Best films seen in 2020 regardless of year

[pabs]

Best films you saw this year, regardless of what year they were made.

[Umbugbene]

It's been a better than average film-watching year for me, partly because of the lockdown. Here's my top 15 so far:

1. Baxter, Vera Baxter (Duras)
2. Antareen (Sen)
3. Destroy, She Said (Duras)
4. Heroic Purgatory (Yoshida)
5. Time Walks Through the City (Grikevičius)
6. Antigravitation (Stonys)
7. Joseph Kilián (Juráček/Schmidt)
8. C/o Kancharapalem (Maha)
9. Cats (Hooper)
10. La Flor (Llinás)
11. Jaune le soleil (Duras)
12. Ten Thousand Suns (Kósa)
13. Invasión (Santiago)
14. Aashad Ka Ek Din (Kaul)
15. A Moment of Innocence (Makhmalbaf)

[Monsieur Arkadin]

This one is tricky because I watched more this year than I have in the last decade or maybe ever. Working from home/lockdown allowed me to crank out almost a film per day. Before this I was lucky to get to one per week. So I made a lot of discoveries. My top 20 right now, listed chronologically (in terms of viewing, not release) are:

1. Blue Collar – Paul Schrader
2. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters – Paul Schrader
3. Targets – Peter Bogdanovich
4. Agatha or the Limitless Readings – Marguerite Duras
5. Destroy She Said – Marguerite Duras
6. Chafed Elbows – Robert Downey Sr.
7. The Cremator – Juraj Herz
8. The Heartbreak Kid – Elaine May
9. A New Leaf - Elaine May
10. Unfaithful – Adrian Lyne
11. Divine Intervention – Elia Suleiman
12. Tabu – Miguel Gomes
13. Mr. Klein – Joseph Losey
14. Baxter, Vera Baxter – Marguerite Duras
15. Punishment Park – Peter Watkins
16. A Cottage on Dartmoor – Anthony Asquith
17. Providence – Alain Resnais
18. Mildred Pierce – Michael Curtiz
19. The Browning Version – Anthony Asquith
20. Malina – Werner Schroeter

[flip]

not counting shorts, which was maybe a mistake, saw a lot of great shorts this year because of the shorts cup and some of the directors polls, also left out some classics i saw for the first time (jeanne dielman, a nous la liberte, the red shoes, la ceremonie, etc) so i could list some less-seen stuff. 24 films, two per month of the year, one per director or zoltan fabri and russell rouse would have shown up twice:

1. The Toth Family (Zoltan Fabri, 1969)
2. Who's Singin' Over There? (Slobodan Sijan, 1980)
3. The Well (Russell Rouse, 1951)
4. Mad About Music (Norman Taurog, 1938)
5. Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story (Eldar Shengelaya, 1983)
6. Play (Gholam Reza Ramezani, 2005)
7. Wanderers of the Desert (Nacer Khemir, 1984)
8. Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann, 1949)
9. Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambety, 1992)
10. Why Does Herr R Run Amok (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970)
11. Good Time (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2017)
12. Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (Dileesh Pothan, 2017)
13. Mnaga - Happy End (Petr Zelenka, 1996)
14. One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning, 1977)
15. Monologue (Adoor Gopalakrishnan, 1987)
16. The Need (Alireza Davoudnejad, 1992)
17. Os Fuzis (Ruy Guerra, 1964)
18. From the Journals of Jean Seberg (Mark Rappaport, 1995)
19. The Cat (Dominik Graf, 1988)
20. Macario (Roberto Gavaldon, 1960)
21. Assignment: Paris (Robert Parrish, 1952)
22. Witchhammer (Otakar Vavra, 1970)
23. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma, 2019)
24. When Strangers Marry (William Castle, 1944)

[Curtis, baby]

First time viewings only

*=lil fella

5/5s

DECEMBER
Chilly Scenes of Winter, 1979, Joan Micklin Silver
*From the Reports of Security Guards & Patrol Services – Part Five, 1987, Helke Sander

SEPTEMBER
Out of the Blue, 1980, Dennis Hopper
*The ‘Teddy’ Bears, 1907, Wallace McCutcheon/Edwin S. Porter
Transit, 2018, Christian Petzold

APRIL
Blood of the Condor, 1969, Jorge Sanjinés
*Power, 1973, Vlatko Gilić

MARCH
*Frank’s Cock, 1993, Mike Hoolboom
Alone in the Wilderness, 2004, Dick Proenneke/Bob Swerer Jr./Bob Swerer Sr.

FEBRUARY
Matthias & Maxime, 2019, Xavier Dolan
*Rehearsals for Retirement, 2007, Phil Solomon

====================================

4.5/5

DECEMBER
Dédée d’Anvers, 1948, Yves Allégret
*Stuff, 1993, Johnny Depp/Gibby Haynes

SEPTEMBER
Nathan for You: Finding Frances, 2017, Nathan Fielder
*Home Avenue, 1989, Jennifer Montgomery
Such a Pretty Little Beach, 1949, Yves Allégret

AUGUST
*Urban Rashomon, 2013, Khalik Allah

JUNE
*The Violence of a Civilization without Secrets, 2018, Adam Khalil/Zack Khalil/Jackson Polys

MAY
*Mosquinha 1890, Étienne-Jules Marey

MARCH
We Make Couples, 2016, Mike Hoolboom
*Green Street, 1960, Věra Chytilová

FEBRUARY
S.F.W., 1994, Jefery Levy
*Last Days in a Lonely Place, 2007, Phil Solomon

JANUARY
*The Glue, 1907, Alice Guy-Blaché

[Silga]

Best films seen in 2020

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956)
The Nun’s Story (Fred Zinnemann, 1959)
Day of the Outlaw (André De Toth, 1959)
North West Frontier (J. Lee Thompson, 1959)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)
Fat City (John Huston, 1972)
All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, 1984)
Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994)
The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)
The World (Jia Zhangke, 2004)
Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004)
Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004)
The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino, 2004)
The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010)
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
Vox Lux (Brady Corbet, 2018)

and on TV:

Homicide: Life on the Street (Seasons 1-2 and a bit of Season 3, 1993-1994)
Fargo (Season 2, 2015)
Escape at Dannemora (Ben Stiller, 2018)
The Great (Season 1, 2020)

[Roscoe]

Includes numerous re-watches. Listed mostly in order of viewing, most recent first.

The Good:
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
THE TWO TOWERS
EXOTICA (Egoyan)
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY
THE ELEPHANT MAN
LA STRADA
REAR WINDOW
LONG-HAIRED HARE
FRESH AIREDALE
MY GREEN FEDORA
THE ASCENT (Shepitko)
LOVE ME TONIGHT (Mamoulien)
UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN? (Weber)
A FOOL THERE WAS
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
CITIZEN KANE
THE BOYS IN THE BAND (Mantello)
SHERLOCK JR
THE GENERAL (Keaton)
FULL METAL JACKET
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
TOLL OF THE SEA (Franklin)
THE LITTLE FOXES (Wyler)
SATANTANGO (Tarr)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
BULLITT
SVENGALI (Mayo)
COME AND SEE
COUNSELOR AT LAW (Wyler)
QUATERMASS AND THE PIT/FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH
THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (Bruckman)
SADIE THOMSON (Walsh)
WHITE HEAT
STAR WARS
I CLOWNS (Fellini)
THE WITCH (Eggers)
THE IRISHMAN
JEZEBEL (Wyler)
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (Disney)
LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN (Lubitsch)
SCARFACE (Hawks)
BEDAZZLED (Donen)
MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (Curtiz)
DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER Part One HE AND HIS TIMES (Lang)
THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE
THE HATCHET MAN (Wellman)
THE LIGHTHOUSE (Eggers)
THE GAUCHO (Fairbanks/Jones)
AND THE SHIP SAILS ON (Fellini)
THE MILKY WAY (Bunuel)
LIFE OF BRIAN (Jones)
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (Curtiz/Keighley)
NAPOLEON (Gance)
LOVE AND DEATH (Allen)
THE GREEN FOG (Maddin)
THE BANK DICK (Sutherland)
THE HOWLING (Dante)
TWENTIETH CENTURY (Hawks)
ROMA (Cuaron)
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Lumet, of course)
PROSPERO'S BOOKS (Greenaway)
PHANTOM THREAD (P.W. Anderson)
A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Yang)
MEPHISTO (Szabo)
THE WHITE SHEIK (Fellini)
THE RABBIT OF SEVILLE (Jones)
BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

The OK:
THE CIRCUS (Chaplin)
MARY POPPINS
THE EAGLE (Brown)
HOPSCOTCH (Neame)
THE CREMATOR
101 DALMATIANS the original animated film
WAXWORKS (Leni)
THE SEA HAWK (Lloyd, 1921)
THUNDERBALL
L'INNOCENTE (Visconti)

The Better Than OK But Well...:
TREASURE ISLAND (Haskin) which is memorable chiefly as a delivery system for Robert Newton's imperishable Long John Silver
NIAGARA
DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER Part Two INFERNO (Lang)
TUNES OF GLORY (Neame)

The Bad:
as much as I could stand of Ben Wheatley's REBECCA
IN A LONELY PLACE
M (Losey)
AMERICAN UTOPIA -- Spike Lee's botch of David Byrne's concert, Lee's no Demme
THE GHOUL
THE GREAT DICTATOR -- a few laughs aside, it's pretty dire.
SLEEPING BEAUTY (Disney)
SHAMPOO (Ashby)
WESTWORLD on HBO, Season Three just collapsed into stupidity
HOLIDAY (Cukor)

The OMFG:
CATS
The first episode of DRACULA, the Gatiss/Moffat reboot of Stoker, and an insult to everyone who views it

And on TV:
The first five seasons of BETTER CALL SAUL, one of the glories of contemporary narrative art.
McMILLIIONS, a splendid documentary series about the McDonald's Monopoly Game Scandal
HAMILTON -- the splendid video version of Miranda's musical, which Spike Lee should be tied to a chair and forced to watch until he understand that THIS IS HOW YOU PUT LIVE PERFORMANCE ON FILM YOU FUCKING IDIOT.
THE GOES WRONG SHOW -- the gimmick runs out of steam, inevitably, but it keeps the inventiveness going for longer than I'd have thought possible. The Episode entitled "A Trial To Watch" was pure delight.
A rewatch of BREAKING BAD, and it's marvelous, but it's coming to me that I prefer SAUL.

[DT.]

The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi, 1999)
Harmful Insect (Akihiko Shiota, 2001)
The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
Love in the Time of Twilight (Tsui Hark, 1995)
Midnight (Mitchell Leisen, 1939)
Minding the Gap (Bing Liu, 2018)
Naukri (Bimal Roy, 1954)
Noises Off... (Peter Bogdanovich, 1992)
Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993)

Honourable mentions:

Avanti! (Billy Wilder, 1972)
Eva (Joseph Losey, 1962)
Eve’s Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997)
The Executioner (Luis Garcia Berlanga, 1963)
The Go-Between (Joseph Losey, 1971)
Heimat (Edgar Reitz, 1984)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)
Puzzle of a Downfall Child (Jerry Schatzberg, 1970)
Road (Alan Clarke, 1987)
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yi’nan, 2019)

And in terms of TV...Watchmen was amazing, of course, and The Haunting of Bly Manor won me over in the end too.

[rischka]

his motorbike, her island (obayashi 1986)
heaven knows what (safdies 2014)
the panic in needle park (schatzberg 1971)
two days (stobovoi 1927)
bat without wings (chor yuen 1980)
good morning (ozu 1959)
floating weeds (ozu 1959)
tropical malady (weerasethakul 2004)
crazy thunder road (ishii 1980)
el cielo gira (alvarez 2004)
a portuguesa (azevedo gomes 2018)
transit (petzold 2018)
ceiling zero (hawks 1936)
craig's wife (arzner 1936)
days (tsai 2020)
bay of angels (demy 1963)
henry fool (hartley 1997)
gitanjali (ratnam 1989)
all the lumiere, etc

NO ORDER -- these are the ones that stuck. reckon i'll come in at just under 300 films for the year, counting shorts and rewatches

[Holymanm]

his motorbike, her island (obayashi 1986)

[St. Gloede]

Not added December viewings in yet, but here's my best first time viewings: https://letterboxd.com/gloede/list/firs ... -the-crop/

[Joks Trois]

Adelheid (Vlacil)
Come and See (Klimov)
The Cranes are Flying (Kalatazov)
The Crucified Lovers (Mizoguchi)
Der Tod des Empedokles oder: Wenn dann der Erde Grün von neuem Euch erglänzt (Straub-Huillet)
Dreams (Kurosawa)
Duck, You Sucker (Leone)
Ed Wood (Burton)
The Empire Strikes Back (Kasdan)
Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley)
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai)
Husbands (JC)
The Innocents (Clayton)
La Chienne (Renoir)
Late Autumn (Ozu)
Liberte (Serra)
The Man Who Laughs (Leni)
The River (Renoir)
Sonatine (Kitano)
Star Wars (Lucas)
Vitalina Varela (Costa)

[kanafani]

https://imgur.com/cxeFHab

[thoxans]

in order seen

painted faces (alex law)
eega (s.s. rajamouli)
mandi (shyam benegal)
dead or alive 2: birds (takashi miike)
who's camus anyway? (mitsuo yanagimachi)
the day after (hong sang-soo)
girlfriends (claudia weill)
scary movie (daniel erickson)
come and see (elem klimov)
green snake (tsui hark)
cutter's way (ivan passer)
c/o kancharapalem (venkatesh maha)
the general (clyde bruckman / buster keaton)
mickey one (arthur penn)
mirai (mamoru hosoda)
broken blossoms (d.w. griffith)
ashes of time (wong kar-wai)
full moon scimitar (chor yuen)
killer constable (kuei chih-hung)
big wednesday (john milius)
casque d'or (jacques becker)
barabbas (richard fleischer)
climax (gaspar noe)
mouna ragam (mani ratnam)
lola montes (max ophuls)
mikey and nicky (elaine may)
night of the creeps (fred dekker)
butcher, baker, nightmare maker (william asher)
from beyond (stuart gordon)
eaten alive (tobe hooper)
the quince tree sun (victor erice)

[St. Gloede]

https://imgur.com/cxeFHab

Seen anything else from Blassetti? Four Steps in the Clouds set me on a path to discover almost everything available (at that time - I think much more is now, and some of what has gotten releases later was not that exciting).

Aside from Resurrectio, I'd also recommend:

La tavola dei poveri (1932)
Responsibility Come Back (1945)
The Duchess of Parma (1937)

Though Four Steps in the Clouds and Resurrectio are undoubtedly his best. Seen 9 others. I guess I cal also mention The Iron Crown, to see what he used to do with his epics/semi-sword and sandals type films. Some others, like Ettore Fieramosca on the other hand are just best forgotten.

[kanafani]

Seen anything else from Blassetti? Four Steps in the Clouds set me on a path to discover almost everything available (at that time - I think much more is now, and some of what has gotten releases later was not that exciting).

Aside from Resurrectio, I'd also recommend:

La tavola dei poveri (1932)
Responsibility Come Back (1945)
The Duchess of Parma (1937)

Though Four Steps in the Clouds and Resurrectio are undoubtedly his best. Seen 9 others. I guess I cal also mention The Iron Crown, to see what he used to do with his epics/semi-sword and sandals type films. Some others, like Ettore Fieramosca on the other hand are just best forgotten.

Thanks! I haven't seen anything else from Blassetti. In fact I'd never heard of him and only watched Resurrectio because the SCFZ gals (Evelyn, Rischka and twodeadmagpies) logged it on letterboxd and seemed to be fans. I really liked it; I was not expecting this level of experimentation and unique use of sound. I'll definitely look into his other movies. In fact I've seen very little Italian cinema from that era. Most Italian stuff I've seen starts at neorealism. Might have to fix that.

[greennui]

: https://letterboxd.com/greennui/list/2020/

[rischka]

Gals?? GALS??????

Four steps in the clouds is lovely and I should thank Karl for that one

[St. Gloede]

It is important to note that Italy had a mainstream cinema that could be compared to classic Hollywood, and while you rarely here the phrase the "Italian Studio System" Blasetti was one of the top directors within this mainstream cinema. it also means his types of films are all over the place, from classic romcoms/slapstick like The Duchess of Parma, The Father's Dilemma, etc. to a long line of action/adventure films, like Iron Crown, An Adventure of Salvator Rosa, etc. - and more socially conscious films (often his best) like Four Steps, La tavola dei poveri, Responsibility Come Back.

However, one thing I always appreciate about his (older) work is that even in films that just aren't particularly good, like Palio, Old Guard, 1860, etc. the cinematography is striking. (Might share some screens later).

It is also interesting to note that Blasetti is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Italian Cinema", which is odd given how big Italian cinema was in the 10s, but it is related to his leading role in bringing up Italian cinema in the 30s.

[kanafani]

Gals?? GALS??????

Oh oh is that word on some blacklist? Shall I refrain from using?

[St. Gloede]

Something wrong with gals?

[St. Gloede]

(I tend to be really out of the loop on this stuff too)

[rischka]

Nah its ok....if you're my grandpa

[St. Gloede]

So, "lass" is completely out of the question unless I'm your great grandfather then?

[kanafani]

I was thinking wee lassie

[Curtis, baby]

How about kiddo?

Jk jk jk JK!!!!!!

[thoxans]

womenfolk... amirite, guys?

[Holymanm]

recently i came across the term "ladykins" in a book... it was a great time

[kanafani]

https://letterboxd.com/kanafani/list/20 ... scoveries/

[thoxans]

noe's climax is the only film on my list that i currently have at three stars on boxd. every other film got at least a four (wow, it just occurred to me that i didn't give a single five last year...). when i initially watched climax, i remember struggling over the rating. was it a four? or a three? or that old stopgap three and a half, the coward's rating? noe always fucks with the audience. that's a given. (though i prefer him to a haneke; to paraphrase lencho, haneke is arty trying to be trashy, whereas noe knows he's trashy, and so that's what naturally and properly results). because of that tendency, i always have trouble falling fully in love with the stuff he does that i actually like. even when i like it, there's still a feeling of 'yeah, but...'. i enjoyed i stand alone; the incessant narration, the gunshot edits (which harmony korine stole for spring breakers), the uncomfortable embrace of depicting a despicable human being beyond all redemption; but the narrative deception/switcheroo near the end felt a little gimmicky, and left me uncertain (though overall it ends wonderfully with great use of pachelbel's canon in d major, one of the few cinematic instances where it's not entirely eye-rolling). still, i have it at a three. irreversible, i don't like. love, i was torn on, didn't much care for it, though i still think about it. enter the void, i haven't seen (and idk how i'll feel about that one cuz it very much seems like the kind of film that bros have latched onto as some cool novelty they can show to other bros, like, 'yooo dude you gotta see this trippy fucking movie enter the void it's fucking crazy brah,' and that's just the sort of preconception that'll ruin a flick for me, ngl). and then there's climax. idk if anyone else here has seen it, but it's his best film so far imo. maybe that doesn't mean much to most people, but disregard that it's noe, and i still think it's a really interesting, well-executed piece of work. from a technical standpoint, it's a marvel. great cinematography from benoit debie. the use of colour is amazing, giallo-esque if we're considering it a quasi-horror film (which it might as well be, since it's certainly scary and unsettling). obvs solid choreography, from the dance routines to the long tracking shot that lasts like the entirety of the second half of the film (also, the long takes don't feel contrived; in fact, it took me a while to realize the 42min take was all one long uninterrupted shot). there's no real script to criticize, since so much of the film was improv from the performers who were merely given an idea of what they were supposed to do. in that way, it's very expressionistic, all audio/visual exposition that elicits visceral response through gestural stylization/manifestation, distortion and disorientation. if ferrara's the blackout is the best film to capture what it's like to go on a binge, then this is probs the flick that best captures what it's like to trip (a bad trip, yes; but also in general, that foggy sort of surreality of dream logic entering into the real world)... maybe i'll bump it up to a four after all......