2022-07-01
How many movies did I see in the first half of 2022

"Bruno, how many movies do you watch on a yearly basis?"

That was a question I was asked last year after my wife and I decided to buy a five-screen movie theater in the historical center of Ghent, Belgium. Unfortunately, I couldn't answer that question because I didn't keep track of every movie I watched. Curious to know the answer to that question, I decided to register every movie I watched in a Google Sheet. We are now halfway 2022 and I can now tell that I watched 117 movies in the past six months.

• I watched 61 movies in a movie theatre. of which 11 in Cinema Sphinx, 49 during the film festival in Cannes, and 1 in Kinepolis Ghent.
• I watched 35 movies using a streaming service, of which 31 on Netflix, and 4 using a free streaming service (such as VRT NU, VTM Go or Go Play).
• I watched 21 movies on a traditional tv station.

I saw some pretty bad movies, but if you'd asked me which movies I liked most so far, I also have to look at movies I watched last year at the film festival in Ghent because many of these movies were only available in the movie theaters this year. I'll have to take these movies into account when I make my list of the best movies of 2022:

• Vortex (2021)
• C'mon C'mon (2021)
• The Worst Person in the World (2021)
• Apples (2020)
• Große Freiheit (2021)
• Un monde (2021)
• Pig (2021)
• The Innocents (2021)
• Les Olympiades (2021)
• The Duke (2020)

I would like to add the following movies to this list of the first half of 2022:

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
• Belle (2021)
• Crimes of the Future (2022)
• Nightmare Alley (2021)
• After Yang (2021)

These are some movies you should really see once they are officially released:

• Dalva (2022)
• Les pires (2022)
• Aftersun (2022)
• Triangle of Sadness (2022)
• Close (2022)
• Boiling Point (2021)
• Broker (2022)
• Boy from Heaven (2022)
• Holy Spider (2022)
• Decision to Leave (2022)
• Un beau matin (2022)

I am surprised that these movies were overlooked by movie theaters and distributors so far:

• Lingui (2021): relevant because of the decision regarding abortus by the SCOTUS
• Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021); relevant because of the situation in Russia
• How to Save a Dead Friend (2022); if there's one movie about life in Russia you should see, it's this one. I really hope distributors will pick this one up.
• Orca (2021); about women and sports in Iran

As for old movies, I liked these on Netflix:

• Zaman (1983)
• The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)
• The Cleanse (2016)

The best films I watched on tv (or on one of the station's free streaming services):

• Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019)
• BlacKkKlansman (2018)
• Lion (2016)
• Julieta (2016)
• Battleship Potemkin (1925)

That's not the complete list, of course, and I know I'm overlooking some other great movies I watched (and I won't say anything about some really bad movies), but this already gives you an idea of my taste in movies ;-)

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