Here are the Official Changes for the 2015 Edition of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Plus the Renumbered List

The U.S. Hardcover Edition

The U.K. Softcover Edition

I received the 2015 edition of the 1,001 Movies book from Amazon today.  Note to anyone else who is thinking of buying it from them: Amazon shipped a two pound, 1000 page hardcover book in nothing but a thin, padded, soft mailer.  The book came all dented in at the corners and looking very much like a used book that had been around for a few years.  I paid full price for a new book and received one in used book condition.  This is similar to my experience buying last year’s paperback volume from Amazon U.K.  I have an email in my Inbox asking for packaging feedback.  You’d better believe I will be giving them some, along with a request to return the book they mailed to me.  I will buy it in a bookstore where I can ensure the New condition of it.

Anyway, on to the important stuff.  There were a total of ten (10) films added in the newest volume.  Eight of them are from 2014 and two from 2013, although one of those (Ida) is really a 2014 film that happened to be shown at some film festivals in 2013.  Eight of the additions received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Documentary, or Best Foreign Language Film.  Of the remaining two one was a box office blockbuster and the other is a decidedly different take on the story of an alien coming to Earth.  Without further ado, here are your ten new films to add to the 1,001 Movies list:

The 10 films added to the list (new numbers):

1168. Ida (2013)
1169. Under the Skin (2013)

1170. Citizenfour (2014)

1171. Leviathan (Leviafan) (2014)

1172. Boyhood (2014)

1173. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

1174. Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

1175. Whiplash (2014)

1176. The Theory of Everything (2014)

1177. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

All are readily available on DVD.  Ida is also streaming on Netflix Instant.  As it turns out, I’ve already seen all ten of them, so I am still at 100% for the 1,001 Movies list.

The 10 films removed from the list (old numbers):

1096. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

1104. Gomorrah (Gomorra) (2008)

1116. The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Bande: Eine Deutsche Kindergeschicte) (2009)

1137. The Tree of Life (2011)

1138. The Kid with a Bike (Le gamin au velo) (2011)

1153. Blancanieves (2012)

1159. Nebraska (2013)

1160. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

1164. American Hustle (2013)

1166. A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) (2013)

Of those ten, Blancanieves is the only one I am a little sad to see go.  All the rest are ones I either didn’t think were that special, or that while I could appreciate what went into making them I didn’t particularly care for them.

New Numbering:

Now, how does this affect the numbering of the list, especially in light of the fact that entries were removed as far back as 2007?

The numbering of the list remains the same from the beginning up to #1095 – Paranormal Activity (2007).  In the book this equates to no changes through page 908.  The subsequent 82 films, which include the 10 additions, do end up with new numbers.

You may remember that for the Tenth Edition it was decided that a new numbering method be employed which tied the list to the physical presentation in the book.  And for those films that had been removed and did not appear in the publication, they would be placed at the end of their years, in the order they had originally appeared. 

Like last year I have redone the 1,001 Movies Tracking Sheet I have so that it has columns for the old numbers and the new numbers.  You can view/download that here.  Remember that the first 1,095 entries’ numbers remained the same, so you do not have to worry about them.

If you just want the new numbers and not the whole tracking sheet then here are the last 82 of 1,177 entries (new number, old number, title, and year).

1096	1097	There Will Be Blood	2007
1097	1098	La Vie en Rose	2007
1098	1099	Into the Wild	2007
1099	1100	Atonement	2007
1100	1101	Surfwise	2007
1101	1102	Bourne Ultimatum, The	2007
1102	1103	No Country for Old Men	2007
1103	1096	Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The (Le scaphandre et le papillon)	2007
1104	1105	Hurt Locker, The	2009
1105	1106	Slumdog Millionaire	2008
1106	1107	Dark Knight, The	2008
1107	1108	Let the Right One In (Lat den ratte komma in)	2008
1108	1109	WALL-E	2008
1109	1110	Good, the Bad, the Weird, The (Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom)	2008
1110	1111	Wrestler, The	2008
1111	1112	Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The	2008
1112	1113	Class, The (Entre les murs)	2008
1113	1114	Anvil! The Story of Anvil	2008
1114	1104	Gomorrah (Gomorra)	2008
1115	1115	District 9	2009
1116	1117	Avatar	2009
1117	1118	Education, An	2009
1118	1119	Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire	2009
1119	1120	Hangover, The	2009
1120	1121	In the Loop	2009
1121	1122	Fish Tank	2009
1122	1123	Inglourious Basterds	2009
1123	1116	White Ribbon, The (Das Weisse Band: Eine Deutsche Kindergeschicte)	2009
1124	1129	Senna	2010
1125	1124	Cave of Forgotten Dreams	2010
1126	1125	Nostalgia for the Light (Nostalgia de la luz)	2010
1127	1126	Black Swan	2010
1128	1127	Inception	2010
1129	1128	Social Network, The	2010
1130	1130	Monsters	2010
1131	1131	Four Lions	2010
1132	1132	True Grit	2010
1133	1133	Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux)	2010
1134	1134	King's Speech, The	2010
1135	1139	Artist, The	2011
1136	1135	Separation, A (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin)	2011
1137	1136	Drive	2011
1138	1140	Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The	2011
1139	1141	War Horse	2011
1140	1142	Descendants, The	2011
1141	1143	Hugo	2011
1142	1144	Le Havre	2011
1143	1145	Shame	2011
1144	1146	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	2011
1145	1147	Bridesmaids	2011
1146	1137	Tree of Life, The	2011
1147	1138	Kid with a Bike, The (Le gamin au velo)	2011
1148	1148	Cabin in the Woods, The	2012
1149	1154	Wadjda	2012
1150	1149	Amour	2012
1151	1150	Lincoln	2012
1152	1151	Django Unchained	2012
1153	1152	Act of Killing, The	2012
1154	1155	Life of Pi	2012
1155	1156	Les Miserables	2012
1156	1157	Argo	2012
1157	1158	Skyfall	2012
1158	1153	Blancanieves	2012
1159	1162	Gravity	2013
1160	1161	Wolf of Wall Street, The	2013
1161	1165	Great Beauty, The (La grande bellezza)	2013
1162	1163	Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adele - Chapitres 1 et 2)	2013
1163	1167	12 Years a Slave	2013
1164	1159	Nebraska	2013
1165	1160	Inside Llewyn Davis	2013
1166	1164	American Hustle	2013
1167	1166	Touch of Sin, A (Tian zhu ding)	2013
1168		Ida	2013
1169		Under the Skin	2013
1170		Citizenfour	2014
1171		Leviathan (Leviafan)	2014
1172		Boyhood	2014
1173		Guardians of the Galaxy	2014
1174		Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)	2014
1175		Whiplash	2014
1176		Theory of Everything, The	2014
1177		Grand Budapest Hotel, The	2014

As I make this post the 1,001 Movies wiki is not yet updated for these new numbers, nor for the Books section to include the 2015 edition, but I hope to get to those in the coming days.  I will be letting Peter Stanley and Trevor May know what films to add to their 1,001 Movies Letterboxd lists so that we all stay in sync.

TV – Castle Season 7

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.  I will have an upcoming review for the latest Nikki Heat novel at some point.  I haven’t read it yet.

Note 2: There are spoilers for Season 6 in this post.

Steve’s Selections #9 – The Train (1964)

We have come to the ninth of twelve movie selections Steve Honeywell at 1001plus has made for me.  This one is The Train, a World War II-set action film about an attempted art heist.  I’ll be honest: despite the fact that this movie stars Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield I had never heard of it before Steve picked it for me to watch and review.  After I got done watching I was surprised by this because it is a damn entertaining film.  Everything that was missing from The Monuments Men (2014) is gotten right in The Train.

August Movie Status and My Status (Why No Posts)

I’ll do the movie status first since it will be quick.  I saw only one new movie in August.  That was the film Seven Psychopaths (2012), which I reviewed as one of Steve’s Selections.  It’s also the only film review I posted in August.  I did re-watch the first season of the TV show Archer, and I caught most of Erin Brockovich on TV, which was also a re-watch for me.

Even before other events that I will get to I hadn’t really been in much of a movie watching mood for weeks.  It actually started in July.  Most of the films I saw that month were from the first half of it.  I don’t know that I watched much at all after that.  I’ve had three Netflix DVDs sitting on my coffee table, unwatched, for at least two months.  I had finished off a few lists after completing the big TSPDT list earlier in the year.  When I went to look at doing another smaller list, or any list, I just couldn’t get motivated.  It felt too much like a homework assignment instead of enjoyment.

And this bled over into posting about movies.  During this year I’ve gone from posting a few times a week to once a week the last month or so that I was doing posts.  These also felt more like homework assignments rather than the fun of sharing info on a film that I liked.

I also had three middle of the night implementations for work last week.  That completely messed up my inner clock.  And the final thing that made me less enthusiastic about using my computer to write and post reviews (or watch movies), is that about a week and a half ago I was partially hit by some ransomware.

Steve’s Selections #8 – Seven Psychopaths (2012)

We have arrived at my August review of a movie recommended courtesy of Steve at 1001plus.  This one is a film that I was interested in when it came to DVD, but for whatever reason I never happened to get around to watching it.  When I saw it among the twelve films he gave to me I was happy because now it gave me an excuse to go back and watch it.  What I found was a film that is a cross between Charlie Kaufman’s/Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002) and Quentin Tarantino’s, well, pick any Tarantino movie.  While this may seem to be a strange combination it works well enough onscreen to make me like the movie.

Crouching Tiger Swinging Lightsabers (or, Can a Lightsaber Produce “Just a Flesh Wound”?)

I happened to run across these recently and I was amused by them.  Apparently there’s a bunch of people who use their own computer software to re-edit swordfights to turn them into lightsaber duels.  There’s a whole subset of ones from Game of Thrones.  Here were my two favorite scenes:

In my opinion this one works the best re-imagined as lightsabers.  Some I saw didn’t come across the best because of the way the original scenes were shot.  The metal swords were bouncing off objects when as lightsabers they should be cutting through them (except another lightsaber.)

And this one falls into the “of course someone had to do this scene” category.  I love the Darth Vader breathing of the Black Knight.

July Movie Status

I’m a day late with this.  I’ve had an eventful last couple of days.

I watched 22 new movies in July, plus re-watched five others.  I didn’t work on any movie lists this last month, except only peripherally.  The one film I did from a list I watched just because I was curious to see it and it was only afterwards that I realized it was on the 101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die list.

Technically, I did complete the just published BBC list of the 100 best American films of all time.  It was posted on Letterboxd by someone I follow and I noticed that I had seen 99 of the 100 films.  The one I had not was The Shanghai Gesture (1941).  I was able to watch it right away so I figured “why not?” and did.

No, in July I mostly caught up on some 2014 and 2015 films I hadn’t had a chance to see yet, as well as re-watching a few more films than usual.

Here are the 22 new movies I saw in July.  Highlighted films are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.

Movie – Circle of Friends (1995)

At the time I first saw Circle of Friends back when it came to video in the mid 1990s I didn’t realize that I was seeing a cast that would go on to do many more things.  All I knew was that Chris O’Donnell from Scent of a Woman (1992) was playing an Irishman in a movie where a bunch of people in their mid to late 20s were cast as college freshmen.  This was the first film in which I saw Minnie Driver, Saffron Burrows, Alan Cumming, and Aiden Gillen (aka Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish on Game of Thrones).  The movie also has early appearances from Colin Firth and Ciaran Hinds (aka “King Beyond the Wall” Mance Rayder on Game of Thrones).  He plays a professor.

Movie – Tonight You’re Mine (aka You Instead) (2011)

This film is known as “Tonight You’re Mine” in the U.S., but its original title in the U.K. was “You Instead”.  I’m not sure why the title was changed; both of them are pretty generic.  It was shot over only five days at the 2010 T in the Park music festival in Scotland.  It’s not a documentary, though, but a film with actors and actresses in it. Because of the guerilla style of filmmaking and the constant need to react to their surroundings, the music being performed onstage, etc., the movie has a real “you are there” feel to it.  I liked it quite a bit.

Steve’s Selections #7 – My Favorite Year (1982)

This is the seventh of twelve films that Steve at 1001plus has picked for me to watch and review.  He ran across it doing his reviews of Oscar nominated films.  In this case, Peter O’Toole received his seventh (of eight) Best Actor nominations, although he would lose once again (this time to Ben Kingsley in Gandhi).  O’Toole’s performance is mostly comedic – something that is usually bypassed by the Academy – so the fact that he even got a nomination at all might say something.  As a whole, the film is a pleasant experience.  The less comedic/more dramatic moments are understated and fit well within the story.

Movie – Casanova (2005)

The film Casanova is not a biography of the real man; it is a fictional story that uses him as the main character, much like Shakespeare in Love did with William Shakespeare.  In fact, the plot of Casanova the film could have come from something Shakespeare wrote himself, what with the mistaken identities, people masquerading as others, a woman pretending to be a man, naughty humor for the groundlings, and higher concepts for those who appreciate it.  It also has a very good performance from Heath Ledger as Casanova.