Witching and Bitching (5 Stars)

This is my 15th horror film for November 2019. It's also the last in the series of films of my four favourite directors this month.

1.  Exte (Sion Sono)
2.  Shadow (Zhang Yimou)
3.  Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
4.  Witching and Bitching (Alex de la Iglesia)

I also have an announcement to make. I've been promising for the last three years that I'll publish a list of my top 50 films. I've now decided that it's an impossible task. There are too many films that are almost good enough to make my top 50, which I would have to leave out of the list completely. Some of the films are so good that their omission would hurt me too much. I would rather list a film in 55th place than not include it at all. I hope that makes sense to my readers, because it makes sense to me.

"Witching and Bitching" will be in my top 50. I can announce that with certainty. As for the other 49 (or 99) films, you'll just have to guess what they are. I'll do a countdown over a four month period, and I'm sure I'll annoy my readers who expect me to leave one of their favourite films till last, and then I don't mention it at all. I have my own tastes, for which I make no apologies.

Over the last few days I've been looking at my blog statistics. Usually I concentrate my attention on my popular posts, the ones listed in my sidebar. Some remain popular for months, while others are just popular for a short time, and I try to figure out why so many people read them. One thing I know is that it's not because they're better than my other posts. I know intuitively whether a post is good, i.e. whether it's informative and gives unique insight into a film. My good posts stand out against the others, in which I just post a few photos or ramble on aimlessly, like the post I'm writing now. No, many of my best posts are hardly read, while some of my weakest posts get lots of hits, because they contain a few keywords that people search for.

The posts that I list as "Popular Posts" have all had hundreds of hits. But what about the rest? Many of the posts that I've written in the last few months have had less than 10 hits, some as low as TWO. Who am I writing for? Maybe there are undocumented hits. What I mean is, if someone opens my blog at the homepage he can read my newest posts without the hits being counted.

The question I have to ask myself is whether I want to continue writing lengthy posts that hardly anybody will ever read. Can I draw conclusions about what will be popular and concentrate my efforts there? Maybe I could, but I won't. I know that in recent years I've been writing posts about Klaus Schulze and Marvel Comics – both of which are topics that attract a lot of readers – but I began this blog as a film diary, and it's still an absolute rule I've imposed on myself that I'll write something about every film I watch. Maybe I should make this blog more of a general diary. Maybe I should write more about what I did before and after watching a film. That might attract more readers, but it could just as easily drive readers away. Does it matter? Not to me. In my early days of writing my blog I had less than 200 readers a month, but I didn't let myself get discouraged. Nobody wants to read what I write about German wine, but I'll write it anyway.

Incidentally, I'm drinking a glass of Eberbach-Schäfer Trollinger while I write these words.

People are complex. I mean people in general, but I definitely know that I'm a complex person. I have many interests and passions. Some of my beliefs might seen contradictory to people who don't know me well enough. I'm someone who believes in thinking things through and making up his mind for himself, rather than following a party line. This is clearest in political matters. My right wing-ish friends think that I'm left wing, whereas my left wing-ish friends think that I'm right wing. I manage to agree with nobody and argue with everybody.

And I just poured myself another glass of wine. I'll probably finish the bottle before I go to bed tonight.

I am extremely tolerant of other people's opinions, but not everyone believes me when I say it, because I so strongly argue in favour of my own opinions. I think I'm right to do so. What good is an opinion if a person isn't prepared to defend it with his last breath? I can be 100% convinced that what I'm saying is right, and yet still respect the right of anyone to contradict me. I'll passionately defend my opinions, and I expect the people I'm talking to to do the same. Maybe one of us will change his mind. Maybe not. I know that I've changed my mind about a few small points, but my core beliefs haven't budged for the last 40 years. I welcome anyone to try to change my mind.

I'm a person with strengths and weaknesses. I'm proud of my strengths, but I'm not ashamed to confess my weaknesses. In fact, I'm more open in talking about my weaknesses than my strengths. Maybe that confuses people I talk to. Maybe I'm talking about a weakness, but they think I'm boasting about a strength.

And I've finished the bottle. I'll open a new bottle tomorrow. I have a few to choose from.

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