Thanks to swo for all his hard work, and thanks to his handy analysis, orphan disciplining and panda baiting has been easier than ever, so here’s my entire list with the failures dragged up in front of the class and berated:
Yi Yi
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors
What Time Is It There?
Le Pont des Arts (Eugene Green) - ALSO RAN
When I looked back at my initial impressions I was surprised that I was a little cold on this first time through. Since then, it’s become something of an old standby. Despite Green’s extreme stylization and formal rigour, this gets more emotional every time I see it, and Denis Podalydes’ turn as The Unnamable (presumably because the real person would sue) is always horrifically hilarious.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Come into My World (Michel Gondry) - ALSO RAN
I rave about this every vote. You just need to see it and then marvel at its conception and execution.
Werckmeister Harmonies
Melody for a Street Organ (Kira Muratova) - ALSO RAN
Perhaps the most poisonous and cruel Christmas film ever made. It might look like mere Fellinian grotesquerie, but it ends with
a Nativity scene in which the child is dead from neglect.
A fable that shakes you by the shoulders and screams “what is wrong with you?!” into your face.
Tropical Malady
L'Intrus (Claire Denis) - ALSO RAN
Neither of my Denis picks made the list. This is probably her most difficult film, its seductive form deliberately shifted a knight’s move away from its meaning, but its dreamlike intensity is intoxicating.
Who's Camus Anyway? (Mitsuo Yanagimachi) - ALSO RAN
Very accomplished, referential ensemble film that would be standard were it not for a handful of unexpected, bravura sequences that lift it into a rarefied realm.
Extraordinary Stories (Mariano Llinas) – ORPHAN
When this finally comes out on DVD it might pick up some more fans. This was one of the most exciting and bold films I saw since the last vote, a long, complex, deeply mysterious exercise in narrative invention that drags early Greenaway into the 21st century while remaining grounded in basic storytelling virtues. A first film by somebody who looks like they assumed they’d never get to make another one, so they had to do everything all at once, and do it right.
The World
In the City of Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin) - ALSO RAN
I’m kind of surprised this didn’t make the cut, but it’s a film whose virtues are so delicate and purely cinematic that it might be hard to re-evoke them when making a boring old list. Another film that I can put on any time and be transported.
Between Two Worlds (Vimukthi Jayasundara) – ORPHAN
Slightly ahead of the apocalypse craze, and more affecting than most of those films. When you can see the end of the world coming, in human form, advancing relentlessly across the mountains, raping and killing, it’s somehow worse than being hit by a comet. This film has a Griffithian sense of scale.
The White Meadows (Mohammad Rasoulof) - ALSO RAN
And sometimes you realize that the end of the world has already happened.
The Son
Zodiac
Paper Soldier (Aleksey German Jr) – ORPHAN
The west is just now discovering the works of Aleksey German. In another forty years’ time, if we’re lucky, they’ll be discovering the works of his son. For all the people who complain about the lack of a modern-day Tarkovsky: OVER HERE!
Black and White Trypps Number Four (Ben Russell) – ORPHAN
Tonight, your host for the worst acid trip of your life will be. . . Richard Pryor!
The Decay of Fiction (Pat O’Neill) – ORPHAN
Old
films noirs don’t die, they pile up in O’Neill’s tailor-made purgatory.
Demonlover
South of the Clouds (Zhu Wen) – ORPHAN
Is this wonderful film already lost beyond retrieval? If Hong Sang-Soo and Franz Kafka had a baby, it’d probably be a bit like this.
Imprints (Jacques Drouin) – ALSO RAN
A grand master of pinscreen animation decides, in his twilight years, that there must be dozens of possibilities with the technique that have never been attempted, so he packs them all into this dazzling film.
Summer Hours
Morphia (Aleksey Balabanov) – ALSO RAN
Another great contemporary Russian / ex-Soviet filmmaker that people don’t know about simply because of the vagaries of international distribution. Although Balabanov has been much better served in that respect than German or Muratova, this brutal, beautiful period film never made the leap.
Police, adj.
The Last Train (Aleksey German Jr.) – ALSO RAN
Wow! Somebody else voted for this. Bleak, slushy epic in which an immense, useless doctor flounders around amidst the chaos of WWII. Again, if you want to know whatever happened to the sweeping, large-scale art films of the 60s: they’re probably just sitting on a shelf somewhere nowhere near you. This film is notable for possibly having the least heroic protagonist of all time.
You, the Living (Roy Andersson) – ALSO RAN
Huh, how did this miss the last transport? Don’t you guys like comedies that are actually funny?
Platform (Jia Zhang-ke) – ALSO RAN
I’ll be charitable and put it down to the dreadful state of the current DVDs, but one of the defining films of the 21st century missing the boat is frankly a bit of a forum embarrassment.
Friday Night (Claire Denis) – ORPHAN
My other Denis tends to get dismissed as slight, but to me it’s like a perfect pop song, albeit a soulful and moody one. Another gorgeous dream film that is endlessly replayable.
Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt) – ALSO RAN
Still Reichardt’s best film, and her subsequent ones have been pretty great!
Le Souffle (Damien Odoul) – ORPHAN
I rewatched this just before the deadline and was re-impressed enough to include it. Photogenic rural teenage malaise (in superb high-contrast black and white) in which kids’ lives are destroyed by the unthinking rituals of adult masculinity. Thematically schematic perhaps, but formally commanding, and so much better than Bruno Dumont’s hamfisted attempts at the same kind of material.
To Die Like a Man (Joao Pedro Rodrigues) – ORPHAN
Rodrigues is a consistently interesting filmmaker who’s never quite made it above the parapet of international recognition. This seems at first like a standard gay drama, but over time it accumulates weird, visionary details, and then about halfway through it decisively breaks its mould and takes flight as a weird, wonderful original creation.
Outerborough (Bill Morrison) – ALSO RAN
Nice to see that this simple, mesmerising structural film has gathered some more fans since the last list.
Memories of Murder
Private Property (Joachim Lafosse) – ORPHAN
Still a filmmaker to watch. The bleak
Our Children is his best-known work, but this claustrophobic family drama is his best to date. It’s very much inspired by Pialat and has brilliant work from Jeremie Renier and Isabelle Huppert. I’d argue that this is Huppert’s best performance of the decade. Everything Lafosse has made so far is worth checking out, however, even the creepy as fuck misfire
Eleve Libre.
Four Nights with Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski) – ORPHAN
A major return to form by a major filmmaker.
Ydessa, the Bears and etc. (Agnes Varda) – ORPHAN
Any time you vote for a short film, you might as well be throwing your vote into a pit, but that’s no reason not to do it. This is about as straightforward a film as Varda has ever made, but the care with which she explores the implications of the fascinating subject is exquisite, and it delivers the kind of sombre whimsy that Varda excels at in her best work.
The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman) – ALSO RAN
Speaking of sombre whimsy. . . Last time around I voted for
Divine Intervention, but this is better. This film is a little more restrained and moving, but there’s still plenty of exquisite Tatiesque
mise en scene and a wallop of bemused politics.
Three Times
Cargo 200 (Aleksey Balabanov) – ALSO RAN
Not a film that I can claim to enjoy, but its dirty fingernails have been scraping my subconscious ever since I saw it, which must count for something.
Crazy (Heddy Honigmann) – ORPHAN
This documentary had a huge emotional impact on me, and it seemed to me to be a perfect summary of Honigmann’s two major themes: the impact of war on individuals, and the ways in which people use music in their everyday lives. I was surprised, however, to see in my notes at the time that I felt it wasn’t as good as her previous film (
Two Minutes Silence, Please) or her next one (
Good Husband, Dear Son). Both of those are fantastic films, but this is the one that has stayed with me the longest. As far as I know,
Forever is the only Honigmann film that’s readily available on DVD, and it’s also fantastic. Hey, Second Run! How about a box set?
A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Nobuhiro Yamashita) – ORPHAN
I believe I wrote about this gentle charmer already. There’s still time to makes its acquaintance for the Youth list!
Russian Ark
Electric Dragon 80.000 V (Sogo Ishii) – ALSO RAN
Still the best superhero movie ever made, but it’s not as if there’s any strong competition.
Love Torn in a Dream – Astounded that this made the final list!
Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke) – ORPHAN
Also discussed already. Check it out!
The Studio Lights Dream of Their Real Life at Night (Alexander Kluge) – ORPHAN
Also discussed (briefly). A gorgeous fragment, basically. I had a bunch of “perfect number 50s” vying for inclusion and ended up limiting myself to two.
Sound Barrier (Amir Naderi) – ALSO RAN
When I saw this, I thought it was a really flawed film, though I couldn’t think what should have been done differently. Since then, I’ve never been able to forget it.