2012 poll

[rischka]

ok i'm gonna watch the act of killing greg and brodeacon have convinced me

[...]

Romancing in Thin Air is great. I want to credit the script for much of it, but without To directing and Sammi Cheng actually grounding it to some sense of reality it wouldn't work as it sits right on the edge of contrivance without tipping into pure artifice. The constant reversals and transpositioning of the relationships requires To to cut between layers with precision and Cheng to shift emotions with like certainty of timing. The back and forth between stories, of which relationship controls the segment is as much weighed by absent characters in the scenes as the ones onscreen, has to be conveyed by Cheng and, to a bit lesser extent, Koo, while To shapes it all by visual duplication and echoing that the script suggests while avoiding lapsing into a feeling of airy fantasy. The fairy tale element of the script is played down by To and Cheng but remains as its own crucial element to the events, but doesn't overpower the characters by excess. Those elements are given varying emotional weighting to help keep them from losing potency as the movie wears on, the coincidences or echoes are treated as sometimes amusing, sometimes serious, sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious in differing degrees to keep a sense of familiarity or too great a feeling of predictability from setting in, while of course not completely eschewing genre norms.

The sheer amount of switching between different relationship perspectives alone is impressive and the gain in nuance throughout equally so, especially when that is fit to the more obvious beats of emotional give and take and coincidence that are expected from the genre. It's top notch filmmaking all around and builds in layers to something more than that. Its play between different layers of fiction and the idea of a base in reality provides multifaceted possibilities for engagement over who and how these different romances find meaning without really having to nail down one answer as the "right one", which would diminish the whole. While movies about the boundaries, or lack there of, between fiction and reality aren't new, this offers one of the best accountings of the circularity of the relationship between fictions and realities as fit to the relationships of the characters and the construction of the movie, and thus becomes inseparable from the experience of watching it. It is what it's about, in the very best way, at least that's the case for me.

(Oddly, a lot of that could be said for The Act of Killing as well, in a different sense of course, but the layers of meaning between the real and fictional and how the "characters" relate to those concepts is in both and is an unavoidable part of watching both films as well. I'm not sure I can say Romancing in Thin Air is "better" than The Act of Killing, and it certainly may not be as important by some measures, but lord knows Romancing in Thin Air is the one I'd much rather spend more time with, which I guess could reaffirm some of the problems shown by The Act of Killing as much as anything else. We do all love our fictions it seems.)

[rischka]

yes! great analysis on romancing, it is really hard to imagine anyone else pulling that off. imagine the hollywood version lol

the most chilling thing in the act of killing was this attitude that it must be ok since we got away with it. eerily relevant to our current situation

i understand the disgust with giving these people a platform but the importance of the piece overrides that imo

[thoxans]

barfi! (anurag basu) gotta be honest here. i didn't have an interest in watching this for the longest time simply cuz of the title. i know, i know. it's shallow, and unsubstantial reasoning, but thems just the breaks. but then the 2012 poll pops up, i hear some decent things about the film, and i figure i'd give it a shot. and it was worth it. the direction here is beautiful. in fact, i ended up adding a bunch of basu films to my watchlist even before this one ended. the use of lighting is stunning. the compositions, angles, all of it. really well done, and even transfixing at times. balances a lot of scenes of energy, with plenty of scenes of lingering beauty. the soundtrack is also lovely. quite a few playlist-worthy listens. kapoor is good. charming, pleasantly goofy, able to convey a lot of emotion without ever uttering a word. chopra is also surprisingly great in her role. having only previously come across her on screen in srk's don films (where she's unsurprisingly underused and underwritten, woefully so in the sequel), she does some really convincing work here. was very impressed how the film handled these characters. the story meanwhile is sprawling, never quite the simple affair you'd think it would be, with the framing device making this clear from the outset, its opening veering wildly between serious drama, silent film-style slapstick, and docu-esque narration. i can rec it heartily. basically, barfi > the darjeeling limited > amelie > borat, or something like that

[rischka]

nope sorry can't watch a film called barfi

[nrh]

nope sorry can't watch a film called barfi

it's a type of sweet! have stayed away from this one for years because the idea of hindi film doing autism is not enticing.

but basu/kapoor's last movie jagga jasoos was kind of fascinating, so who knows...

[sally]

dammit, i was just about to indulge. but i can't do autism in any film so hmmm. i need something lighthearted after the soul-scraping dreadful dreadfulness of three sisters endless dreadful muddy poverty....but er 2012 is not throwing up much (heh) all the bloody films are over two hours, CCC is still having way too much chin-stroking influence, piñeiro is a fucking irritating hipster (yes i'll watch it at some point though, and enjoy it, damn me) and every other film looks incredibly art-house flaky (i have two romanian ones in reserve but even they might not be as funny as the radu jude) apart from maybe the jacquot.

i'm going to have watch romancing in thin air, aren't i?

also note that this year has no man's land - another 'film the real murderer' with the suggestion of fiction (sorta) film...

[Mario Gaborovic]

Too lazy to make a list, just throw in Pismo ćaći with max points and I'm fine with it.

[...]

I think I'm going off the board for my next '12 and watching Vera '68 a documentary on the Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská since I stumbled across it on youtube and seems like a nice light change of pace that hasn't got many views yet. So far it's got a heavy standard bio-doc euro TV vibe/style, but the subject seems interesting enough to roll with it for now.

[rischka]

that looks interesting!



i'm gonna watch the snowy doc 'hiver nomade'

[mesnalty]

Just watched Inside, my 8th Zeki, for this poll, which means we're one step closer to being able to do Zeki for a director poll (under the original rules). I think we'd need one more person with 8+, and rischka at least was at 7 last time we checked.

[rischka]

aaaaaaaaand i happen to have it here on my desktop so will watch it next

[sally]

I have 9 zekis btw

[thoxans]

watched rajamouli's eega. luvved it. new numero uno on my list. more thoughts to come. unless i get sidetracked, lose interest, and move onto something else. it happens. got omirbaev's student lined up next. then idk. anyone got any thoughts on jab tak hai jaan? it's got my boy srk in it, so i'll probs watch it no matter what. but i'm curious

[sally]

I just watched arraianos which is normally the kind of thing I love (well, I did love the landscape shots) but I had an attack of misanthropy about halfway through so acute I actually went into the loo in case I was about to throw up.

It might just be indigestion, but I also had to use a lot of public transport today and listen to lots of 'honest salt of the earth folk' spout vile ignorant racist celebratory brexit-based filth with total & gleeful abandon, so my view on the mythic valorization of manual labour-derived wisdom is a little sour at the moment.

I'm a little depressed to be honest. Might have a detour into silent film for a day or two

[thoxans]

a detour into silent film

but there's always the 2012 short booty meat that you could watch. a surefire cure for salty earth reflux, if i ever heard one

[rischka]

wtf did i just watch aaaaaaaagh. thx for not being a psycho toxins /s

[Angel]

Barbara

38 témoins (One Night)
Byzantium
De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone)
Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need)
Después de Lucía (After Lucia)
En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)
Flight
Fu cheng mi shi (Mystery)
Grupo 7 (Unit 7)
Halimin put (Halima's Path)
Jack Reacher
Lo imposible (The Impossible)
Mud
Quelques heures de printemps (A Few Hours of Spring)
The Angels' Share
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Sessions
Toata lumea din familia noastra (Everybody in Our Family)
V tumane (In the Fog)

Deliberately excluded (IMDb/TSPDT/S&S top 500)
(in rough order of preference)
Jagten
Zero Dark Thirty
The Dark Knight Rises
The Avengers
Django Unchained
Paan Singh Tomar
Amour
Barfi!
Life of Pi
The Act of Killing
Ookami kodomo no Ame to Yuki
Leviathan
Tabu
Gangs of Wasseypur
Moonrise Kingdom
Holy Motors
The Master
Kahaani (not seen)
OMG: Oh My God! (not seen)

To see before the deadline
Baad el mawkeaa
Bekas
Gwanghae: Wangyidoen namja
La demora
La pirogue

Wanted
El limpiador
Ko: Yad
Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka
Television

[rischka]

yeralti/underground based on dostoyevsky and i thought it quite a good modernized adaptation. loved the long takes and framing, esp this guy's big giant head







some of it looked like a fisheye lens. a lot of the film was really really funny too. what i didn't like was the way women were used to make this creep feel good about himself. dostoyevsky was rather obsessed with prostitutes so blame the source material. also what up with the potato

[thoxans]

eega (s. s. rajamouli / j. v. v. sathyanarayana) three things : i'll never swat another fly for as long as i live (can't believe i got all teary-eyed at a reunion betwixt girl and fly) ; it's a superhero movie where the villain (sudeep!!!) gets a supermajority of the screentime, automatically making it the best superhero movie ever ; rajamouli is da man

student (darezhan omirbaev) the opening is brilliant. the rest is good. i've seen only one other omirbaev (kairat; and thought well enough of it), so can't speak to it much in terms of his filmog. not as daydreamy as kairat, this one does retain that quiet, static, restrained quality, and def ups the bressonian full tilt. obvs double feature this with pickpocket. i'm gonna add it to my list. it's not the best of dostoevsky adaptations, but it's effective nonetheless

[ofrene]

Holy Motors

A Woman's Revenge
Barbara
Drug War
Florentina Hubaldo, CTE
Gangs of Wasseypur
Gebo and the Shadow
It’s Such a Beautiful Day
Leviathan
Life of Pi
Like Someone in Love
Moonrise Kingdom
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
Spring Breakers
Stories We Tell
Tabu
The Kirishima Thing
The Master
Three Sisters
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet

[greennui]

I've grown a bit jaded of 2010's films after the previous month so I didn't end up watching much for this poll.

1. Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)

Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
Amour (Michael Haneke)
Fragments (Franco Piavoli)
Temple of Apollo (Nick Collins)
In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo)
Barbara (Christian Petzold)
Stemple Pass (James Benning)
No (Pablo Larraín)

[dominicano1970]

One Night (Belvaux)

Amour (Haneke)
Argo (Affleck)
Barbara (Petzold)
Blancanieves (Berger)
Byzantium (Jordan)
Django Unchained (Tarantino)
Flight (Zemeckis)
The Girl from Nowhere (Brisseau)
The Hunt (Vinterberg)
In the House (Ozon)
Killing Them Softly (Dominik)
Life of Pi (Lee)
Lincoln (Spielberg)
Looper (Johnson)
Maddened by His Absence (Bonnaire)
Mud (Nichols)
No (Larrain)
Skyfall (Mendes)
Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow)

[St. Gloede]

1. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
2. The Master (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Moonrise Kingdom (2012, Wes Anserson)
4. Cosmopolis (2012, David Cronenberg)
5. Laurence Anyways (2012, Xavier Dolan)
6. Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine)
7. Amour (2012, Michael Haneke)
8. Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)
9. Blancanieves (2012, Pablo Berger)
10. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012, Benh Zeitlin)
11. It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012, Don Hertzfeldt)
12. To the Wonder (2012, Terrence Malick)
13. Jagten / The Hunt (2012, Thomas Vinterberg)
14. Killing Them Softly (2012, Andrew Dominik)
15. Ernest et Célestine (2012, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar & Benjamin Renner)
16. Kibô no kuni / The Land of Hope (2012, Shion Sono)
17. Äta sova dö / Eat Sleep Die (2012, Gabriela Pichler)
18. Silver Linings Playbook (2012, David O. Russell)
19. The Place Beyond the Pines (2012, Derek Cianfrance)
20. Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow)

[rischka]

how does this look so much like donnie darko



young radicals in love. really enjoying apres mai/something in the air (hate that title though)

[greennui]

young radicals in love. really enjoying apres mai/something in the air (hate that title though)

I can understand 'After May' being a rather uncatchy title that probably won't resonate as much outside France but it's titled 'After the Revolution" in most languages except English, which got stuck with that drab title instead...

[Lencho of the Apes]

US media conglom seems to be leery of that word 'revolution'.

3 rev.jpg (56.04 KiB) Viewed 4179 times

[Lencho of the Apes]

I guess it's too late to offer rec.s, but...

WADJDA!

First Saudi feature fiction film (? Really?), female director... and Wadjda is a rebel girl! All she wants to do is ride her damn bike!

[rischka]

sounds good! i'll check it out. i got time this weekend

[brian d]

couldn't get to the one i wanted to see, so here we are:

goltzius and the pelican company (greenaway)
farewell my queen (jacquot)
a woman's revenge (azevedo gomes)
estrada de palha (areias)
un héritier (straub)
celestial wives of the meadow mari (fedorchenko)
blancanieves (berger)
tricked (verhoeven)
jai bhim comrade (patwardhan)
lines of wellington (sarmiento)
the artist and the model (trueba)
masquerade (choo)
in the house (ozon)
gebo and the shadow (oliveira)
passion (gil)
a royal affair (arcel)
you ain't seen nothing yet (resnais)
to the wonder (malick)