a cinephile’s latest acquisitions
When I wished to watch Nostalghia by Tarkovsky, I dawned upon a much-belated realization that my Criterion Channel subscription is not adequate for all the films that I want to watch. To begin with, Nostalghia was the only film by Tarkovsky that wasn’t available on Criterion. It was truly bewildering to me, especially because it is perhaps his most well-known film for the Western audience.
Of course, I resorted to other ways of acquiring the film and finally got around to watching it. But it did make me realize that I should perhaps start storing my favourite films on my laptop for days when I decide to pause my subscription or head off to a remote place with a spotty internet connection for a weekend. My laptop, on the other hand, is in its death throes in terms of space and I know it will give up on me the moment I download more than 6 GB of data. The only solution that presented itself to me was procuring a Solid State Drive (SSD).
And so, I went online and looked for a reasonably priced SSD with 1 TB storage capacity and an SSD converter. I found a Chinese brand called Fanxiang that was selling it for 52 CAD which was a lot lower than a lot of other SSDs with the same storage capacity. My dream of creating a collection of my favourite films was finally on the verge of being realized. In my excitement, I threw in a copy of The Stanley Kubrick Archives by Taschen with the hopes that the purchase of this book would push me to finally start watching Kubrick’s films. Of course, my excitement did not end there. I decided that I must have a physical copy of Sculpting In Time despite having a PDF of the same. Why shouldn’t I buy physical copies of my favourite books when I’m doing something similar with my favourite films? With that rhetorical question, I placed my order and rested my case.
Today was the day when my newly purchased belongings arrived and I duly formatted my new SSD and copied three of my favourite films. I will begin watching Kubrick as soon as my schedule gets freer. I did watch Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai a couple of nights back and I will be reviewing it soon, but for now, enjoy this little flat lay of my most recent cinephile purchases.
Today’s spoils
