2007 poll 2.0

[oscarwerner]

Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
No Country for Old Men (Coen brothers)
Elite Squad (José Padilha)

It's a Free World... (Ken Loach)
The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton)
American Gangster (Ridley Scott)

Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
You, the Living (Roy Andersson)
Atonement (Joe Wright)
3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold)
Into the Wild (Sean Penn)

Katyn (Andrzej Wajda)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
Control (Anton Corbijn)
Sunshine (Danny Boyle)
I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)

[...]

Frozen - Shivajee Chandrabhushan
"Parallel" vibe, coming-of-age-girl story, Northern India where it starts looking more like Tibet.

Impressive looking stills, I'll have to try and see it. Trying to find time to finish Sono's Exte myself.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Oh, gad, is Exte by Sono? I''ll have to add that to my unworkable list.

[Lencho of the Apes]

La Antena is another one I want to promote here; I haven't watched it yet, but it's clear they're imitating Guy Maddin, and that's an A-plus number-one high-class manouevre wearing big-boy pants.

3 ant 1.JPG (98.24 KiB) Viewed 1566 times

3 ant 2.JPG (67.76 KiB) Viewed 1566 times

[rischka]

ooooh i think ive got that somewhere. i hope to see it after berlin alexanderplatz which might be the most depressing thing i've ever seen but i can;t stop now..

[...]

I really liked La Antena when I saw it, thinking it made good use of its Maddenesque aesthetic to fit its themes, but the quirky aspect holds a stronger grip on memory than how it was put to use, which holds my enthusiasm back a bit, at least until I see it again and possibly refresh my appreciation.

[pabs]

1. My Winnipeg (Maddin)


4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Mungiu)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
Margot at the Wedding (Baumbach)
Persepolis (Satrapi)
No Country for Old Men (Coen)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Lumet)
Into the Wild (Penn)
Atonement (Wright)




Watched for this poll:




Hope to watch:

Joy Division

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Village People Radio Show caught my eye on a couple lists above. I expect others will appreciate it as much as I did: a small window on the political history of twentieth-century Malaysia from a Communist-sympathizing perspective.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

My ballot in five tiers of 1

1. Village People Radio Show (Amir Muhammad)
2. Enchanted (Kevin Lima)
3. At Sea (Peter B. Hutton)
4. Music and Lyrics (Marc Lawrence)
5. Nancy Drew (Andrew Fleming)

[grabmymask]

ugh, I really need to watch more films not from America.

4 tiers of 3:

1. Halloween (Rob Zombie)
2. Zodiac (David Fincher)
3. Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola)

4. Funny Games (Michael Haneke)
5. No Country for Old Men (Coens)
6. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

7. Hostel Part II (Eli Roth)
8. Last Days in a Lonely Place (Phil Solomon)
9. Water Spell (Sandy Ding)

10. Cthulhu (Dan Gildark)
11. Superbad (Greg Mottola)
12. Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi)

[ofrene]

wrap up a bit early with 5 tier

Death in the Land of Encantos
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
In the City of Sylvia
Zodiac

No Country for Old Men
Om Shanti Om
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind
There Will Be Blood

At Sea
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
My Winnipeg
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon

Casting a Glance
I'm Not There
RR
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Flight of the Red Balloon

Mad Detective
Secret Sunshine
We Own the Night

[arkheia]

Almost forgot to post my ballot this month! Unranked list of 20 films

New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 (Ken Jacobs)
RR (James Benning)
At Sea (Peter Hutton)
Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas)
Istanbul (Martine Rousset)
Pitcher of Colored Light (Robert Beavers)
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (John Gianvito)
Metaphysics of Sound (Lee Hangjun)
Blind Light (Sarah Pucill)
Into the Mass (Tomonari Nishikawa)
Halloween (Rob Zombie)
To Be Continued (Amit Dutta)
Waitress (Adrienne Shelly)
Observing the Sky (Jeanne Liotta)
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
Tziporah (Abraham Ravett)
Luminous People (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Adrift in Tokyo (Satoshi Miki)
Public Domain (Jim Jennings)
Tranquil (Takashi Makino)

[Lencho of the Apes]

I really liked La Antena when I saw it, thinking it made good use of its Maddenesque aesthetic to fit its themes, but the quirky aspect holds a stronger grip on memory than how it was put to use, which holds my enthusiasm back a bit, at least until I see it again and possibly refresh my appreciation.

Yeah, there were moments where the merely-quirky and the twee threatened to capsize it -- I have the same problem with Maddin himself and it's a little worse here. When they started with the Caligari-to-Hitler stuff, though, it thoroughly redeemed itself, addressing the thread of Nazism embedded in Arg. culture. Ended up seeming like a Maddined version of They Live.

[wba]

Final Ballot

Movies seen: 130+


4 Tiers


We Own The Night (James Gray)
The Man from London (Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky)
Hafez (Abolfazl Jalili)
All That Rises (Daïchi Saïto)
The Vow (Dominik Graf)

Mad Detective (Ka-Fai Wai, Johnnie To)
State Legislature (Frederick Wiseman)
The Girl Cut in Two (Claude Chabrol)
Frownland (Ronald Bronstein)
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)

Actresses (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi)
Pathfinder (Marcus Nispel)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
Celebration (Olivier Meyrou)
Afternoon (Angela Schanelec)

Mona Lisa (Ying Li)
You (François Delisle)
Drifter (Sebastian Heidinger)
Egg (Semih Kaplanoglu)
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hsiao-hsien Hou)


PS: also fantastic films, but as we can only list 20: Import/Export, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, There Will Be Blood, Superbad, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Hotel Chevalier, Halloween, Secret Sunshine, The Edge of Heaven, Buddha Collapsed out of Shame, Help Me Eros, Honeydripper, Respite, One Hundred Nails, ...

[wba]

Was I supposed to be creeped out by the icky stalkiness of "In the City of Sylvia?" It played like an ominous thriller to me, but I think it was supposed to somehow be seen as romantic?

If thriller was the intention, then kudos to Guerin.

I detetcted neither thriller nor romance in that film, but only very very obvious creepy stalkiness (wihtout any insights into the psychological state of the protagonist).
I thought it was pretty boring and not at all "good-looking" (photography-wise).
Can't believe some people recommended this to me...

[wba]

it's absolutely hideously stalky isn't?

Eh, yes.

[wba]

Also, I got tickled a couple of times that every gorgeous 20-something model in France was at the same café at the same time.

Fuck, how did I miss this? I didn't notice any beautiful-looking women in this film....
Maybe that creepy guy just creeped me out too much?

[wba]

Grindhouse - Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez*


*(I don't know how to list this... but in 2007 I paid to see a movie titled "Grindhouse" in the theater, the single releases came out a year later.)

I also watched this at the cinema and liked it quite a bit.
Only seen the longer cut of Death Proof later, which wasn't as good as that Grindhouse movie- at all.

[wba]

Is there a good year for movies in the 21st century? Compare 2007 to 1954 and 1929: supremely depressing. Well, for what it's worth:


In Between Days (So Yong Kim)

The Lark Farm (Taviani bros)

I'm not a fan of 21st century cinema either, but I've seen more than 20 masterpieces from that year, so while it mcertainly isn't nowhere as good as 1954 or 1929, it's still fine with me.

In Between Days would have made my list, but Imdb lists it as 2006, so next time.

And I don't know what a good film is for you, cause I gave the Taviani's "The Lark Farm" a half star out of 5 when I watched it at the cinema, which means it's easily one of the worst films I've ever had to endure in my life...

[wba]

The Vow (Dominik Graf)


fwiw i watched the graf with the autotranslated subs on kg and while they weren't perfect i thought they worked more than well enough

Whooooa! You watched the Graf! And with autotranslated subs!?!?!

And you put it on No. 1 for the year!

Big Graf fanboy? How many have you seen so far, what are your favs?

[nrh]

Whooooa! You watched the Graf! And with autotranslated subs!?!?!

though i should say those subs aren't purely auto-translated - there was an attempt made to at least go through and clean up most of the junk.

i'd say at this point graf is one of my top working directors, and i've seen everything with subs on kg except one or two of the late 90s/early 2000s melodramas and the friend of friends. so

Spoiler!

die katz (the only one i've seen on 35mm)
der fahnder: nachtwache
die sieger (director's cut)
tatort: frau bu lacht
der skorpion
der felsen
kalter fruhling
the vow
graf's dreileben episode
in the face of crime series
politzieruf 110: cassandra's warning (director's cut)
das unsichtbare mädchen
tatort: aud der tiefe der zeit
beloved sisters (director's cut)
politzieruf 110: smoke on the water
am abend aller tag
tatort: der rote schatten
fabian: going to the dogs

can't say favorites but so far i lean to the most disorienting of the crime adjacent films (frau bu lacht, aus der tiefe der zeit, der skorpion), beloved sisters, the vow. die katze and die sieger are very great. i don't think there's any so far that i dislike.

there's a separate graf thread in the directors category, but i always forget that category exists.

[wba]

Whooooa! You watched the Graf! And with autotranslated subs!?!?!

though i should say those subs aren't purely auto-translated - there was an attempt made to at least go through and clean up most of the junk.

i'd say at this point graf is one of my top working directors, and i've seen everything with subs on kg except one or two of the late 90s/early 2000s melodramas and the friend of friends. so

Spoiler!

die katz (the only one i've seen on 35mm)
der fahnder: nachtwache
die sieger (director's cut)
tatort: frau bu lacht
der skorpion
der felsen
kalter fruhling
the vow
graf's dreileben episode
in the face of crime series
politzieruf 110: cassandra's warning (director's cut)
das unsichtbare mädchen
tatort: aud der tiefe der zeit
beloved sisters (director's cut)
politzieruf 110: smoke on the water
am abend aller tag
tatort: der rote schatten
fabian: going to the dogs

can't say favorites but so far i lean to the most disorienting of the crime adjacent films (frau bu lacht, aus der tiefe der zeit, der skorpion), beloved sisters, the vow. die katze and die sieger are very great. i don't think there's any so far that i dislike.

there's a separate graf thread in the directors category, but i always forget that category exists.

Wow, that's very very impressive. I hope more and more people outside of Germany will discover Graf in the future and he will be recognized as one of the greatest alongside Käutner et all.
I haven't seen more than two dozen myself (and some TV stuff, which is also always pretty excellent), and I think I've disliked only one or 2 and almost a dozen are personal favorites.
Me and some fellow enthusiasts also regularly get director's cut-versions of some of his TV films over the past few years by Graf himself (ever since a close friend of mine has worked as "personal assistant" to Graf during the shooting of AM ABEND ALLER TAGE, I think), but that has to stay "under the radar" and is not meant for sharing or such.
So far (from those director's cuts I've seen) only BELOVED SISTERS and "Open Wounds - A Journey Through German Film" absolutely have to be seen in the director's cut version. Most others work fine as they are (imo) though of course the added scenes do usually make the films better/more interesting.

Yeah, that thread is great, but I also always forget it.

I haven't yet seen the following from your list:

tatort: aud der tiefe der zeit
polizeiruf 110: smoke on the water
am abend aller tage
tatort: der rote schatten
fabian: going to the dogs

But of course Graf has an enormous output and continues to direct one or two films per year on average (some 30+ films since 2000, not counting TV series and 60+ overall). So he'll probably still make a lot of films for a long time to come.

PS: Didn't know so many Graf stuff has been subtitled over the past few years!!!

[Silga]

Final list:

Zodiac (David Fincher)
No Country for Old Men (Coen brothers)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
The Band's Visit (Eran Kolirin)

Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)
Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog)
The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson)
Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
Sicko (Michael Moore)

No End in Sight (Charles Ferguson)
Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
Duska (Jos Stelling)
The Trap (Srdan Golubovic)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)

The Savages (Tamara Jenkins)
We Own the Night (James Gray)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Superbad (Greg Mottola)
The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass)

[niminy-piminy]

2007 poll rewatch:
NOTES ON GESTURE (Solomon Nagler) ... dated mostly 2007, occasionally 2008 or even 2010

A visual essay of indexical failures that examine the bliss of ineffable gestures.

https://vimeo.com/104353724

also from 2007 (not gonna rewatch it now):
FUGUE NEFESH (Solomon Nagler)
https://letterboxd.com/film/fugue-nefesh/

https://vimeo.com/98748277

[niminy-piminy]

2007 poll rewatch:
HOUSE (Ben Rivers) ... dated 2005-2007
https://letterboxd.com/film/house-2007/

The old dark house, where only fragments remain of a once animated domestic history. Crumbling interiors. Patterned stained, paper peeling walls and forgotten furniture. Dust sheets on rotting floorboards. Shattered windows. The unfolding process of abandonment, decay and renewal.
Searching this landscape for signs of half remembered narratives; obsessively making models to re-imagine the boarded up, gently decomposing remnants of a home.

https://youtu.be/RkQjOhzDSRY

[niminy-piminy]

2007 poll No15:
TRANQUIL (Takashi Makino)
https://letterboxd.com/film/tranquil/details/

https://vimeo.com/208950938

[niminy-piminy]

2007 poll No17:
WESTERN SUNBURN (Karl Lemieux)

https://letterboxd.com/film/western-sunburn/
A re-photography in video of material that was originally used in a performance during which Karl Lemieux, painted, scratched and burned film loops from an old western 16mm film. Traces of an impossible past and future collide in a trajectory where the present unravels.

https://vimeo.com/421343003

[niminy-piminy]

2007 poll No18:
SIX APARTMENTS (Reynold Reynolds)

Six Apartments is a poetic document of decline and deterioration, both physical and conceptual. The isolated residents of six apartments live their lives unaware of each other. Yet while it may appear that nothing is happening here, the residents are moving slowly towards death.

https://vimeo.com/8599219

[rischka]

I've finally watched die stille vor Bach and it saved me from a horrible day. TY Sally and Bach!!

[mesnalty]

Final list:

Last Days in a Lonely Place (Solomon)
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (Gianvito)
Cleopatra (Bressane)
RR (Benning)

Om Shanti Om (Khan)
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Rohmer)
Go Go Tales (Ferrara)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)

Viva (Biller)
At Sea (Hutton)
Boarding Gate (Assayas)
Secret Sunshine (Lee)

The Silence Before Bach (Portabella)
Silent Light (Reygadas)
I-Be Area (Trecartin)
Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor (Yamamura)