Five Hundred Films

Have you seen five hundred films? It seems like a vast, impossible amount, but it's quite likely that you have. Stranded Cinema is now approaching its five hundredth review. Not necessarily all of these have been about specific films, and some of them have been repeats, but seeing as I've only been running this site for three out of my thirty years, I can say that I've definitely seen at least five hundred films, if not twice that amount. Can I remember all of them? Of course not. If I sat down to watch them, would I remember? Probably, yes. I'm hoping you're as startled as me by this number. It's astonishing that the brain can recall this amount of information, and it's not that I think I watch a lot of films. I watch a few a week. Perhaps this is a lot compared to you, but I compare myself to film critics and directors, who watch a few a day. It makes me think of how many films I'll see in my lifetime, how many films there are, and how many a critic will actually watch. These are big numbers. Does it devalue the individual movies themselves, or does it make the good ones stand out even more? If nothing else, recognition of just how many films you've seen forces you to contemplate the nature of the art and its production.