The End For Now

When I embarked on my movie-a-day marathon in January, I wrote that it grew out of an experience of being sick. That description was phrased in the past tense because I thought that’s where the sickness belonged. As it happened, I became ill again a few days into the project.

Much of the time I was okay, but I watched several movies in discomfort and wrote more than a few commentaries in doctors’ waiting rooms. My health seemed to improve as the project went on, and I was optimistic that I’d be able to continue after a short rest. It hasn’t worked out that way.

I’ve been diagnosed with a rare blood condition called primary amyloidosis. Essentially, my body is building up faulty proteins called amyloids that collect in the organs and gradually destroy them. There’s no cure, but treatment options do exist: chemotherapy followed by stem-cell transplant. I’ve started that process  now.

A warm thank you to everyone who took interest in my posts. My goal was to immerse myself in the cinematic and cultural richness of the world and to challenge myself critically. Given what’s happened now, I feel grateful that I had that opportunity. And I’m humbled by the lovely comments and conversations I had along the way.

I’ve begun a new blog, called Compose Myself. Different focus. But a similar spirit. It will be about my treatment and the path to . . . well, the path to whatever comes. It won’t be dreary. And there will be films. Because the best way to understand your own story is to believe in other people’s.

My Top Ten

I consider the first three to be perfect films. See this page for all 100. In all, I reviewed films from 34 countries and in 29 languages.

Rank	Title	Country	Year	Director
#1	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	France	2007	Julian Schnabel
#2	A Separation	Iran	2011	Asghar Farhadi
#3	Lore	Germany	2012	Cate Shortland
#4	The Ascent	Russia	1977	Larisa Shepitko
#5	Ikiru	Japan	1952	Akira Kurosawa
#6	Tokyo Story	Japan	1953	Yasujirô Ozu
#7	Battle of Algiers	Algeria	1966	Gillo Pontecorvo
#8	The Kid with a Bike	Belgium	2011	Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
#9	Close Up	Iran	1990	Abbas Kiarostami
#10	The Passion of Joan of Arc	France	1928	Carl Theodor Dreyer