Top Ten (or 20):

As an infrequent contributor to In Review Online, they were kind enough to invite me to take part in their end-of-year best films extravaganza (I also blurbed Film Socialisme for their staff aggregate best list). The below list is what I sent them, although I hasten to add two caveats: I was told that de Oliveira's The Strange Case of Angelica wasn't eligible for inclusion, nor Costa's Ne change rien, as both were technically 2010 releases (you'll hear more about this in another post coming soon - yes, I'm gonna bitch about it); I neglected to include Andre Ujica's The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, surely some kind of masterpiece. I hope that my oversight reflects not on the film itself and simply on my own inexplicable ineptitude. If anyone is interested, the InRO list was, to the best of my knowledge, ranked via each participants specific placement. With that in mind, I decided not to play the numbers game, as Film Socialisme would be my number one choice regardless of what list I was making or for who I happened to be making it for. Which is a long winded way of saying that the placement of my top five adequately reflects my enthusiasms for each, while the placement of the remaining titles is largely arbitrary.

1. Film Socialisme
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
3. Certified Copy
4. Poetry
5. Change Nothing
6. The Arbor
7. The Four Times
8. Martha Marcy May Marlene
9. The Strange Case of Angelica
10. 13 Assassins
11. Meek’s Cutoff
12. Nostalgia for the Light
13. Fast Five
14. A Dangerous Method
15. Drive
16. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
17. The Ward
18. We Need To Talk About Kevin
19. Miss Bala
20. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
21. Attack the Block
22. Goodbye First Love

Martha Marcy May Marlene:

for In Review Online, I talk about Sean Durkin's masterful debut feature, surely a lock for top ten of the year and as superb an actor's showcase as you're likely to see.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame:

over at In Review Online, I blather about the newest Tsui Hark opus.

Miss Bala:

a review of Gerardo Naranjo's 'Miss Bala' at In Review Online. Scoot on over and give it a glance, will ya?

Contagion:

I wrote a few words on Soderbergh's Contagion for In Review Online. Check it out.

CIFF Dispatch #1:

I’m a big fan of Joachim Trier’s 2006 debut Reprise, and with his new film, Oslo, August 31, I think its safe to say that a major cinematic talent as arrived – if Reprise was the work of a gifted newcomer, all kinetic energy and speed, Oslo, August 31 is calmer, more soulful and despairing, a kind of funeral dirge for lost youth. Working once again with leading man Anders Danielsen Lie, Trier charts a day-in-the-life of a recovering addict on an evening pass from his rehab center. Anders sees some old friends, has a disastrous job interview, contemplates a reunification with an old girlfriend and weighs his options, such as they are – as he puts it, ‘I’m 34 years old, and I’ve got nothing. I can’t start over again from scratch.’ There’s not much that Trier does wrong here, from the literate, deeply felt screenplay to a deceptively simple mis-en-scene; Trier has taken a page from the Assayas play book, finding inventive ways to enliven dialogue heavy scenes and allowing small, quiet moments to articulate otherwise abstract states of mind. There’s no arm chair shrinks here, and while Trier’s characters are intelligent and articulate, even self-aware, there’s no one simple diagnosis - disappointments abound.

Trier oscillates freely between Anders’ subjective point of view and a larger, seemingly objective view of the city surrounding him. Sitting in a café, Anders eavesdrops on the numerous conversations surrounding him; his isolation is palpable, and Trier hammers it home when Anders leaves the café – stepping outside, the din of voices suddenly drops off the soundtrack. As Anders converses with an old friend, a scene otherwise covered by traditional shot counter shot, Trier jump-cuts on the friend mid-sentence, his words continuing on the soundtrack while his lips no longer move. Anders himself is constantly isolated in the frame by various bits of architecture or the lines of a room; even when surrounded by people, as in the various gatherings he floats into during the narrative proper, Anders is isolated in one-shots while others are grouped together in the frame. As Anders’ long day’s journey into night continues, Trier’s editing becomes more jagged, the images more subjectively abstracted (Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar came to my mind more than once), and the soundtrack even louder – while the first two-thirds of the film features only ambient sounds and diagetic dialogue/music, the last third becomes immersed in booming techno music (my ears detected at least one Daft Punk song). Anders seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into his own head, dragging us along (a further Assayas connection, as Oslo, August 31 roughly mirrors that narrative trajectory of Cold Water, also culminating in an extended party scene/free floating pseudo-narrative matrix).

Trier begins the film with an intimate montage of Oslo, a mixture of stock footage, video images and a myriad number of overlapping voice-overs describing people, places and memories that amounts to a brief-but-epic city symphony; Trier ends the film with a series of still frames that progress in reverse chronological order through the film’s locations – Anders’ pre-rehab home, several apartments, a park, a lake and finally Anders’ room at the rehab center. The locations are empty now, and since we’ve been tethered to his point of view for the entire film, we palpably register Anders’ absence. We will miss him, but the world will continue without Anders, and ultimately without us.

Interesting Stuff:

It's been a long summer, and I've been pretty quiet on the old blog. But new content is on the horizon (for the few of you who care).

I wrote two short appreciations of Kiarostami for In Review Online's recent Kiarostami 'Directospective'. They've parceled Kiarostami's oeuvre into three sections, only the first two of which are currently available. My thoughts on 'Ten' and '10 on Ten' will be revealed sooner or later, at which point I'll update this post. In the meantime, I can wholeheartedly recommend the pieces already posted.

Adrian Martin has been particularly busy this summer; working with Girish Shambu, they've launched a new online magazine called LOLA - it's a worthy successor to the now apparently defunct Rouge, with at least several of the same contributors (notably Nicole Brenez) and a similarly broad approach to contemporary cinephilia. It is a welcome addition to the online film community, and hopefully fares better than Martin's previous endeavor.

Martin has also spearheaded a conference called World Cinema Now; there's a companion blog that promises to be updated regularly before and after the event, and already has some significant content, including some nice pieces on mad man provocateur Philippe Grandrieux.

In a stunning bit of good news, and to my mind perhaps the most significant cinema event of the year, Venice has just screened Nick Ray's We Can't Go Home Again. It is apparently not just a restoration, but a completion of Ray's final masterpiece, which has seen the light of day only briefly in two different early versions (one in 1973, the other sometime in the early 80's. I should note that I'm not actually sure which version I've seen, such is the limited information available on any version of the film). David Hudson has collected a bunch of links over at the Daily Notebook, including writings by Rosenbaum and links to a current Ray 'blog-o-thon.' Reports have the fine folks over at Oscilloscope acquiring the film for distribution. So hopefully we see it sooner rather than later.

Happy reading, let's talk soon...