The Decade's End

Ah December - must be the season of the list... and in a year ending with 9, that means, the season of the end of the Decade list.... It is too early, of course, to say definitively what really were the best films of the 00s - but... lists are fun. And favorite lists (however defined) are also fun, and useful. Why not chart your taste/interests/values? and why not take the chance to chart other people's?

So here goes - for some reason, a lot of lists I've seen have gone to 50 - so I think that's where I will stop now. These are "in order", though after the first dozen or so, that's usually a completely arbitrary designation, so I will probably not maintain the pretense the whole way down...

1. Inland Empire - 2006 - David Lynch - USA (I notice that my post "explaining" Inland Empire still seems to be the one that gets the most hits... I wish searchers luck - I don't know if I'd call it explicable... just mesmerizing.)



2. Yi Yi - 2000 - Edward Yang - Taiwan
3. In Vanda's Room - 2000 - Pedro Costa - Portugal
4. Kings and Queen - 2004 - Arnaud Desplechin - France... (found a Catherine Deneuve box set with this in it for $10 yesterday. Not bad.)
5. Colossal Youth - 2006 - Pedro Costa - Portugal
6. 2046 - 2004 - Wong Kar wei - Hong Kong/China
7. Death of Mr. Lazarescu - 2005 - Christi Puiu - Romania
8 L'Intrus - 2004 - Claire Denis - France
9. O Brother Where Art Thou - 2000 - Coen Brothers - USA
10. Los Angeles Plays Itself - 2003 - Thom Anderson - USA
11. Mulholland Drive - 2001 - David Lynch - USA
12. Secret Sunshine - 2007 - Lee Chang-dong - South Korea
13. Goodbye, Dragon Inn - 2003 - Tsai Ming-liang - Taiwan
14. The Son - 2002 - Luc & Jean Pierre Dardenne - Belgium
15. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - 2002 - Park Chanwook - South Korea
16. Syndromes and a Century - 2006 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand
17. There Will Be Blood - 2007 - Paul Thomas Anderson - USA
18. Memories of Murder - 2003 - Bong Joon-ho - South Korea
19. Platform - 2000 - Jia Zhang Ke - China
20. House of Flying Daggers - 2004 - Zhang Yimou - China
21. Ichi the Killer - 2001 - Takashi Miike - Japan
22. En Construccion (Work in Progress) - 2001 - Jose Luis Guerin - Spain
23. Che - 2008 - Steven Soderburgh - USA
24. Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors - 2000 - Hong Sang-soo - South Korea
25. Doppleganger - 2003 -Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
26. Royal Tenenbaums - 2001 - Wes Anderson - USA
27. Tokyo Sonata - 2008 - Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
28. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - 2007 - Christian Mungiu - Romania
29. The Headless Woman - 2008 - Lucrecia Martel - Argentina
30. Woman on the Beach - 2006 - Hong Sang-soo - South Korea
31. Songs from the Second Floor - 2000 - Roy Andersson - Sweden
32. Zodiac - 2007 - David Fincher - USA
33. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 2004 - Michel Gondry - USA
34. Va Savoir - 2001 - Jacques Rivette - France
35. Donnie Darko - 2001 - Richard Kelly - USA
36. The Flight of the Red Balloon - 2007 - Hou Hsiao Hsien - Taiwan/France
37.Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary - 2003 - Guy Maddin - Canada
38.Regular Lovers - 2005 - Philippe Garrel - France
39. Retribution - 2006 - Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
40. Blissfully Yours - 2002 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand
41. Thirst - 2009 - Park Chanwook - South Korea
42. California Dreamin (Endless) - 2007 - Christian Remescu - Romania
43. Distance - 2001 - Hirokazu Kore-Eda - Japan
44. La Cienaga - 2001 - Lucrecia Martel- Argentina
45. Los Muertos - 2004 - Lisandro Alonso - Argentina
46. No Country for Old Men - 2007 - Coen Brothers - USA
47. Squid and the Whale - 2005 - Noah Baumbach - USA
48. RR - 2007 - James Bening - USA
49. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - 2004
50. Liverpool - 2008 - Lisandro Alonso - Argentina

This has changed noticeable since I started the list yesterday, and will probably change half a dozen titles on or off before the year ends. But there you go.