Ten years later

January 01, 2019



As of this month, my blog is officially ten years old. It's almost unfathomable that it's been a whole decade since I started blogging. I can remember sending my first few posts out into the void and being shocked when I started getting comments. Real interactions with other classic movie fans -- and most of them young, like I was. When I was in school I was bullied for liking "dead actors" and black and white movies. The only people who shared my love of Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck or understood my references to Walter Brennan and Guy Kibbee were my parents. Now I spend each day chatting about film with my fellow classic film fans on twitter - most of whom I met through blogging. The last ten years have shown me a world of camaraderie and community that I didn't even know was possible. It's been amazing.

I started Silents and Talkies with the intention of sharing my artwork and writing about film. As the first year went by I learned pretty quickly that I'm not very good at reviewing movies. I'm not the best writer, and I am incapable of analytical thinking when it comes to film. My post frequency waned, and I didn't end up contributing nearly as much as I would have liked to this blog. For the last month or so, I kept thinking that I wanted to make it a New Years Resolution to really invest more time and effort here, but I kept coming back to those shortcomings that have kept me from updating more frequently in the past. I am not a great writer and I am not good at reviewing movies. My absolute favorite posts that I've ever written have been very personal, like this one about Now Voyager, and this one about Late Spring. So I decided that this blog needed a new identity altogether.

As of today, Silents and Talkies is now The Films in My Life - a personal journal of cinema. The name, not surprisingly, comes from my beloved François Truffaut, who used it as the title when he edited a collection of his favorite film reviews. I want this to be almost like a cross between a diary and a scrapbook -- expect entries about why certain films speak to me, scanned magazine clippings, photos of my collection of memorabilia, and, as usual, a decent amount of fangirling over Alain Delon and Dirk Bogarde.

Film is such an important part of my life. Even when I'm not watching it, it has influenced and shaped my life in such a way that I'm never apart from it. And I feel like this new direction I'm taking here is the best way for me to reflect upon and share my lifelong love affair with cinema. I hope you'll join me :)

4 comments:

Jacqueline T. Lynch said...

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary! Your new adventure in blogging sounds exciting, and I'm sure will be as well for your many, many readers. Looking forward to another wonderful 10!

Brian said...

Congrats on your first 10 years! And Kate, you're an excellent writer! The two posts you linked to prove that beyond a doubt. I'm really looking forward to reading more about the films that resonate you. That, and the fangirling too! :)

Millie said...

10 years together, my friend! ��

Hamlette (Rachel) said...

Congrats on your milestone! I look forward to whatever you do next here. I know I'll learn from and enjoy it, as usual!