On the evening of September 17th, I volunteered to introduce the Vancity Theatre’s screening of Park Chan-wook’s cult classic “Oldboy” (2003). This is what I had to say about it.

Good evening. My name is Christopher Beaubien and I am honoured to be here.

Very soon your heart will be pounding in your chest. Your stomach will sink into its knees. And we’ll all be grinning ear-to-ear watching “Oldboy” in all of its 4K glory.

How many of you are seeing this movie for the first time?

Back in 2005, a horror movie buff loaned me a VHS copy of “Basket Case” and then he challenged me to show him a really scary movie. I hate to disappoint and I knew just the movie to show him. Once I had the movie set up to show my new friend as well as 30 other people (Don’t ask), he asked me — he was so excited:

“Chris, is this movie really scary?”

I assured him it was.

Then the air turned to chill and his face betrayed apprehension.

He asked me again, “Chris, is this movie really scary?”

I told him it was.

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I just came across the 52 Films by Women challenge today. Since I keep close track of my movie viewing, let’s see how I did in 2017 having no initiative that these were going to be counted.

The Edge of Seventeen (dir. Kelly Fremon Craig)
Sleepwalk (dir. Sara Driver)
Standing Tall (dir. Emmanuelle Bercot)
Certain Women (dir. Kelly Reichardt) (Watched it twice)
Always Shine (dir. Sophia Takal)
Évolution (dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović)
Meshes of the Afternoon (dir. Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied)
All This Panic (dir. Jenny Gage)
Viktoria (dir. Maya Vitkova)
Karl Marx City (dir. Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker)
Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson)
Mansfield Park (dir. Jane Austen)
Toni Erdmann (dir. Maren Ade) (2nd time)
David Lynch: The Art Life (dir. Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, and Rick Barnes)
Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau) (Watched it twice)
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