Although there’s grumbling every year that films are getting worse, 2012 did seem to be a lean year for cinema releases and the wider industry is still struggling to readjust from the financial and technological shocks of the last four years.
However, some notable events included:
- The Sundance Film Festival coming to London for the first time.
- The continuing digital revolution in how films are shot and seen.
- The enormous financial success of the Avengers movie (for some reason called Avengers Assemble in the UK) and certain animated films.
- Prometheus not living up to the Comic-Con fuelled hype of the previous summer.
- The tragic shooting incident that overshadowed the release of The Dark Knight Rises.
- Vertigo supplanting Citizen Kane in Sight and Sound’s famous poll.
- The unexpected deaths of Nora Ephron, Tony Scott and Harris Savides.
- The Bond franchise returning with Skyfall dominating the Autumn box office and pleasing the critics.
- The upcoming awards season which saw films such as Argo, Silver Linings Playbook and Lincoln jostling for early competition.
Among the DVD and Blu-ray releases that came out were:
- The Story of Film
- Chimes at Midnight
- A David Lynch Blu-ray boxset
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (and other notable re-releases from StudioCanal)
- Jaws
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Shut Up and Play the Hits
- E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
I’ll try to do as many ‘rewind’ posts as possible to cover some of the above, as well as notable end of year releases such as Argo, Amour and The Master.
If there is anything you want to ask about, just leave a comment below or get in touch.
> 2012 in film at Wikipedia
> Worldwide box office figures at Box Office Mojo