Best of 2009
So the year is almost over and it is time for my annual list. I hope the following is useful to those looking for new film and music. I would very much like to check out others' lists and would be happy to burn a mixtape with some of my top music of 09 on it or try to track down copies of any of these films if anyone is interested. Comments and discussion are always fun too.
Best Movies 2009
Preamble: More than most years, I believe this year’s top 10 most accurately represents my taste in film; the movies that made an impression on me really made an impression on me and I was able to see enough variety to exclude most of those I thought were very good but not absolutely essential. That said, the final list happens to unintentionally tend toward the European arthouse side of things. With some minor exceptions I felt the tone of both American cinema and genre film in 2010 was, overall, mediocre, and the few Asian films I was able to see disappointed me (case in point, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s terrible Air Doll). The only noteworthy Asian film I was able to see this year was Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, a short segment from Primitive, memorable as a meditative experiment on memory and repetition. Likely to change my sense of disappointment are some of the films I missed and will have to catch up with in 2010: Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst, Tsai Ming-liang’s Face, Soi Cheang’s Accident, Johnnie To’s Vengeance, Hong Sang-soo’s Like You Know it All, and Bong Joon-ho’s Mother.
Here’s what I did see and loved:
Best Movies 2009
Preamble: More than most years, I believe this year’s top 10 most accurately represents my taste in film; the movies that made an impression on me really made an impression on me and I was able to see enough variety to exclude most of those I thought were very good but not absolutely essential. That said, the final list happens to unintentionally tend toward the European arthouse side of things. With some minor exceptions I felt the tone of both American cinema and genre film in 2010 was, overall, mediocre, and the few Asian films I was able to see disappointed me (case in point, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s terrible Air Doll). The only noteworthy Asian film I was able to see this year was Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, a short segment from Primitive, memorable as a meditative experiment on memory and repetition. Likely to change my sense of disappointment are some of the films I missed and will have to catch up with in 2010: Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst, Tsai Ming-liang’s Face, Soi Cheang’s Accident, Johnnie To’s Vengeance, Hong Sang-soo’s Like You Know it All, and Bong Joon-ho’s Mother.
Here’s what I did see and loved:
01. Gaspar Noé - Enter the Void [France]
Unlike any film I’ve seen or, more aptly, affectively sustained (since the sensory impact went far beyond the merely visual), the 163-minute director’s cut of Noé’s latest is nothing less than pure cinema. Breathtakingly innovative at every turn (from the gliding camerawork to the ability to actually simulate a DMT trip, from the epileptic fits of colour to the odyssean narrative through life and death, in and out of first, second, and third person vantage-points), Enter the Void is a (mathematically and dynamically) sublime, almost indescribable, masterpiece.
02. Lars Von Trier - Antichrist [Denmark]
Antichrist is much less the sum of a handful of brutal paroxysms designed to offend (which so distracted its detractors) than a hard look into the meaninglessness of nature and ultimately a Schellingian examination of the theological consequences that result from repressing the volatile materiality of the Real. I had the unforgettable opportunity to watch this at home with windows open to the score of a storm outside.
03. Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon [Germany]
Michael Haneke, my favourite living director, has described his Cannes Palme d’Or winner, at least 10 years in the making, as an exploration of the way in which children “are taught absolutist values, and the way they internalize this absolutism.” In this way it called to mind a personal favourite of mine, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet, and Christian Berger’s high-modernist Nykvistian cinematography of northern European village life in 1913 only furthered the comparison.
04. Götz Spielmann - Revanche [Austria]
A moody thriller about the double assault that follows the fleeing perpetrator of any unpunished, serious crime: personal guilt and the suspense that accompanies awaiting inevitable discovery. Johannes Krisch is perfectly cast in the brooding role of Alex (his first leading role in a feature film) who embarks on a race to find redemption before tension, at each moment bubbling under the surface, explodes into full-blown bloodshed.
05. Bruno Dumont - Hadewijch [France]
In prayer, Hadewijch, the character played by Julie Sokolowski, softly utters “The sweetest thing about love is its violence.” Dumont has us consider whether this sentiment is not correct and in what ways this love might be directed (for better or worse). Exploring one avenue this love might be misdirected, Dumont tells a fascinating tale of one child’s desperate attempt to respond to the nihilistic conditions created by late capitalism with religious zealotry and the destruction of life.
06. Jessica Hausner - Lourdes [Austria]
Jessica Hausner, former student/script girl of Michael Haneke, delivers us a quiet, extremely focused Bressonian film on faith and finding grace in, ironically, the unlikeliest of places: Lourdes, France. What follows is one of the most tragic and emotionally devastating films I’ve ever seen in my life.
07. Giorgos Lanthimos - Dogtooth [Greece]
An unsettling satire of the family as the link that binds together suburbanite moralism and xenophobia protectionism. Expanded further, Lanthimos’ truly bizarre but rarely quirky or cute film can be interpreted as an indictment of ideology in toto, a rumination on Jacques Lacan’s claim that the Big Other only exists insofar as it is believed.
08. Renato De Maria - La Prima Linea [Italy]
This film, co-produced by the remarkable Dardenne brothers, offers a sensitive portrait of the 70s/80s, Italian radical leftist organization of the same name, its actions, and its members. De Maria avoids the quick dismissals of any productive use of violence that so often plague treatments of this subject, yet his sympathetic portrayal stops far short of cheerleading impotent terror and, instead, presents the difficulties associated with grins without cats (and the balance achieved in La Prima Linea certainly does warrant this reference to and comparison with Chris Marker).
09. Christian Petzold - Jerichow [Germany]
As a follow-up to his brilliant Yella, the crowning achievement of the Berliner Schule, Petzold updates The Postman Always Rings Twice for contemporary Germany where, as Nina Hoss’s character exclaims, “You can’t love if you’ve got no money.”
10. Claire Denis - White Material [France]
Although not one of Denis’ best films, even a relatively minor work from her is nevertheless cause for celebration. Returning to familiar themes, Denis tells the story of Maria Vial, played by Isabelle Huppert, a stubborn yet usually well-meaning French cosmopolitan plantation owner in Africa who refuses to acknowledge her surroundings, her nation’s history, and the role her mere presence plays within this context. For this reason Maria Vial reminded me of Maureen Smales in Nadine Gordimer’s novel July’s People, but a better comparison might be any of a number of Doris Lessing’s characters who provided the inspiration for the script. Denis-favourites Tindersticks provide the haunting score.
Best Albums 2009
1. SND – Atavism [Raster Noton]
The latest from SND since their days at Mille Plateaux in the early 2000s blends the austere with the inventive, producing an almost entirely percussive yet incredibly soulful record under the strictest of restrictions.
2. The-Dream – Love vs. Money [Def Jam]
If the rumblings that 2009 marked the imminent death of hip-hop became harder and harder to dispel (with Gucci Mane, Raekwon, and Freddie Gibbs acting as the only exceptions), the state of R&B, at the moment presided by Mr. Nash, seemed entirely intact, as if to lend some support to his own dichotomy: Love vs. Money.
3. Brock van Wey - White Clouds Drift On and On [Echospace]
Brock van Wey, aka bvdub, offers us the most gorgeous cinematic soundscapes this side of Gas that suggest less an engulfing, ambient wall of sound than slowly building and cresting oceanic waves. The vocal sample on “I Knew Happiness Once” is absolutely haunting. We can look forward to hearing more of bvdub in early 2010 on Kompakt’s Pop Ambient 2010 where he will play the headlining role that Klimek performed last year, offering two tracks, one lasting no less than 17 minutes.
4. Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy [Matador]
With a drunken, bluesy voice reminiscent of Tom Petty, a whole lot of looped and reverbed guitar, and a taste for open-road Americana, Kurt Vile singlehandedly reinvents classic rock for a new age and kicks your ass in the process.
5. R. Kelly - The "Demo" Tape (Gangsta Grillz)
Amidst the legal trouble and moral nefariousness of a few years back, R. Kelly’s popularity and credibility as a master of his genre never really waned. And if there still remained any doubt that he remains at the top of his game, Kelly’s latest laughs off all past adversity, humourously reasserts his sliminess, and does it all with such irresistible slipperiness that even the severest of moralists have no choice but to be won over. Alongside some excellent new tracks, this mixtape includes almost every single good song played on the radio within the last year, including the essential single of the summer, Drake’s “Best I Ever Had.”
6. Girls – Album [True Panther/Fantasy Trashcan]
As annoying as it was to have everyone, over the course of one weekend, change their Facebook statuses to proclaim that they also would like a “pizza and a bottle of wine,” Album is an album that is completely worthy of the whirlwind of hype it immediately generated. Throughout the album a genuine sadness is injected into the 3 or 4 simple chords of each song, avoiding what would in other hands slip into saccharine, it-band preciousness.
7. Demdike Stare – Symbiosis [Modern Love]
Pendle Coven’s MLZ joins Sean Canty of the Finder Keepers label to produce cold, nightmarish dub with a globetrotter’s supply of references to all things dark and atmospheric. With its Middle Eastern rhythms and its evocation of voodoo exotica, I believe this will make a perfect companion to Reza Negarastani’s Cyclonopedia when I get to it in the new year.
8. 16-Bit – Twice [Twice]
The 16-bit remix crew has had an extremely busy and versatile year, but here they are at their softest, poppiest, and arguably best. The voices of Joanna Newsome and Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano have never sounded better than here, laid over tight dubstep (uh, and a waltz!).
9. Lusine – A Certain Distance [Ghostly International]
Every once in awhile I’ll read someone else’s year-end list before I compile my own and, after listening to an unheard recommendation, it will leave such an impression on me that I’ll be forced to instantly make room on my own list for it. This happened with Lusine, recommended by Andrea at basic_sounds who has summed up A Certain Distance as “sophisticated pop structures with warm melodic IDM melodies.” (Indeed, exciting is the fact that the last few years seem to signal a full-swing IDM revival).
10. Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek – Blank Grey Canvas Sky [Fang Bomb]
Simultaneously hypnagogic and melancholy, Blank Grey Canvas Sky, released in December 2009, feels like an appropriate way to exit the ‘decade when nothing happened’™.
15. Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country [Kranky]
16. Moritz von Oswald Trio – Vertical Ascent [Honest Jons]
19. Radio Slave – Fabric 48 [Fabric]
20. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Reminisces [Cooler Cat]
Best Novel 2009
01. Jonathan Littell - The Kindly Ones [HarperCollins]
This literary masterpiece, which had Gallimard, its original French publisher, decide a few years ago to momentarily halt its pressing of the newest Harry Potter in order to free up room on the print-line, failed to make much of a splash on this side of the pond when it was translated into English this year. This is quite unfortunate because not only is The Kindly Ones a harrowing rehash of the sordid details of political genocide (the focus of most North American reviewers and the origin of accusations of ‘sensationalism’), it is also an admirable investigation into the manner in which ideology is able to appear as something else entirely, as well as the way enjoyment and desire are connected to this ideological symbolic system under fascism, serving a certain political function. Furthermore, Littell’s 1000+ page work is remarkable insofar as it presents the ultimate challenge to the hyperbolic, infinite hospitality to the other (including the Nazi other) endorsed by late capitalist postmodernity.
Top 9 tracks of 2008
MY BEST OF 2008 LIST
So the year is almost over and it is time for my annual list. I hope the following is useful to those looking for new film and music. I would very much like to check out others' lists and would be happy to burn a mixtape with some of my top music of 08 on it if anyone is interested. Comments and discussion are always fun too.
My 10 Favourite Films of 2008:
Amongst my favourite films in 2008, none are quite alike. For quite some time now I have been drawn to minimalism in all mediums of art and my favourite film of the year demonstrated the extent to which narrative cinema is able to strip itself down while remaining powerful and affecting. The opposite of pared down was the latest Bond installment, which is ideally watched after reading Juan Cole's essential commentary on its Bolivarian undertones. Schroeter didn’t think his body of work was crazy enough so he outdid himself again. Kaufman showed himself to be as talented a director as he is a screenwriter. And Haneke attempted the task of Borges’ Pierre Menard and decided to remake his exact film in a different time and arguably to different results. Kurosawa and Denis offered us something of departure from their usual work. Du Welz’s film was not perfect but served as a fascinating follow-up to Calvaire and Béart was absolutely fantastic in it. And Reygadas and Garrone gave us a very raw and unromanticized look at two very different -- but in another sense extremely similar -- cultures centered on the family.
My 10 Favourite Films of 2008:
Amongst my favourite films in 2008, none are quite alike. For quite some time now I have been drawn to minimalism in all mediums of art and my favourite film of the year demonstrated the extent to which narrative cinema is able to strip itself down while remaining powerful and affecting. The opposite of pared down was the latest Bond installment, which is ideally watched after reading Juan Cole's essential commentary on its Bolivarian undertones. Schroeter didn’t think his body of work was crazy enough so he outdid himself again. Kaufman showed himself to be as talented a director as he is a screenwriter. And Haneke attempted the task of Borges’ Pierre Menard and decided to remake his exact film in a different time and arguably to different results. Kurosawa and Denis offered us something of departure from their usual work. Du Welz’s film was not perfect but served as a fascinating follow-up to Calvaire and Béart was absolutely fantastic in it. And Reygadas and Garrone gave us a very raw and unromanticized look at two very different -- but in another sense extremely similar -- cultures centered on the family.
10. Michael Haneke – Funny Games (US)
9. Matteo Garrone – Gomorrah
8. Charlie Kaufman – Synocdoche, NY
7. Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Tokyo Sonata
6. Claire Denis – 35 Rhums
5. Marc Forster – Quantum of Solace
4. Carlos Reygadas – Silent Light
3. Fabrice Du Welz - Vinyan
2. Werner Schroeter – Nuit de Chien
1. Albert Serra - Birdsong (El Cant des ocells)
My 20 Favourite Albums of 2008:
2008 marked a further departure from the rockism that had plagued much of my past. This move, however, hadn’t been intentional. Most of the heavy-hitters failed to impress and I wasn’t able to spend enough time with the new Deerhunter or No Age to really appreciate them. Though my indie choices are far from challenging, I must admit to initially hating Vampire Weekend, a band who has since turned New England into my personal utopia. I was also surprised to find myself really liking the new release by Kings of Leon, a band I hadn’t ever liked before.
In terms of electronic music 2008 was a curious year for me. I could not help but feel that the oft-cited sound Cut Copy, Crystal Castles, and Hot Chip were offering was nothing more than the Michael Crichton airport novels of the electronic music world. But Minimal, more now than ever, proved that it was not going anywhere. Having not heard Sool before seeing Ellen Allien play with Sascha Funke, I was quite surprised to hear that she had taken a very large step in that direction. In the more experimental corner of the electronic world, there was also Jeck and Fennesz who, well, have a tendency to make my list every year they put something out.
2008 was an especially bad year for stubborn purists of any stripe, as the good stuff was all over the map. On one end of the musical spectrum Jacaszek’s album was the most beautiful thing I heard in 2008 and on the other end of the spectrum I think it would be safe to say that our collective patience was well rewarded with the eventual release of the equally impressive Tha Carter III (especially the tracks with Babyface and Bobby Valentino).
20. Paavoharju – Laulu Laakson Kukista [Fonal]
19. Luomo – Convivial [HUUME]
18. Fennesz – Black Sea [Touch]
17. Manuel Zurria – Repeat! [Die Schachtel]
16. Marcel Dettmann - Berghain 02 [Ostgut]
15. Ellen Allien – Sool [BPitch Control]
14. Sten – The Essence [Dial]
13. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes [Sub Pop]
12. Chromatics – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack IV…Night Drive [Italians Do It Better]
11. Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Hommage à Messiaen [Deutsche Grammophon]
10. Philip Jeck – Sand [Touch]
9. Ricardo Villalobos – Vasco EP [Perlon]
8. Clark – Turning Dragon [Warp]
7. Kings of Leon – Only By The Night [RCA]
6. M83 – Saturdays = Youth [Mute]
5. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III [Cash Money]
4. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend [XL]
3. Jacaszek – Treny [Miasmah]
2. Justus Köhncke – Safe and Sound [Kompakt]
1. Sascha Funke - Mango [BPitch Control]
My Favourite Reissue of 2008:
Narrowly edging out Basic Channel’s BCD-2 is the comparably important reissue of Wolfgang Voigt’s extremely influential ambient/drone project. Beyond its seminal stature in the history of electronic music, I would also venture to say that the sublimity of this collection finds its true peers in the sacred minimalism of Tavener and Pärt.
1. Gas – Nah und Fern [Kompakt]
My 10 Favourite Songs of 2008:
These were the tracks that stood out in 08. Two tracks come from the latest installment of the always reliable Kompakt Total series. The remixes here are all great improvements on their original tracks. Of the songs here, I believe only the Alex Smoke track wasn’t released on its own as a single, but can be found on his three-track Vaporub EP. It was very difficult to nail down a single best track featuring T-Pain (with ‘Can’t Believe It’ representing Mr. Najm at his catchiest and "Chopped and Screwed" at his most innovative) but 'She Got It' won as his strongest song to date. The R&B tracks on Lil Wayne’s album are also excellent, but I’ve recommended his entire album in my top 20 albums.
10. Ne-Yo – Closer [Def Jam]
9. Alex Smoke – Clapface [Hum and Haw]
8. Sascha Dive – Deepest America (Moodymann Remix) [Ornaments]
7. Spencer Parker – Improvised Minotaur [REKIDS]
6. 2 Pistols ft. T-Pain – She Got It [Republic]
5. The Whitest Boy Alive – Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix) [Modular]
4. Dubshape – Droplets (Early Night Mix) [Kompakt]
3. SoundStream – “Live” Goes On [Sound Stream]
2. Morgan Geist - Detroit (Carl Craig’s c2RMX2) [Environ]
1. Jonas Bering – I Can’t Stop Loving You [Kompakt]
My Favourite Blog of 2008:
I learned a great deal from this blog in 08. It is clean, current, updated regularly, and is a reliable source for discovering (and attaining) new electronic music and viewing cutting-edge, contemporary art. I met the mind behind the blog this summer and she’s good people.
1. Basic Sounds
My Favourite TV Show of 2008:
In recent years television has been getting better and better and this year was no exception. Strong candidates included the recent season of FX’s The Shield and AMC’s Mad Men and interesting newcomers HBO’s True Blood and FX’s Sons of Anarchy. But, ultimately, the final season of the Best Show on TV remained the best show on TV:
1. The Wire – Season 5.
My Favourite Magazine of 2008:
With articles centered on a single topic but culled from various first-rate sources throughout history and across all disciplines and cultures, this journal has something to offer everyone while remaining rigorously academic. As magazine readership continues to fall, this journal, with its ability to bring Foucault together with Peter Abelard, Seneca with Stanley Fish, Don Delillo with Helen Keller (and that is all within one issue), stands as a publisher’s answer to the hypertextualized internet age. That there even existed a single magazine that was at once readily available at your local bookstore and also intellectually stimulating came as a pleasant surprise to me.
1. Lampham’s Quarterly
McCongeniality
John McCain made it clear (twice) tonight that he wasn't elected Miss Congeniality of the Senate.
This is what he'd look like had he won that election:
This is what he'd look like had he won that election:
peace
I'll be living in Toronto for awhile, attending John D. Caputo's course, 'The Weakness of God.'
unintended consequences.
It is an unpredictable turn of events that lead the Canadian government to exclaim their fear of the leftist promises (pulling out of NAFTA) of our neighbours to the South.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/200…
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/200…
This is great news (news that, granted, if exercised, would initially have a negative effect on the Canadian economy, but with time would make Canada a more self-sufficient and autonomous nation). The thought of the USA's withdrawal interrupting the continuous pattern of homogenizing annexation and opening up the possibility of a Canada sans the post-Mulroney trading relationship with (i.e. dependence on) the USA fills me with hope. Think of BSE, the move to privatize the CWB, Softwood lumber dispute, the Southern Ontario power outage of a few summers ago (to say nothing of the lasting impact wide-open-for-trade borders have had on Canadian products and businesses) and the effect NAFTA has had on these events. Flaherty claims that The Canadian Government "cannot create demand for product. Demand for product comes from consumers, and there is an economic slowdown in the United States." I'm no economist, but I think he's right: there is no demand for Canadian products when there are cheap American products to be had, and when there aren't American buyers a market that has set itself up to depend on American buyers is going to collapse. But the solution doesn't just lie with a better American economy, more consumerism from the South, and heavier levels of trade. Rather, the solution is to create demand for product within one's own borders and the easiest way of doing that is by making it more difficult to buy the American equivalent. I'm not suggesting a complete cut-off of all foreign trade, import or export, but there is something to be said about resisting globalization, resisting the free-flowing exchange that has the effect of making us all eat, drink, and use American products (almost exclusively), by slowing down the ease of trade, strengthening borders, and being forced into a situation of painful self-reflection where one must reassess one's vision of self-sustainability.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/200…
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/200…
This is great news (news that, granted, if exercised, would initially have a negative effect on the Canadian economy, but with time would make Canada a more self-sufficient and autonomous nation). The thought of the USA's withdrawal interrupting the continuous pattern of homogenizing annexation and opening up the possibility of a Canada sans the post-Mulroney trading relationship with (i.e. dependence on) the USA fills me with hope. Think of BSE, the move to privatize the CWB, Softwood lumber dispute, the Southern Ontario power outage of a few summers ago (to say nothing of the lasting impact wide-open-for-trade borders have had on Canadian products and businesses) and the effect NAFTA has had on these events. Flaherty claims that The Canadian Government "cannot create demand for product. Demand for product comes from consumers, and there is an economic slowdown in the United States." I'm no economist, but I think he's right: there is no demand for Canadian products when there are cheap American products to be had, and when there aren't American buyers a market that has set itself up to depend on American buyers is going to collapse. But the solution doesn't just lie with a better American economy, more consumerism from the South, and heavier levels of trade. Rather, the solution is to create demand for product within one's own borders and the easiest way of doing that is by making it more difficult to buy the American equivalent. I'm not suggesting a complete cut-off of all foreign trade, import or export, but there is something to be said about resisting globalization, resisting the free-flowing exchange that has the effect of making us all eat, drink, and use American products (almost exclusively), by slowing down the ease of trade, strengthening borders, and being forced into a situation of painful self-reflection where one must reassess one's vision of self-sustainability.
9-year old's review of the APA
The most recent issue of Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association has, as its introduction, a photocopied review of the proceedings of the Eastern APA conference written by the 9-year old son of a Philosophy professor. It's pretty cute:
"2 days after Chrismas [sic] I went to a philosophy confrence [sic]. It was horrible. There were 200 philosophers. They all did weird things. They couldn't make jokes, many had beards.
In the elevator it was worse. Once a philosopher got off on the wrong floor, so said, "wait for me." "We'll take you to the 27th," said another. Nobody laughed. "Get it there are only 10 floors," said some random old guy in a country accent. You get the point it was creepy.
A few days later there was a fire. Only one person was hurt, but everyone did weird things. Like people were standing in the roads, so nonphilosophers had to lead them out. Some people went back into the hotel. Firefighters had to lead them away. Still one guy stayed and had his bags blocking the door. Firefighters told him to move his bags, so he did, but when they left he put them back. I'll never go to a philosophy confrence [sic] again."
"2 days after Chrismas [sic] I went to a philosophy confrence [sic]. It was horrible. There were 200 philosophers. They all did weird things. They couldn't make jokes, many had beards.
In the elevator it was worse. Once a philosopher got off on the wrong floor, so said, "wait for me." "We'll take you to the 27th," said another. Nobody laughed. "Get it there are only 10 floors," said some random old guy in a country accent. You get the point it was creepy.
A few days later there was a fire. Only one person was hurt, but everyone did weird things. Like people were standing in the roads, so nonphilosophers had to lead them out. Some people went back into the hotel. Firefighters had to lead them away. Still one guy stayed and had his bags blocking the door. Firefighters told him to move his bags, so he did, but when they left he put them back. I'll never go to a philosophy confrence [sic] again."
10 films of the year
10 films of 2007
If last year was the year of the documentaries for me (The Ister and When the Levees Break both ranking high on my top 10) this year is the year of duos with 3 of 10 films coming from two person teams (No Country, Europa, and Darkness). While I was less than enthusiastic about Battle in Heaven, I'd be very surprised if Silent Light (a story about infidelity in a Mexican Mennonite community that is apparently a revamp of Dreyer's Ordet), when I eventually get to see it, doesn't rank with the best of 2007. The disappointments of the year were Andrey Zyvagintsev's The Banishment, two large steps back from his formidable debut, The Return, and Monte Hellman's short, Stanley's Girlfriend (although a friend, well-versed in the work of Monte Hellman, ranks this with the best of the year, so I wouldn't discourage anyone from checking it out).
Here are my personal favourites:
1. Cristian Nemescu: California Dreamin' (Endless)
A humourous but never infantalizing look at contemporary Eastern European geopolitics (something in itself an accomplishment) and the pervasive effect globalisation via interventionism has on ordinary lives. I reviewed the perfect balance of social commentary with bittersweet humour of this film earlier in the year (on this blog), and my memory of the powerful impact this film had on me still resonates loudly many months after.
2. Paul Greengrass: Bourne Ultimatum
Preempted by two excellent forerunners, Greengrass completes his subversion of machismo with a complete desouvrement of the action-thiller genre via the very foundational aspects of the genre -- the most Hegelian (and thereby greatest) of all action films in virtue of being the exact opposite of the action film.
3. Jean-Marie Straub & Daniele Huillet: Europa 2005 - 27 Octobre
Significantly departing from the original specified thematic premise of re-envisioning Rossellini's Europa '51, Straub-Huillet decide to instead focus on the immediacy of the original with their own exploration of the final straw that led to the recent French suburban riots. A meditative yet ugly piece, Straub-Huillet take us to the high-voltage electrical transformer park where two youths met their death at the hands of French police (consequently starting the riots of the summer) and slowly and repeatedly show us the place of death in a manner meant to evoke both anger and mourning.
4. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen: No Country for Old Men
(Almost) every critic has applauded the innovative way the Coens have given us two films and they all predictably prefer the second, more serious, subtler of the two. But the strength of No Country is not in it being two films, but in the very fact that it (specifically in the third act) disallows this binary set-up, entirely excluding the possibility of choosing to simply watch the former, cat-and-mouse thriller version, leaving only the one film. Appropriate to the sense of helplessness -- or at least death of the belief in teleological progress - driven home in this film, this screencap seems to reference Marker's Grin Without a Cat.
5. Jacques Rivette: Ne Touchez Pas La Hache
Previously underwhelmed with this Rivette entry, most likely due to the unfair expectations of wanting to see Rivette at his most experimental, after sitting with me for awhile -- and in the meantime reading not Balzac, but Marquez's tale of sexual tension, Love in the time of Cholera - I came to appreciate the rich detail and the decidedly prissy caution of the characters, all of which contributed to a charmingly funny tale of unsatisfying lives lived adjudicating desire.
6. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne: Dans l'Obscurité (Darkness)
In this short for Chacun son cinéma the Dardennes offer their homage to Bresson, but in their characteristic Levinasian manner, evidenced by their phenomenology of the ethical call of the face and the violence of focusing on/describing (objectifying) the parts of the body. This shift of relation to violence and then back to relation, ad infinitum, is seen here to never be anticipated (we don't know what the child is doing or why) and always only seen after the fact.
7. Anton Corbijn: Control
The autistic, cold look at Ian Curtis's life excels in focus and in delivering a tightly-woven film that presents to every fan exactly what they already know. Never, for a second, is there an exploration of Thatcherism, the underlying factors that might have contributed to an epidemic of apathy in the youth, Joy Division's lasting legacy, nor a concrete answer to the question posed by the final act of suicide. Corbijn does not make Curtis into a saint, excusable in his actions, nor even likeable. Instead we are offered a story that affords us (as close as is possible) that confused, unilluminated coldness of 1980.
8. Tony Gilroy: Michael Clayton
This is as close as we are likely to get to Hitchcock nowadays. It is hardly surprising that the mind behind Michael Clayton is the same man behind the Bourne series who, once again, takes the structure of the thriller, ups the standard level of intensity, literacy, and intelligent social criticism, and ends up with something much more.
9. Judd Apatow: Knocked Up
Far better than its overrated brother, Superbad, Knocked Up is a believable and heartwarming comedy. Its crudeness never lends itself to the depravity and nihilism of many contemporary comedies and, instead, it opts to be one of the most humane and personal films of the year. A major departure from the stock characters of most comedies, Knocked Up offers us real people who we can feel for and laugh with.
10. David Fincher: Zodiac
In many ways Zodiac feels like a filmic version of HBO's The Wire (itself a television show of filmic proportions): we are led into another world -- no, an ultra-specialized allegorical slice of our world -- that comes to represent our word in its entirety, a world that can hardly carry itself under its own weight of endless facts and prematurely-ending hunting paths, from which, underneath, escapes a pieced-together narrative, (a) life. This film, one we might dare to call simple or minimalistic, sure goes a long way in attempting to shed light on what we might (overzealously?) call the human condition.
If last year was the year of the documentaries for me (The Ister and When the Levees Break both ranking high on my top 10) this year is the year of duos with 3 of 10 films coming from two person teams (No Country, Europa, and Darkness). While I was less than enthusiastic about Battle in Heaven, I'd be very surprised if Silent Light (a story about infidelity in a Mexican Mennonite community that is apparently a revamp of Dreyer's Ordet), when I eventually get to see it, doesn't rank with the best of 2007. The disappointments of the year were Andrey Zyvagintsev's The Banishment, two large steps back from his formidable debut, The Return, and Monte Hellman's short, Stanley's Girlfriend (although a friend, well-versed in the work of Monte Hellman, ranks this with the best of the year, so I wouldn't discourage anyone from checking it out).
Here are my personal favourites:
1. Cristian Nemescu: California Dreamin' (Endless) A humourous but never infantalizing look at contemporary Eastern European geopolitics (something in itself an accomplishment) and the pervasive effect globalisation via interventionism has on ordinary lives. I reviewed the perfect balance of social commentary with bittersweet humour of this film earlier in the year (on this blog), and my memory of the powerful impact this film had on me still resonates loudly many months after.
2. Paul Greengrass: Bourne UltimatumPreempted by two excellent forerunners, Greengrass completes his subversion of machismo with a complete desouvrement of the action-thiller genre via the very foundational aspects of the genre -- the most Hegelian (and thereby greatest) of all action films in virtue of being the exact opposite of the action film.
3. Jean-Marie Straub & Daniele Huillet: Europa 2005 - 27 OctobreSignificantly departing from the original specified thematic premise of re-envisioning Rossellini's Europa '51, Straub-Huillet decide to instead focus on the immediacy of the original with their own exploration of the final straw that led to the recent French suburban riots. A meditative yet ugly piece, Straub-Huillet take us to the high-voltage electrical transformer park where two youths met their death at the hands of French police (consequently starting the riots of the summer) and slowly and repeatedly show us the place of death in a manner meant to evoke both anger and mourning.
4. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen: No Country for Old Men(Almost) every critic has applauded the innovative way the Coens have given us two films and they all predictably prefer the second, more serious, subtler of the two. But the strength of No Country is not in it being two films, but in the very fact that it (specifically in the third act) disallows this binary set-up, entirely excluding the possibility of choosing to simply watch the former, cat-and-mouse thriller version, leaving only the one film. Appropriate to the sense of helplessness -- or at least death of the belief in teleological progress - driven home in this film, this screencap seems to reference Marker's Grin Without a Cat.
5. Jacques Rivette: Ne Touchez Pas La HachePreviously underwhelmed with this Rivette entry, most likely due to the unfair expectations of wanting to see Rivette at his most experimental, after sitting with me for awhile -- and in the meantime reading not Balzac, but Marquez's tale of sexual tension, Love in the time of Cholera - I came to appreciate the rich detail and the decidedly prissy caution of the characters, all of which contributed to a charmingly funny tale of unsatisfying lives lived adjudicating desire.
6. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne: Dans l'Obscurité (Darkness)In this short for Chacun son cinéma the Dardennes offer their homage to Bresson, but in their characteristic Levinasian manner, evidenced by their phenomenology of the ethical call of the face and the violence of focusing on/describing (objectifying) the parts of the body. This shift of relation to violence and then back to relation, ad infinitum, is seen here to never be anticipated (we don't know what the child is doing or why) and always only seen after the fact.
7. Anton Corbijn: ControlThe autistic, cold look at Ian Curtis's life excels in focus and in delivering a tightly-woven film that presents to every fan exactly what they already know. Never, for a second, is there an exploration of Thatcherism, the underlying factors that might have contributed to an epidemic of apathy in the youth, Joy Division's lasting legacy, nor a concrete answer to the question posed by the final act of suicide. Corbijn does not make Curtis into a saint, excusable in his actions, nor even likeable. Instead we are offered a story that affords us (as close as is possible) that confused, unilluminated coldness of 1980.
8. Tony Gilroy: Michael ClaytonThis is as close as we are likely to get to Hitchcock nowadays. It is hardly surprising that the mind behind Michael Clayton is the same man behind the Bourne series who, once again, takes the structure of the thriller, ups the standard level of intensity, literacy, and intelligent social criticism, and ends up with something much more.
9. Judd Apatow: Knocked UpFar better than its overrated brother, Superbad, Knocked Up is a believable and heartwarming comedy. Its crudeness never lends itself to the depravity and nihilism of many contemporary comedies and, instead, it opts to be one of the most humane and personal films of the year. A major departure from the stock characters of most comedies, Knocked Up offers us real people who we can feel for and laugh with.
10. David Fincher: ZodiacIn many ways Zodiac feels like a filmic version of HBO's The Wire (itself a television show of filmic proportions): we are led into another world -- no, an ultra-specialized allegorical slice of our world -- that comes to represent our word in its entirety, a world that can hardly carry itself under its own weight of endless facts and prematurely-ending hunting paths, from which, underneath, escapes a pieced-together narrative, (a) life. This film, one we might dare to call simple or minimalistic, sure goes a long way in attempting to shed light on what we might (overzealously?) call the human condition.
My (fairly random) 2007 Christmas haul.
1. Simon & Patrick Woodland Cedar GT acoustic guitar
2. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. Noodle Bowl and Chopsticks
4. Winter Gloves
5. Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project - John D. Caputo
6. God Without Being: Hors-Texte - Jean-Luc Marion
7. Hooters Hot Sauce and Wing Sauce
8. Christian Audigier "Faith" Monogram Tattoo Tee
9. Cinema, Tim Hortons, and McDonalds Gift Certificates
10. Brownline 2008 Organizer
2. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. Noodle Bowl and Chopsticks
4. Winter Gloves
5. Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project - John D. Caputo
6. God Without Being: Hors-Texte - Jean-Luc Marion
7. Hooters Hot Sauce and Wing Sauce
8. Christian Audigier "Faith" Monogram Tattoo Tee
9. Cinema, Tim Hortons, and McDonalds Gift Certificates
10. Brownline 2008 Organizer