25 Films for the 21st Century

Well, I know today is a Friday, and I try to post musical things onFriday, but it is more important that I post anything on a Friday, and this has been going around, so why not? The New York Times posted their 25 best films of the 21st century - I have seen others getting on on the act - so here you go. we're almost through two whole decades of this century - shocking... all right.

1. Inland Empire
2. Yi Yi
3. Vanda's Room
4. Kingsand Queen
5. Colossal Youth
6. Los Angeles Plays Itself
7. O Brother Where Art Thou
8. Secret Sunshine
9. Moonrise Kingdom
11. The Master
12. There Will Be Blood
13. The Royal Tenenbaums
14. The Death of Mr Lazarescu
15. Toni Erdmann
16. L'Intrus
17. Mulholland Drive
18. Inside Llewyn Davis
19. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
20. The Headless Woman
21. Memories of Murder
22. Syndromes and a Century
23. Carlos
24. The Act of Killing
25. Mysteries of Lisbon

2000s WITD Poll Votes

Over at Wonders in the Dark, they have almost reached the present in their yearly polls, hitting the 2010s. I imagine, in a couple weeks it will get interesting, as we find out what will be the best films of 2014 and 15 and beyond. Better get my time machine going...

Anyway - here are my votes for the 2000s, my posted votes by year, and my overall choices. I notice that I have changed the order of a couple films since I voted - I have posted most of these votes as I went along, but I am not going to look to see how that has changed. Orders of merit tend to be pretty arbitrary, beyond the absolute top, usually....

Decade:

PICTURE: Inland Empire
DIRECTOR (single): David Lynch, Inland Empire
(decade): Pedro Costa
LEAD ACTOR (single): George Clooney, O Brother Where Art Thou?
(decade): Song Kang-ho
LEAD ACTRESS (single): Laura Dern, Inland Empire
(decade): Emmanuelle Devos
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Bae Doona, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
SHORT: Heart of the World, Guy Maddin
SCORE: Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood
CINEMATOGRAPHY: William Lubtchansky, Regular Lovers

Plus bonus picks::
Script: Outside of the top 20? Mother... overall?
1. Secret Sunshine
2. Kings and Queen
3. Yi Yi
4. Mother
5. O Brother Where Art Thou?
Music: O Brother Where Art Thou?
Sound: Shirin
Martial Arts: House of Flying Daggers
Documentary: Los Angeles Plays Itself - though this might be the best decade for documentaries yet - so deserves a top 5 at least:
1. Los Angeles... (Anderson)
2. En Construccion (Guerin)
3. Forty-Nine Up (Apted)
4. RR (Bening)
5. Grizzly Man (Herzog)
Animated: Waking Life (plus - Wall E, Incredibles, A Scanner Darkly, Waltz with Bashir)
Musical: depending on your definitions... top 5?
1. O Brother...
2. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
3. Chunyang
4. No One Knows About Persian Cats
5. 24 Hour Party People

Total:
1. Inland Empire
2. Yi Yi
3. Kings and Queen
4. In Vanda's Room
5. Colossal Youth
6. Secret Sunshine
7. Death of Mr. Lazarescu
8. O Brother Where Art Thou
9. Los Angeles Plays Itself
10. Memories of Murder
11. 2046
12. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
13. L'Intrus
14. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
15. The Royal Tenenbaums
16. The Headless Woman
17. Mulholland Drive
18. Syndromes and a Century
19. The Son
20. There Will Be Blood

2009:

Decent year, 2009, though maybe lacking any great masterpieces. But lots of films in the almost-great range, if that means anything. A contest of Korean films for the top spot...

PICTURE: Mother
DIRECTOR: Bong Joon-ho, Mother
LEAD ACTOR: Song Kang-ho, Thirst
LEAD ACTRESS: Kim Hye-ja, Mother (This is another tough one, with Isabelle Huppert and Kim Ok-bin to think about...)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
SHORT:
SCORE: Alexandre Desplat, Fantastic Mr. Fox
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Antony Dod Mantle, Antichrist

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Mother
Music/Sound: No One Knows about Persian Cats

1. Mother
2. Thirst
3. A Serious Man
4. Police, Adjective
5. White Material
6. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Limits of Control
9. Antichrist
10. The White Ribbon

2008:

This is something of a step back, though there are still plenty of decent films....

PICTURE: The Headless Woman
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh, Che
LEAD ACTOR: Benicio del Toro, Ché
LEAD ACTRESS: Maria Onetto, Headless Woman
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Eddie Marsan, Happy Go Lucky
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lina Leanderson, Let the Right One In
SHORT:
SCORE: Thomas Newman, Wall-E
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Steven Soderbergh, Ché

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Beaches of Agnes
Music: Sita Sings the Blues
Sound (& editing): Shirin
Documentary: Man on Wire

1. The Headless Woman
2. Che
3. Tokyo Sonata
4. Liverpool
5. Birdsong
6. 24 City
7. Hunger
8. Christmas Tale
9. Wall E
10. Night and Day

2007:

This is one of the best years of the decade - great at the top, and a deep run of good films.

PICTURE: Secret Sunshine
DIRECTOR: PT Anderson, There Will Be Blood
LEAD ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis
LEAD ACTRESS: Jeon Do-yeon (though this is a very strong year for actresses - Juliette Binoche, Sylvie Testud, Jeanne Balibar, Nina Hoss...)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kurt Russell, Grindhouse
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
SHORT:
SCORE: Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Harris Savides, Zodiac

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Secret Sunshine
Music/Sound: Darjeeling Limited - Kinks baby!

1. Secret Sunshine
2. There Will be Blood
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
4. Flight of the Red Balloon
5. Zodiac
6. California Dreamin'
7. No Country for Old Men
8. RR
9. In the City of Sylvia
10. Mourning Forest

2006:

Another very good year. With a couple of the really great films of the decade...

PICTURE: Inland Empire
DIRECTOR: David Lynch
LEAD ACTOR: Song Kang-ho, The Host
LEAD ACTRESS: Laura Dern, Inland Empire
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Bae Doo-na, The Host
SHORT:
SCORE: I rather like the electronic hum of Syndromes and a Century, I think.
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Akiko Ashikawa, Retribution

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Woman on the Beach, Hong Sang Soo
Music/Sound: Inland Empire
Design: I have to add this category to get The Fall mentioned somewhere. If there were an Exceeds Expectations category, it would win the all time award.

1. Inland Empire
2. Colossal Youth
3. Syndromes and a Century
4. The Woman on the Beach
5. Retribution
6. Still Life
7. Letters from Iwo Jima
8. Children of Men
9. Brand Upon the Brain
10. Triad Election


2005:

PICTURE: Death of Mr. Lazarescu
DIRECTOR: Hou Hsiao Hsien, Three Times
LEAD ACTOR: Issei Ogata, The Sun
LEAD ACTRESS: Keira Knightley, Pride and Prejudice
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Rob Brydon, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams, Junebug
SHORT:
SCORE: Richard Thompson, Grizzly Man
CINEMATOGRAPHY: William Lubtchansky, Regular Lovers

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Mutual Appreciation, Andrew Bujalski
Music/Sound: Three Times (for both, music and sound)
Documentary: I think I have three of these in my top 10 - 49-Up, Grizzly Man and Into Great Silence

1. Death of Mr. Lazarescu
2. Forty-Nine Up
3. Regular Lovers
4. The Squid and the Whale
5. Grizzly Man
6. The President's Last Bang
7. Magic Mirror
8. Three Times
9. L'Enfant
10. Into Great Silence

2004:

This is another very good year.

PICTURE: Kings and Queen
DIRECTOR: Zhang Yimou, House of Flying Daggers
LEAD ACTOR: Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine fo the Spotless Mind
LEAD ACTRESS: Emmanuelle Devos
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Owen Wilson, Life Aquatic
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lily Tomlin, I ♥ Huckabees
SHORT: Sombre Dolorosa, Guy Maddin
SCORE:
CINEMATOGRAPHY: 2046, Christopher Doyle, Lai Yiu Fai, Kwan Pun Leung

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sound: Tropical Malady
Editing: Notre Musique
Documentary: Darwin's Nightmare
Scene: The grocery store robbery in Kings and Queen.

1. Kings and Queen
2. L'Intrus
3. 2046
4. House of Flying Daggers
5. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Los Muertos
8. The World
9. Innocence
10. Nobody Knows

2003:

PICTURE: Los Angeles Plays Itself
DIRECTOR: Tsai Ming-liang, Goodbye, Dragon Inn
LEAD ACTOR: Song Kang-ho, Memories of Murder
LEAD ACTRESS: Toni Collette, Japanese Story
SUPPORTING ACTOR: James Urbaniak, American Splendor
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Hope Davis, American Splendor
SHORT: Phantom Museum
SCORE: Kevin Shields, Lost in Translation
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Harris Savides, Elephant

Plus bonus picks:
Script: Memories of Murder
Music/Sound: A Mighty Wind
Editing: 21 Grams
Documentary: a very good year for it, but Los Angeles Plays Itself is in another world...

1. Los Angeles Plays Itself
2. Memories of Murder
3. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
4. Doppelgänger
5. Cafe Lumiere
6. Elephant
7. Blind SHaft
8. Morning Sun
9. Crimson Gold
10. Story of Marie and Julien

2002:

Kind of an odd year - solid films, lots of very interesting not quite great films, the likes of Zatoichi and Dolls and Secretary and the like, and somewhat muted at the top. Though I suppose not too muted - the top three - Mr. Vengeance, The Son, and the Pianist are very good...

PICTURE: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
DIRECTOR: Park Chanwook, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
LEAD ACTOR: Adrien Brody, The Pianist
LEAD ACTRESS: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Secretary
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Song Kang-ho, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Bae Doona, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
SHORT: The Skywalk is Gone, Tsai Ming-liang
SCORE: Elmer Bernstein, Far from Heaven
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mark Li, Springtime in a Small Town

Plus bonus picks:
Script: The Son
Music/Sound: Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

1. The Son
2. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
3. The Pianist
4. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
5. Man Without a Past
6. Blissfully Yours
7. Gerry
8. Unknown Pleasures
9. Ten
10. Springtime in a Small Town

2001:

Another strong year; this was a particularly good year for actress. I feel almost guilty about adding another vote for Mulholland Drive though - looking at the results, it seems to be moving rapidly into the realm of the overrated. It's a clear enough favorite for 2001, but not by that much of a margin - this isn't 1986 or 2006, years where Lynch has no competition.

PICTURE: Mulholland Drive
DIRECTOR: David Lynch
LEAD ACTOR: Gene Hackman, Royal Tenenbaums
LEAD ACTRESS: Jeanne Balibar, Va Savoir
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Bill Nighy, Lawless Heart
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Laura Elena Harring, Mulholland Dr.
SHORT: In Public, Jia Jian-ke
SCORE: Angelo Badalamenti, Mulholland Dr.
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Peter Deming, Mulholland Dr.

Plus bonus picks:
Script: The Royal Tenenbaums
Music/Sound: The Royal Tenenbaums, again.
Best Takashi Miike film (I saw three of them from 2001, after all): Ichi the Killer (and Tadanobu Asano is a pretty close runner up to Hackman for best actor, I'd say. Best makeup anyway.)

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Royal Tenenbaums
3. Ichi the Killer
4. Va Savoir
5. En Construccion
6. Donnie Darko
7. Waking Life
8. Distance
9. La Cienega
10. Pistol Opera

2000:

PICTURE: Yi Yi
DIRECTOR: Edward Yang
LEAD ACTOR: George Clooney, O Brother Where Art Thou
LEAD ACTRESS: Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tim Blake Nelson
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ziyi Zhang, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
SHORT: Heart of the World (on the very shortlist for best ever)
SCORE: Mihaly Vig, Werckmeister Harmonies
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Christopher Doyle, Pung-Leung Kwan and Mark Lee Ping-bin, In the Mood for Love

Plus bonus picks:
Script: this is a tough one: Yi Yi and O Brother Where Art Thou are as good as you could ask.
Music/Sound: O Brother...

1. Yi Yi
2. In Vanda's Rom
3. O Brother Where Art Thou
4. Platform
5. Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors
6. Songs from the Second Floor
7. The Circle
8. Eureka
9. In the Mood for Love
10. The Gleaners and I

Music of the 2000s

While I certainly hope I can follow through on my desire to put up a music post every Friday, it is not exactly the plan to post nothing but music posts on Friday. But here are two in a row. And two lists in a row, to boot! This one at least will be worthy of the name....

I should have posted this last year, at the beginning of the new decade - but things happened last year, and I put it off, and I haven't been listening to music as much this year, or thinking about it, and suddenly here we are, in 2011, and I've done nothing to come to grips with the music of the past decade and so... We'll try it now. I could pretend to make a virtue of it - giving myself another year to think things over, catch up - but it hasn't worked that way. I alluded to my listening cycles last week - I am in a very definite down cycle now... That's a bit inconvenient when it comes to trying to assess the 2000s (or what I thought of the 2000s), because for most of that decade, I was in a most definite up cycle. I bought an awful lot of records in the 00s, and listened to them, songs and records alike, and brooded on them, I read about music, I formed and occasionally shared opinions of music. It's thus very odd now, in a period when I'm not doing those things, to try to sum up what I thought in a time I did....

Coming up with a list, then, is troublesome - a lot more difficult than coming up with a list of favorite films was. The sense of distance from music I have been talking about it - but only part. There's also the fact that I have never documented my music purchases and likes and dislikes as obsessively as I do my film watching. And there's the fact that, looking back at things I bought, listened to, liked in the last decade, I'm reminded how often and how much my tastes have changed. Not that I stop liking things - what I liked in 2002 I like today (what I liked in 1986 I like today; most of what I liked in 1978 I like today) - but I go on binges, getting semi-obsessed with one type of music or other, then moving to something else. This can be quite extreme - I spent the first half of the 90s listening almost exclusively to jazz, ignoring rock, barely even listening to my favorites. But I moved through jazz history, and by 95 or 96 had reached John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, and then it was a simple thing to shift back to Richard Thompson and Pere Ubu, and next thing I know, I'm buying rock records again (Built to Spill, Tool, PJ Harvey among the first new artists to catch my ear), and there you go.... So in the 00s - I started the decade listening to a lot of old and new punk (Minutemen; Sleater-Kinney & The White Stripes) and guitar stuff (AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Neil Young; Built to Spill, a new commitment to the Rolling Stones, etc.) - discovered Japanese punk (Boredoms) and neo-prog (Mercury Rev) and combined them (Acid Mothers Temple; Ghost); had a run of listening to lots of extreme stuff (Keiji Haino, Soft Machine and Van Der Graf Generator, Krautrock, Pete Cosey era Miles, Derek Bailey) - until I started listening to new folk (Devendra Banhardt, Neutral Milk Hotel), combined in turn with noise and prog (Six Organs of Admittance; Ghost again, Sigur Rus.) And then the Liars came out and I got obsessed with post-punk - Gang of Four and PIL - but that was like picking up an old thread, filling in the gaps, buying the albums of songs I liked in 1983 or 84 - I was, from the time I heard them, a Pere Ubu and Joy Division fan, so this Gang of Four/PIL/Wire enthusiasm was building on old loves.... Meanwhile, I liked their contemporary imitators, though only the Liars really convinced me... And then TV on the Radio came out and, you know, whatever that led to, not to mention the complications of getting more obsessed by Boris, the Melvins, Mono, etc. ca. 2007... What do you do?

It means that now, looking back, I don't entirely know what to do with the decade. Sometimes, the music I bought in the 00s looks like it was collected by 4 different people - and each one seems to jump up and insist on their judgments being the right one. Can one person really get as enthusiastic about Mercury Rev, The Liars, The Crane Wife, Rainbow, "Halfway Home" or "Only the Sun Knows" or "Casimir Pulaski Day" as I have been? Apparently so. But it makes for a particularly uncertain kind of list-making... Though I suppose there are constants: electric guitars - soloists - drums - and I guess a back of the mind love of melodies (the Smokey Robinson effect, call it.)

So then - here it is - my favorite 25 records of the 2000s:

1. Mercury Rev - All is Dream



2. David Sylvian - Blemish



3. White Stripes - White Blood Cells



4. Boris (with Michio Kurihara) - Rainbow
5. The Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned
6. Earth (with Bill Frisell) - The Bees Made Money in the Lion's Skull
7. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
8. The Decembrists - The Crane Wife
9. Danielson Famille - Fetch the Compass Kids
10. PJ Harvey - Songs from the City, Stories from the Sea
11. Grinderman - Grinderman
12. Scott Walker - The Drift
13. Six Organs of Admittance - The Sun Awakens
14. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
15. White Stripes - Icky Thump
16. Sigur Rus - Hvarf/Heim
17.Godspeed You Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists to to Heaven
18.Radiohead - Kid A
19.Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
20.Sonic Youth - Murray Street
21. Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld
22. David Sylvian - Manofan
23. Damon and Naomi With Ghost
25. Gomez - Split the Difference
25. Devendra Banhardt - Rejoicing in the Hands

...and since that seems - incomplete - close contenders, might include:

Acid Mothers Temple - La Novia, Geocrentric Worlds of the Acid Mothers Temple
Boris - Pink
Deerhoof - Reveille, Apple O'
Sigur Rus ()
Derek Bailey - Mirakle
Devendra Banhardt - Cripple Creek
Earth - some combination - a reminder, maybe, that sometimes bands as a whole make more impression than individual records...
The Fire Theft - the Fire Theft
Ghost - In Stormy Nights
Jay Farrar - Sebastapol
Kills - Keep on your Mean Side
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
MIA - Arular
MIssion of Burma - Obliterati
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antartctica
Nick Cave & Bad Seeds - any? all?
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?
Ruins - Tzamborgha
Six Organs of Admittance - Compathia, Dark Noontide
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes

...though that is still awfully arbitrary... I think I may need another post like this, dedicated to my favorite bands of the 00s - I think I will put that off, though, and try to write more about those bands, when I post it. I'll stay with straight lists here....

And songs? I will stick to a top 10. And say that I don't listen to the radio enough to make any distinction between album cuts and singles, and most of the stuff I listen to barely registers as singles anyway - still...

1. Damon and Naomi (with Ghost) - I Dreamed of the Caucuses
2. Sufjian Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
3. Mercury Rev - Hercules
4. David Sylvian - The Heart Knows Better
5. Radiohead - Idioteque
6. TV on the Radio - Halfway Home
7. Six Organs of Admittance - Only the Sun Knows
8. Boris - Rainbow
9. Decembrists - The Crane Wife 3
10. Modest Mouse - Dark Center of the Universe

And finally - since Michio Kurihara plays on what seems like half the records and songs on these lists - I'll leave you with Kurihara, playing with Boris, Rainbow, live, getting as much from about 3 notes as can be gotten...

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.

Post Holiday Catchup

Well, Thanksgiving is beyond us, the "Holiday Season" has descended, the work week beckons, and I am home and - um - have a whole mess of homework for class... But I have to put something here... at least a few links, if nothing else.

First - I have been remiss in not linking to Frankensteinia's Boris Karloff Blogathon - I've been worse than that - I haven't even been reading it. He should have had the decency not to be born the week of Thanksgiving - how could he? But blogathons may end, but the internet never ends, and there is plenty there and at all the links to read...

And - a new quiz from Dennis Cozzalio - I promise to respond sometime this week.

The end of the decade lists are starting to appear - I will let Girish's post on the Cinematheque Ontario list stand for them all for now.

And? Long time internet acquaintance Evan Waters has a short radio play airing here - it should be archived for 2 weeks...

Finally? In honor of last week's concert - how about a blurry picture of the Feelies, tuning up?

Best of the 2000s Revised

Here's another list I posted last year, and the year before that - turning into a tradition. There's probably some point in it, as we near the end of the decade, and prepare for the stock taking that usually accompanies the change in the tens digit... First, something new - the overall top 25 of the 2000s:

1. Inland Empire - USA - David Lynch
2. Yi Yi - Taiwan - Edward Yang
3. Vanda's Room - Portugal - Pedro Costa
4. Kings and Queen - France - Arnaud Desplechins
5. 2046 - China - Wong Kar-wei
6. Death of Mr. Lazarescu - Romania - Christi Puiu
7. Colossal Youth - Portugal - Pedro Costa
8. L'Intrus - France - Claire Denis
9. O Brother Where Art Thou? - US - Coen Brothers
10. Los Angeles Plays Itself - USA - Thom Anderson
11. Mulholland Drive USA - Lynch
12. Secret Sunshine - South Korea - Lee Chang dong
13. Goodbye, Dragon Inn - Taiwan - Tsai Ming-liang
14. The Son - Belgium - Dardennes Brothers
15. Platform - Chain - Jia Jiang-ke
16. House of Flying Daggers - China - Zhang Yimou
17. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - South Korea - Park Chan-wook
18. Memories of Murder - South Korea - Bong Joon-ho
19. There Will Be Blood - USA - Paul Thomas Anderson
20. Ichi the Killer - Japan - Takashi Miike
21. Regular Lovers - France - Philippe Garrel
22. Syndromes and a Century - Thailand - Apichatpong Weerasethakul
23. En Construccion - Spain - Jose Luis Guerin
24. Songs from the Second Floor - Sweden - Roy Anderson
25. Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors - South Korea - Hong Sang-soo

And by Years, revised with 2007 added, and new films noted. This may not actually align with the lists above - there is a limit to my nerdishness, believe it or not. And all of it is approximate enough,a nd context sensitive enough....

2007:
1. Secret Sunshine - South Korea - Lee Chang-dong
2. There Will be Blood - US - Paul Thomas Anderson
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - Romania - Christian Mungiu
4. The Flight of the Red Balloon - Taiwan/France - Hou Hsiao Hsien
5. Zodiac - US - David Fincher
6. California Dreamin' (Endless) - Romania - Christian Remescu
7. No Country for Old Men - US - Coen Brothers
8. In the City of Sylvia - Spain - Jose Luis Guerin
9. Darjeeling Limited - US - Wes Anderson
10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - US - Andrew Domenik

2006:
1. Inland Empire - US - David Lynch
2. Colossal Youth - Portugal - Pedro Costa
3. *Syndromes and a Century - Thailand - Apichatpong Weerasethakul - new add, saw it last year.
4. The Woman on the Beach - South Korea - Hong Sang-soo
5. *Still Life - China - Jia Jiang ke - another new one: saw it this year
6. *Brand Upon the Brain - Canada - Guy Maddin - another new one
7. Children of Men - UK - Alfonso Cauron
8. *I Don't Want to Sleep Alone - Taiwan - Tsai Ming-liang - and another one
9. *Triad Election - China - Johnny To - also new
10. Honor de Cavelaria - Spain - Albert Serra

2005:
1. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - Romania - Christi Puiu
2. Regular Lovers - France - Philippe Garrel
3. The Squid and the Whale - USA - Noah Baumbach
4. Three Times - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
5. Grizzly Man - US - Werner Herzog
6. L'Enfant - Belgium - Luc & Jean Pierre Dardennes
7. Cache - France/Austria - Michael Haneke
8. The President's Last Bang - South Korea - Im Sang-soo
9. *Magic Mirror - Portugal - Manoel de Oliveira - just saw this this year
10. Mutual Appreciation - US - Andrew Bujalski

2004:
1. Kings and Queen - France - Arnaud Desplechins
2. 2046 - China - Wong Kar-wei
3. L'Intrus - France - Claire Denis
4. The House of Flying Daggers - China - Zhang Yimou
5. The World - China - Jia Jiang-ke
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - US - Michel Gondry
7. Nobody Knows - Japan - Kore-eda Hirokazu
8. Innocence - France - Lucille Hadzihalilovic
9. The Holy Girl - Argentina - Lucrecia Martel
10. Clean - France - Olivier Assayas

2003:
1. Los Angeles Plays Itself - USA - Thom Anderson
2. Goodbye Dragon Inn - Taiwan - Tsai Ming-liang
3. Memories of Murder - South Korea - Bong Joon-ho
4. Doppelganger - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa
5. Dracula, Pages from a Virgin's Diary - Canada - Guy Maddin
6. Cafe Lumiere - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
7. Elephant - USA - Gus Van Sant
8. Gerry - USA - Gus Van Sant
9. Blind Shaft - China - Li Yang
10. Crimson Gold - Iran - Jafar Panahi

2002:
1. The Son - Belgium - Luc & Jean Pierre Dardennes
2. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - South Korea - Park Chan wook
3. Man Without a Past - Finland - Aki Kaurismaki
4. The Pianist - USA - Roman Polanski
5. *Blissfully Yours - Thailand - Apitchipong Weerasthukal - just saw this one this year
6. Unknown Pleasures - China - Jia Jiang Ke
7. Millenium Mambo - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
8. Devils on the Doorstep - China - Jiang Wen
9. Springtime in a Small Town - China - Tian Zhuang Zhuang
10. Talk to Her - Spain - Pedro Almodovar

2001:
1. Mulholland Drive - USA - David Lynch
2. Ichi the Killer - Japan - Takashi Miike
3. *En Construccion - Spain - Jose Luis Guerin - recently seen
4. Donnie Darko - USA - Richard Kelly
5. Va Savoir - France - Jacques Rivette
6. The Royal Tenenbaums - USA - Wes Anderson
7. Distance - Japan - Hirokazu Kore-eda
8. Pistol Opera - Japan - Seijun Suzuki
9. Waking Life - USA - Richard Linklater
10. Pulse - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa

2000:
1. Yi Yi - Taiwan - Edward Yang
2. *Vanda's Room - Portugal - Pedro Costa - a great one, saw it last fall
3. O Brother Where Art Thou - USA - Joel and Ethan Coen - this film has been rising pretty steadily ever since I saw it. Last year, heard Stanley Cavell give a talk about it, complete with questions and answers... it seems light, but it contains multitudes.
4. Platform - China - Jia Jiang Ke
5. Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors - South Korea - Hong Sang-soo
6. Songs from the Second Floor - Sweden - Roy Andersson
7. *Peppermint Candy - South Korea - Lee Chang Dong - just saw it last weekend: very impressive
8. The Circle - Iran - Jafar Panahi
9. Eureka - Japan - Shinji Aoyama
10. In the Mood for Love - China - Wong Kar-wei

And there it is. If I get ambitious, I might try this for the 90s next.