Friday 7 February 2014

My 250th post

I began blogging in 2005, in Swedish under the name Filmforum. I kept that blog going until the middle of 2009 when I moved to Scotland. That is when I began this blog, Fredrik on film, because I felt that I should write in English instead. So Filmforum retired, after 260 posts, and the new blog took over. Today it celebrates its 250th post! I think that is cause for some celebration.

The first post I published was about Meet Me in St Louis (1944) and Vincente Minnelli. It was a short piece, a simple celebration of a favourite film (and filmmaker), and not one for posterity perhaps. Actually a lot of my posts in the first year or so were short and sometimes written more for the sake of writing than because I necessarily had anything I wanted to say.

But right from the start you can still see what my priorities have been. Swedish cinema, including Bergman, lesser known filmmakers, common myths and preconceptions about film history, and philosophical discussions about film and our engagement with films and film history. It is very satisfying to be able to write freely, without any interference, about the things that matter to you.

I intend to continue writing on the blog, at least for as long as I feel I have something to say and there are people out there that want to read about that something. I am very happy for the readers I have got, and to all those who have visited me so far I am very grateful. I hope I will be able to keep my present readers and perhaps even entice some new ones, and to develop this blog even more. We shall see what happens next!

And now some links, first the ten posts which has had the most visitors over the years:

Bergman's favourite films.
A few words about Tokyo Story (1953).
RIP Gunnar Fischer.
Henry Hathaway.
The deep focus conundrum.
A selection of Swedish films.
Maya Deren.
Some thoughts on Gilles Deleuze.
The Great Gatsby (2013).
Max Weber goes to the movies.

And here are ten posts that have not had as many visitors but that I particularly like:

About racism and Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown 1949).
About Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls 1948).
About game theory and The Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941).
About "subtext creep".
About "cine-literacy".
About adaptations.
About the history of auteurs.
My second post in the series "Reading Bazin", this one about direct address and time.
About Hill Street Blues.
About the problems with comparing all films to Hollywood.