself to the list I've got right now, even if "Inception" turns out to be the greatest Christopher Nolan film ever made.

Stay tuned!