10. The Good German, directed by Steven Soderbergh
09. The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont
08. Rescue Dawn, directed by Werner Herzog
07. The Host, directed by Joon-ho Bong
06. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, directed by Tim Burton
05. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, directed by Julian Schnabel
04. Zodiac, directed by David Fincher
03. No Country for Old Man, directed by the Coen Brothers
02. Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg
01. There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderon

The ones that escaped me but I am greatly anticipating a DVD release:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik
Youth Without Youth, directed by Francis Ford Coppola
I'm Not There, directed by Todd Hayes
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, directed by Sidney Lumet

The ones that entertained me and that's all I asked for:
Hot Fuzz, directed by Edgar Wright
Ocean's Thirteen, directed by Steven Soderbergh
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, directed by Jake Kasdan
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, directed by Gore Verbinski

The worst films of the year:
Transformer, "directed" by Michael Bay
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, "directed" by Tim Story
Across the Universe, "directed" by Julie Taymor
Spider-Man 3, "directed" by Sam Raimi

[Message edited by nuts_score on 01-12-2008]

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Originally posted by sean:
The Good German!? (That's a terrible film, with a terrible score.) Ocean's 13!? (???) Sweeney Todd!? You're screwed up. I can see Michael having a serious hand in this "list." It's messed up, you don't even have Black Book in there. Diving Bell was nowhere near the calibre of Cronenberg's film, nor No Country... I won't do a top 10, since it's ridiculous, but that's a sorry list you've accumulated.

[Message edited by sean on 01-11-2008]

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I'm sorry Sean to upset you; as I always do. I didn't include Black Book because I didn't see it in the cinemas; I had to wait for the DVD.

I will comment on yours, and later reveal mine. There is ONE film in particular that I must see before I call the year.

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I've decided to open a specific thread where we can hold film discussion for 2008 (as well as questions regarding other aspects of the cinema, as I have many for you young McClennan).

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Hey, wait a second. Aren't I YOUR senior?
(And it's McLennan. But you're closer than most.)

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So, before we depart with the new year's films (and now that I've seen my share of '07s films) I'll leave you with my top 10 favorite of 2007.
10. The Good German, directed by Steven Soderbergh

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Oh good show! Sorry Sean - we didn't plan this - but I'm glad to see someone embrace this film. This isn't a great film, but it's surely worth seeing. Newman's score, and the air of moral equivalence mixed with CASABLANCA and THE THIRD MAN make this a film I'll go back to many times.

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09. Atonement, directed by Joe Wright

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Glad to see you're not one of the revisionists, who seemed to have decided not to wait the obligatory six months, but are bashing this one now. It's a GREAT novel, and I encourage you to read it if you haven't. The film is very good as a distillation, though a couple of things don't quite work so well. The retention of the novel's structure was an excellent choice for the adapters, the one-take shot bloody well fits the film (too many reviewers are citing it as a sore thumb factor), and Marianelli mixes Herrmann with Yared well.

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08. Rescue Dawn, directed by Werner Herzog

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So why didn't I see this? Well, you see I've been discovering Herzog this last two years. I first saw Grizzly Man, and loved it. I then saw Aguirre and My Best Fiend, and was prepared to declare sainthood on these simple foundations. But by the time - November - that Rescue Dawn came out in Sydney, I'd recently also seen Nosferatu and Fitzcaraldo. And while those films are impressive, it left me a bit Herzogged-out.

So I saw Elizabeth: The Golden Age instead. :-S

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07. The Host, directed by Joon-ho Bong

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Glad to see it here. Has four of my favourite scenes from films this year:
(i) sudden attack in broad daylight, with the hilarious prelude of the tourists throwing trash to the 'Amazonian dolphin' en masse;
(ii) the family mourns their lost daughter in the grieving centre;
(iii) the main character escapes brain surgery by a doctor with a hilarious glass eye, to find a group of Army generals having a BBQ outside next to the Han River.
(iv) the unemployed uncle's treacherous friend's transparent guilt as he leads his 'old friend' into a trap.

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06. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, directed by Tim Burton
05. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, directed by Julian Schnabel

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Haven't seen them.

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04. Zodiac, directed by David Fincher

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Have you see the 'director's cut'? I haven't, but I look forward to seeing how this could possibly be better.

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03. No Country for Old Man, directed by the Coen Brothers

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Magnifique. If this is what's coming, I don't want to stop it.

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02. Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg

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I didn't see this. It was a busy time.

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01. There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderon

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This comes out at the start of February here. I'm trying to avoid finding out much about it.

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The ones that escaped me but I am greatly anticipating a DVD release:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik
Youth Without Youth, directed by Francis Ford Coppola
I'm Not There, directed by Todd Hayes

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I'll save my comments on these until my list. I haven't seen the Coppola.

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The ones that entertained me and that's all I asked for:
Hot Fuzz, directed by Edgar Wright
Ocean's Thirteen, directed by Steven Soderbergh

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So Ocean's 13 is worth a look? I saw the second and the first earlier this year on TV in that order. I first didn't understand what the deal was (Ocean's 12), but Ocean's 11 charmed me. I keep meaning to see Hot Fuzz.

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The worst films of the year:
Transformer, "directed" by Michael Bay
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, "directed" by Tim Story
Across the Universe, "directed" by Julie Taymor

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I won't argue with Fantastic 4 (why did you watch it?) or Transformers (again, why?), but since I was the one who talked up Across the Universe, I should say something in its defence.

Now, as far as Werner Herzog is concerned, I think I've made quite an effort for it to be known that I hold Herzog in the highest. In my eyes, he is one of the best directors that history has given us, and while he hasn't necessarily gotten better with age, he has never broken. His uncanny ability to meld true life into fiction has earned him the recognition as one of the most original directors ever; yet even he admits to cribbing here and there from his own influences (but very little of it is noticable, as Herzog is a bit of the anti-Tarantino). You have a good starting list there, Michael. But, for me, his best work (that doesn't involve Klaus Kinski, an absolute maniacal genius that will never be outlived) was with German actor Bruno S. There first picture was The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, a creepy little picture which could serve as an early inspiration for Oldboy. Bruno S. was originally offered the title role in Woyzeck, but since Herzog had become settled on Kinski at that time, Bruno lost the role. Herzog promised to make it up to Bruno with Stroszek, which, for my money is Herzog's best film. His early documentaries The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner and The Flying Doctors of East Africa are all well in themselves, but his later documentaries provide most of the punch of his raw talent (especially How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck...). His narrative feature, Heart of Glass (in which most of the cast is under hypnotizing), is another creepy little show and his extraordinary remake of Nosferatu features the most understated performance by Klaus Kinski and a young Bruno Ganz (of Downfall). In short, all of his pictures with Kinski are masterpieces in their own little way, but the most overlooked is Cobra Verde; in which Kinski plays a rogue sent to Africa to be killed, but instead leads an entire rebellion (and features the most amount of topless women in one shot I've ever seen!). His stranger documentaries, like Lessons of Darkness and The Wild Blue Yonder all lend a particularly Herogian view on their subjects (the former being a post-apocalyptic Kuwait and the latter being extraterrestrial life). Grizzly Man is fascinating, for sure, but one of my least favorites of his documentaries. And, of course, Invincible and Rescue Dawn have shown that Herzog still has tremedous talents as a narrative storyteller.

For me, so far, my picks are:

1. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (As poignant as a commentary on our current cold-blooded society as NATURAL BORN KILLERS when it came out)

2. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD (Phillip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant as always as he rides the descent into evil with Ethan Hawke. Good lkittle score track on this one too by Burwell, I believe. Very FARGOish. Anybody know if they'll be a score release for this one? )

3. GRINDHOUSE (I had a ball of a time with this one. The term "uproarious" applies here. I "got it" because I understood what Tarantino and Rodriguez (along with Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie) had set out to accomplish. And they did it with flying colors. It was ashame that the Weinstein bros care more about money than movies and dismantled the movie's genius structure.

4. AMERICAN GANGSTER

5. THE KINGDOM

6. 300

7. PARTS OF MOVIES -
a) TRANSFORMERS (Up throught the Quatar base attack until John Turturro is introduced or the little boom box dude on Air Force One when Dubya asks for his HoHos - That's when the Michael Bay schlock started setting in ruining most of what would be the rest of the movie.

b) BOURNE ULTIMATUM -The chases. And when Niki cuts her hair in the mirror and reflects back Bourne's past love, Marie, in stunning duplicity and Powell's entrance of the "Marie" theme.

c) THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES - Confrontation in the farmhouse and the end following Robert Ford's fame and failure (a nice biting commentary on the current state of fame in this country)

d) KNOCKED UP/SUPERBAD - Any scene with the absolute crack-up, Jonah Hill.

e) I AM LEGEND - First half with a Billy-boy (Will Smith) and his dog

Critically Over-hyped or Anticipated Failures of the Year-IMHO, of course.

ATONEMENT (which was A-Trocious)
ZODIAC (Disappointing boring Fincher which ended up meaning nothing)
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD - forgettable
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END -forgettable
THE GOOD GERMAN
OCEAN'S 13 (Soderbergh better get back to making movies like THE LIMEY or he's going to be forgotten.)
RESCUE DAWN -forgettable
THE GOLDEN COMPASS - a complete mess
SHREK THE THIRD - sophomore jinx hitting late

Michael, as much as I wanted to love and appreciate Atonement, I couldn't. The first act, finding our primaries at the British mansion was amazing and could've made for the entire picture with more success than the rest. The problem herein lies, Keira Knightley. An actress so wooden and awful that I'm surprised to hear the amount of praise she's risen from this and Joe Wright's previous Pride and Prejudice. Now, Wright is a fine director himself (the first act is wonderfully directed, as is the scene in Dunkirk, as noted), but why he keeps working with Knightley I'll never understand. When the film departed from the mansion and our main characters togteher it becomes a muddled mess. The actress who portrays Briony at age 19 - while well cast - is not as convincing as young Saoirse Ronan (who completely owns this entire pictures in her haunting eyes alone); and many sequences with her (the "discovery" that he cousin is marrying the chocolate entrepreneur and their subsequent wedding which appears to be right down the street from the cinema, bad direction there) didn't carry the emotional resonance they should've. And Knightley just doesn't have any chemistry with the great James McAvoy. I don't believe her lust for him for one second, and it hurts the ultimate story of the film. I did appreciate the introduction of the elder Briony (as played by Vanessa Redgrave); the juxtapostion from the grimy 1940s sets to the modern television monitors and Anthony Minghella's voice was well achieved. I also championed the fine cinematography and editing (both at their shining examples, again, in the film's first act) as well as Marianelli's psychologically impactful score. Certainly, it's a well-meaning movie, but, as you hint, perhaps the book tells the story better . . . and without Keira Knightley.

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
But, for me, his best work (that doesn't involve Klaus Kinski, an absolute maniacal genius that will never be outlived) was with German actor Bruno S. There first picture was The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, a creepy little picture which could serve as an early inspiration for Oldboy. Bruno S. was originally offered the title role in Woyzeck, but since Herzog had become settled on Kinski at that time, Bruno lost the role. Herzog promised to make it up to Bruno with Stroszek, which, for my money is Herzog's best film. His early documentaries The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner and The Flying Doctors of East Africa are all well in themselves, but his later documentaries provide most of the punch of his raw talent (especially How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck...). His narrative feature, Heart of Glass (in which most of the cast is under hypnotizing), is another creepy little show and his extraordinary remake of Nosferatu features the most understated performance by Klaus Kinski and a young Bruno Ganz (of Downfall). In short, all of his pictures with Kinski are masterpieces in their own little way, but the most overlooked is Cobra Verde; in which Kinski plays a rogue sent to Africa to be killed, but instead leads an entire rebellion (and features the most amount of topless women in one shot I've ever seen!). His stranger documentaries, like Lessons of Darkness and The Wild Blue Yonder all lend a particularly Herogian view on their subjects (the former being a post-apocalyptic Kuwait and the latter being extraterrestrial life). Grizzly Man is fascinating, for sure, but one of my least favorites of his documentaries. And, of course, Invincible and Rescue Dawn have shown that Herzog still has tremedous talents as a narrative storyteller.

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I certainly will watch RESCUE DAWN as soon as I can (the DVd can't be far off). INVINCIBLE though, is worth a look too?

I have already a few Herzogs to watch before then - WOYCZEK (sp?) and COBRA VERDE among them, as well as his documentaries WILD BLUE YONDER and LITTLE DIETER. And after seeing FITZ (a film I really didn't admire as much as NOSFERATU and AGUIRRE), I must see BURDEN OF DREAMS. Sounds like there are a dozen others of his I must check out as well from your post.

One of the things I do find a little dismaying about Herzog is his musical sense. Sometimes it's spot on - as in the soft music that plays during Aguirre's final sermon to the monkeys, or the use of Wagner as Nosferatu's ship sails up the Danube. But I think of the chirpy early New Age music that accompanies Jonathan Harker's journey to Romania (NOSFERATU), or the similar music from FITZCARRALDO, and it's hard to recognise such simple, easy-going music to the uncompromising artist and his world.

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Originally posted by nuts_score:

Michael, as much as I wanted to love and appreciate Atonement, I couldn't.

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Interesting. Since it was 9 on your list, I assumed it must have been doing well!

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The first act, finding our primaries at the British mansion was amazing and could've made for the entire picture with more success than the rest.

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It's the anti-ENGLISH PATIENT part of the film. Stylistically angular, full of unusual touches.

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The problem herein lies, Keira Knightley. An actress so wooden and awful that I'm surprised to hear the amount of praise she's risen from this and Joe Wright's previous Pride and Prejudice.

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I hear this from a lot of people who haven't read the book, and to be fair to the actress, I don't agree. I think she's playing her role very well in the scenes she's in. I do think Hampton made a strange decision in his scripting to never really let the audience see the story from her perspective. In the book, we never did see through her eyes again after Robbie was arrested. Briony the novellist was, we must assume, much more reluctant to write her sister's thoughts than Robbie's - presumably because her sister was too close to home.

In the book, we learn through Cecillia's thoughts that she was one of the many women educated at Cambridge in literature, but not, according to the rules of the day, awarded a degree of any sort. It gives her a sense of self-consciousness about her class status, she is aware both of the comforts and criticisms.

She runs the house for her incapable mother and unfaithful father (another detail that fell by the wayside), and part of the drama involving the mother's refusal to hear her point of view during the deposition sequence comes from the fact that the mother and Cecillia have unresolved authority issues in the running of the household. It all adds to the chip on her shoulder and separates her from her parents world, making her something more than a simple snob.

The final detail worth mentioning is that the fountain scene occurs twice in the novel, and the meaning is provided only in Robbie's reaction to it (he writes vulgar love letters). In the film, we see the fountain scene from Briony's perspective, and then from a general mid-shot perspective on Robbie and Cecillia that is not really either character's perspective. And we are left in no doubt that the issue here is unresolved sexual tension. In the book, we see the scene first through Cecillia's eyes, and through those eyes, Robbie is a mystery. Then we see it through Briony's eyes at the window. Then we see Robbie write the letter, and we understand then what it was all about. It was one of a few strange choices in the adaptation, to deny Cecillia a perspective, and I think it explains most of the audience reaction to her.

To Robbie, that simple snob is how she seems. Unfortunately it seems that way to the audience as well. We come the Cecillia's final scene with Robbie and Briony, and she lights a cigarette in the old fashion. I knew in that moment that most of the audience would come out of the film thinking her a bit thin. People mistake the performance for shallow, but the truth is that her exterior comes across that way. The director and writer however have not set up the dramaturge in a way that would bring an opportunity of empathy for the character to the fore. Her interior was not a failure, it was simply not attempted for some reason. I don't think it's a film killer, as I know the thoughts behind the scenes, so it simply doesn't play poorly to me.

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The actress who portrays Briony at age 19 - while well cast - is not as convincing as young Saoirse Ronan (who completely owns this entire pictures in her haunting eyes alone); and many sequences with her (the "discovery" that he cousin is marrying the chocolate entrepreneur and their subsequent wedding which appears to be right down the street from the cinema, bad direction there) didn't carry the emotional resonance they should've.

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One thing I felt they made a mistake in doing was cutting out the development of Briony's novel during this period. She discusses it with a fellow nurse, but only a reader will know what's going on here.

The discovery of the writer's process over the years is reduced to a brief shot of Briony's first attempt at writing about the pivotal event of her life - 'Two figures by a fountain.' That story was a description of the event by the fountain, with an emphasis on rendering details impressionistically, but no attempt to develop a story out of it. The letter from the publisher about this piece in the novel brings into the narrative the idea that having an eye for detail, and a head for writing about it, does not make a storyteller. Impressions need to be made meaningful by the machinery of narrative -- directed to some purpose by a plot. The publisher notes that they would be willing to see where her writing develops as she comes to wield the moments for more than their own sake. This letter is still fresh in her pocket when she attends the wedding and begins to piece together the truth of that pivotal night. She thinks about it again on the train between the wedding and her fictional reunion with her sister. (Those two scenes being the two 'plot-resolution' scenes of the novel.)

The scene at the wedding had a really strange touch to it - the use of organ goes far beyond 'ironic' use of music, it's entered the realm of 'sarcastic underscore'. Brave choice, but people may laugh at that moment.

The chocolate manufacturer character was another area that for me felt a little compromised in the adaptation. vents are more transparently foreshadowed in the film. I think the film makes Paul Marshall's flirtation with Lola far too... flirty. By the time the camera pans to him sleeping on the couch and stops there, no-one in the audience would be questioning who the true rapist was. But it's far too early for that. Even at the central fountain scene, one is not aware of how sexually charged it is from the perspective of either character until after the fact. The film's use of Knightley's body in that scene leaves no doubt in my mind what's going on.

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I did appreciate the introduction of the elder Briony (as played by Vanessa Redgrave); the juxtapostion from the grimy 1940s sets to the modern television monitors and Anthony Minghella's voice was well achieved.

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Is that Anthony Minghella?! Wow. Nice touch.
I can see why they do the final scene as a TV interview in the film. It doesn't make a great deal of sense if you think about it though - that a noveliist would describe the ending of her novel in comparison to what really happened before the release? Wouldn't that spoil the book for every reader watching the show?

Truth is that this idea, that the story we have seen is a character's novel, works better on the page than on screen. On the page, the form of the novel can be better manipulated than cinema can to do this. The elderly Briony thinks on these things - telling herself it was appropriate to tell a lie on the page for the sake of her readers. There's a slight air of the dubious about the whole thing, however sincere her intentions.

Of course, the endnote of any film is important. I had to chuckle at the last scene, which shows Briony and Robbie together at their cottage. The audience leaves the film with the sense that some part of the couple had what they didn't. Barely two minutes before, Briony was telling us how her novel required a fictional release from the suffering of her real-life templates. She might have been apologising for the film-maker! Predictably enough, McEwan's novel has a less wistful final image than the film!

I think if they'd wanted to go down that path, they should have shown the couple playing in the surf, and rather than following them to the house, cut to the elderly Briony on the shore, watching her characters having fun. Then follow her, alone as always, back to the house, the inspiration of the one which appeared in her novel. (The ideal cottage of Cecillia's would never have appeared in any of the couple's letters - it must have been another device of Briony the novellist.) Play not the cue 'A Cottage by the Sea', but 'Atonement'. It would change the colour of the ending, and not let the audience - or Briony - off on the relieving thought that somewhere out there, Robbie and Cecillia were ever happy.

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I also championed the fine cinematography and editing (both at their shining examples, again, in the film's first act) as well as Marianelli's psychologically impactful score. Certainly, it's a well-meaning movie, but, as you hint, perhaps the book tells the story better . . . and without Keira Knightley.

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Well as I say, Knightley isn't the issue - the dramatisation is the issue. But enough of that.

Marianelli's score is an interesting one - very dramatic, and constantly seizing on 'found objects' in the diegesis to deliver observations: the use of typewriter of course, but also the umbrella, Briony's one-fingered tapping on the piano, the church organ, the soldier's chorus, Robbie's harmonica, etc.

[Message edited by nuts_score on 01-12-2008][/B][/QUOTE]

I also noted above that perhaps cinema was not well-equipped to handle the novelist's process the way the novel does. Of course, a really great adaptation could achieve this - Alan Renais's PROVIDENCE should not be forgotten, however different the idea there. I did wonder at the end of the film whether it might have worked better for Briony to be a film-maker, and have the film stop, Tristram Shandy style, and have a scene with Briony and her editor discussing the ending of her final film. It would have been laughable probably.

One thing I did admire Joe Wright for was the use of the 9-screen image on Vanessa Redgrave for the opening of the coda. It's a nice preparation for the real story - instead of seeing multiple angles on the same scene (as we have so often in the film), we now see the same angle on Briony on nine screens simultaneously. There is no escaping the truth now, is what it tells me.

Well, I didn't see, for various reasons (mostly bad ones!):
- Rescue Dawn
- Once
- The Darjeeling Limited
- Forbidden Lies
- Noise
- The Black Book
- Angel
- Eastern Promises
and My Blueberry Nights (no great hopes) and There Will Be Blood (great great hopes) just haven't come out yet. So there's obviously a bit of ground to cover yet.

But anyway, I really got annoyed by:
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age
- Spiderman 3
- The Science of Sleep
- Apocalypto (turned it off halfway through!)
- Fracture
- Blood Diamond

The Gondry film Science of Sleep joins the honoured ranks of Mi3, Somersault and Shopgirl as 'one of those films Franz hates SO'. All films with an S in the title are hereafter warned.

I found the following annoying overrated: Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood), Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro), The Illusionist (Neil Burger).

Both Fracture and The Illusionist try to make 'outwitting the audience' a cornerstone of their plots. Unfortunately if you've got half a brain, you'll either know the exact nature of the twist, or you'll at the very least know it's not going to impress when it does roll around. Not a good trend in adult entertainment!

I was somewhat indifferent to Seraphim Falls, The Banquet, The Fountain, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Babel.

The film that most failed to live up to its potential was surely: The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz).

I found the following reasonably good viewing, not exceptional, but not everything needs to be: The Namesake (Mira Nair), An Old Mistress (Catherine Breillat - very witty actually! And Asia Argento is a babe), Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy), and Across the Universe (Julie Claymore, as she shall now be known in future discussions with nuts!).

Now we start to get into the reasonably good stuff. Let me pay brief homage to:
- The Painted Veil (John Curran) - good old-fashioned Somerset-Maugham adaptation. My bourgoise heart is stirred!
- The Good Shephard (Robert DeNiro) - doesn't entirely work, but this really is a fascinating film, with some very interesting style touches.
- Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre) - great pulpy thriller, with a remarkable female villain essayed by Judi Dench. Phillip Glass keeps the patient's heart going on adrenalin.
- Perfume: Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer) - I love the idea. Tykwer's film doesn't quite live up to it, but it's a great story, and this film gets it across without making any critical mistakes. Nicely integrated score.
- The Good German (Steven Soderbergh) - Fascinating exercise. Often doesn't rise above the feeling of an elaborate exercise alas, but the good things keep it afloat - the good being the issues at play in the story, the appropriation of style, Cate Blanchett and Thomas Newman. Tobey Maguire should never do voiceover - he hasn't got the vocal chords for it.
- Into the Wild (Sean Penn) - really good actually. I could have done with a bit more of 'the wild' in the film, but I can live with the film that's here. The reason this doesn't go onto my top 10 list is that I don't feel I ever need to see this film again, and that probably means it hasn't stuck with me as well.

So, the top ones are...
- 12. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
- 11. Lust, Caution (Ang Lee) - Munich meets Douglas Sirk. A great idea! Done a bit on the indulgent side however...
- 10. A Mighty Heart (Michael Winterbottom)
- 9. Atonement (Joe Wright)
- 8. The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass)
- 7. The Lives of Others (Florien Henckel von Donners...)
- 6. Little Children (Todd Fields)
- 5. The Host (I can't remember his name!)
- 4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
- 3. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
- 2. Zodiac (David Fincher)
- 1. No Country for Old Men (Coens)
I only saw the 3rd yesterday, so I hope it lingers with me. The first two are roughly equal in my esteem. Perhaps No Country is a bit more universal, and it's hard not favour it's direct charms.

My favourite scenes from movies in 2007:
- A family mourns a 'lost' daughter in THE HOST.
- Bourne and a journalist move through Waterloo station, avoiding the eyes of the CIA - in THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. The Tangiers sequence is similarly impressive on all levels.
- The assassination of Robert Ford by the 'hero' Ed O'Kelley.
- A mad voice raves against 'disease' over scenes of empty office corridors by night in the incredible opening three minutes of MICHAEL CLAYTON.
- The 'final conversations' of Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald), and a certain gas station owner with Anton Chigurh in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
- 'The Zodiac' calls the TV station to speak to Melvin Belli; a woman drives up the highway to find a parked truck, and a woman in front of it, mad with fear; the minutiae of the murder aftermaths - there's no reason why they should be, but ZODIAC makes all these scenes so chilling.
- The airport farewell of THE GOOD GERMAN - there's always something worse indeed.
- Peter O'Toole eats some Ratatouille.
- The recurring theme of meals in A MIGHTY HEART. Also a scene where Winterbottom keeps a grieving Marianne Pearl in a wide handheld shot, back to the camera.
- Tony Leung hisses perverse thoughts into Tang Wei's ear as they are driven to their darkest sexual encounter yet in LUST, CAUTION.
- 'You're just visiting' from THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
- Grenouille meets his fans in PERFUME: STORY OF A MURDERER.
- Asia Argento and her lover argue over one of the man's other paramours in a love scene that comes about halfway AN OLD MISTRESS.

The old movie I re-watched the most times in 2007 was THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, directed by Wes Anderson, and starring the great Bill Murray. Go figure. It gets better every time!

I would love to include The Lives of Others (a hugely flawed picture, and best foreign picture should've gone to After the Wedding) and Black Book, but unfortunately I wasn't able to catch either until the DVD was released.

I believe the film I watched the most this year was William Greaves' psudeo-documentary Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (made in 1968 and released late in 2006 on the Criterion Collection, which I believe is the equivalent of the UK's Eureka! collections). I also watched David Gordon Green's George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Undertow many, many times throughout the year.

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Originally posted by franz_conrad:
I certainly will watch RESCUE DAWN as soon as I can (the DVd can't be far off). INVINCIBLE though, is worth a look too?

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Invincible is well worth a look. I think, as a fan of Herzog, you'lll appreciate it.

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And after seeing FITZ (a film I really didn't admire as much as NOSFERATU and AGUIRRE), I must see BURDEN OF DREAMS.

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I don't know if I should feel sad for you for not admiring Fitzcarraldo as much as the other two; after all, art is subjective and you're allowed to see whatever you want to. But I feel that after you watch Les Blank's Burden of Dreams you'll get a greater appreciation of what the film means to Herzog and Kinski; and, particularly, their relationship. The film was a tremedous and exhaustive task for everyone involved. And I think the love that was put into the picture (like all of Herzog's films) really shines through the most in Fitzcarraldo.

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One of the things I do find a little dismaying about Herzog is his musical sense. Sometimes it's spot on - as in the soft music that plays during Aguirre's final sermon to the monkeys, or the use of Wagner as Nosferatu's ship sails up the Danube. But I think of the chirpy early New Age music that accompanies Jonathan Harker's journey to Romania (NOSFERATU), or the similar music from FITZCARRALDO, and it's hard to recognise such simple, easy-going music to the uncompromising artist and his world.

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I have this exact problem that you have. But I figure it on the knowledgable fact that German's have the most eclectic taste in music. I would also cite the same reasons you have; but it's best to just let it slide. Little Dieter Needs to Fly certainly has some surprising music in it, but it's all very good.

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One thing I particularly liked about NOSFERATU was the fact that Kinski reined himself back in for it. And Mina's futile sacrifice. And the connection between Dracula and the Black Death is a good touch... truly brilliant! As were the use of locations.

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And I'll leave by saying cheers to that!

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
I also watched David Gordon Green's George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Undertow many, many times throughout the year.

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You could do a lot worse! I've not seen ALL THE REAL GIRLS. UNDERTOW I've watched at least twice... I'm not an enormous fan of it, but it's got a very interesting feel to it.

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
If my list went beyond ten, I would've included Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited at number 11, Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart at 12, and Richard Shepard's uneven (but still intelligent) The Hunting Party sits at 13. I can only recall seeing 21 films this year at the cinema. Everything else was home viewing or no viewing.

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I do not share your reservations. LITTLE CHILDREN, PERFUME, GOOD SHEPHERD, APOCALYPTO, and PERFUME were all home viewing for me on DVd when they came out late in the year.

You say that LIVES OF OTHERS is flawed. It's very romantic in a German way, which could make it seem a bit sentimental, but as with Clooney's GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, I find the message of the film worth getting sentimental about. I do think the specific story they chose to tell, and the way it unfolds, would have probably worked better as a novel. I did want a few more interesting details about how they pulled off the surveillance over time.

Oh, some awards from me!

- Best Actor: Ulrich Muhe, THE LIVES OF OTHERS, Sebastian Koch, THE LIVES OF OTHERS; Josh Brolin, NO COUNTRY; and Casey Affleck, ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES; Irfan Kahn, THE NAMESAKE and A MIGHTY HEART.

- Best Actor in a Smaller Part: Robert Downey Jnr, ZODIAC; Sam Rockwell, ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES; Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

- Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, GOOD GERMAN, I'M NOT THERE, NOTES ON A SCANDAL and ELIZABETH; Charlotte Gainsberg, I'M NOT THERE and SCIENCE OF SLEEP; Judi Dench, NOTES ON A SCANDAL; Saeosre (sp?) Ronan (sp?) for ATONEMENT; Kelly MacDonald, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN; Tang Wei, LUST CAUTION.

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Originally posted by franz_conrad:
So I see SWEENEY TODD is on your list, Andrew. Where do you generally sit in relation to Burton's films?

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Usually, I'm a big Burton-hater. Growing up, Beetlejuice was possibly my favorite film; as my mother recounts me watching it nearly every day. And I can see why: Burton's Beetlejuice is a very good film. It's filled with imagination and a wonderful sense of humor. Burton's made three other films in this vein (and they all are great in my book): Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Ed Wood, and Mars Attacks!. His "Batman" films are good for Tim Burton films; but rather miserable as Batman films. I don't bother to watch them often, maybe once every five years. Every thing Burton has made since Mars Attacks! is awful. Certainly, Sleepy Hollow has some going for it (Elfman's great score and Emmanuel Lubezki's superb atmospheric cinematography) but is ultimately not that good. And the least that's said about his other work, the better.

But in the case of Sweeney Todd and my affection for the original production with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury as well as Stephen Sondheim. And, from previous threads gathering dust around these parts can attest, I wasn't all for Tim Burton adapting this material. It needs a sense of humor that Burton has been missing since Mars Attacks!, and I didn't feel he would share affection for the project. Well, in ways I was wrong. His casting of Johnny Depp as Todd was - while understandable - WAY OFF. Depp's singing voice is one of the worst I've heard. That said, Helena Bonham Carter surprised me and created a wonderful Mrs. Lovett. Sascha Baron Cohen was great comic relief (as usual) and the sense of humor seemed to have fit just right. Though I still would've preferred Sam Mendes interpretation of it.

Now here's a thought - Keats, in a rare Keatsian moment of unexotic clarity described an idea called 'negative capability'. Essentially, negative capability is the ability of the audience of an artwork to accept an unresolved idea.

I propose that a person's negative capability is in direct proportion of their ability to appreciate PRIMER. Because if you can't accept irresolution, you won't make it ten minutes into this very strange film. Explanation is denied. If a logical sequence building to a conclusion G is A-B-C-D-E-F-G, we are treated to B-D-F-half of G, and required to imagine A, C, E and the other half of that conclusive idea.

I admire the film. It's probably the best of its type - exceptionally cheap sci-fi - that I've seen since Aronofsky's PI. It's like David Mamet and Christopher Priest having a fictional lovechild... I don't think they needed to spend any more money on it. I admire it for where it's at.

I like the use of diegetically-sourced narration throughout, and in particular the almost Altman-like overlapping conversations that drive many scenes.

I was a little let down by the ending of the film... partly because I think it doesn't for more than 30 seconds tap into the loneliness of no longer being in your life anymore. The old lesson that a withdraw into the mind kills the life you have. As the film fragments into a strange set of narrated shards of scenes, those moments where the stomach goes uneasy (like when they turn their machine on for the first time) are less frequent. Unlike THE PRESTIGE, for example, it lacks the killer blow.

But very interesting. A friend told me about a year ago that I should watch PRIMER in relation to a script I was trying to find a cheap way to write. (Because there's no point writing the unfilmable when time is finite, right?) I can't see how you'd map the ideas into a two-character piece quite the way it's been done here, as mine is about a more widespread social phenomenon.

Andrew, saw There Will Be Blood and it blew me away!!! Easily the best scored film since The Thin Red Line. Everything was top-notch and first rate, from the acting, the score, the editing, and the direction. The two scenes with incredible score are the oil well fire (where is this music cue!!!???!!!) and the setting of the spikes for the pipeline.

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Originally posted by sean:

Andrew, saw There Will Be Blood and it blew me away!!! Easily the best scored film since The Thin Red Line. Everything was top-notch and first rate, from the acting, the score, the editing, and the direction. The two scenes with incredible score are the oil well fire (where is this music cue!!!???!!!) and the setting of the spikes for the pipeline.

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That's right boyeee!

Did you see a fresh print of TWBB? When I saw it at the critics screening last Thursday it was a brand new print and the thing was so prestine. By my second viewing on Saturday, some projection damage could be already be noticed. I'm hoping that when it comes to the theatre closer to my house (for a third viewing!) we'll get another new print so I can see it that way again.

We'll discuss Trek at a later time. I need to see the teaser first. Do you get to see the aliens at Area 51? What about Will Smith and Roland Emmerich? Are they welders on top of the Enterprise or what?

And was Michael Giacchino born to score Cloverfield or what?!

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Originally posted by sean:
Yeah, Rambo is coming out! You guys should talk about interesting movies sometime.

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Sean, I'm sure I mean this in the nicest possible way, but consider this: when Andrew said anyone else was welcome to post here, that didn't include you!

Have seen two more films in the last day or so.

THE BLACK BOOK, which has a great lead performance, and which is quite an interesting tale, but which is pretty silly. Still, if it's this or the stuff Verhoeven made in the West, I'll take more pretty silly historical epics. Anne Dudley's score doesn't help things. Carice and Sebastian are great.

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Originally posted by sean:
Neither of you mentioned Sunshine for one.

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The DVD of that is sitting on the shelf, due in 3 days, waiting for me to watch it. Fear not - I simply haven't seen it so far. Are you a fan or a man?

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....without numbers attached to them, it's silly.

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I must confess the numbers don't mean much when you're comparing NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, ZODIAC and their ilk. I'll cop out and say Andrew started it.

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By the way, was Black Book released as The Black Book in Australia? I'm looking at my poster for it now and it's a BOLD Black Book, unless we're thinking of entirely different films here.

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Now, this week I did see JUNO which I thought was a delightful little film brimming with independent spirit. It was almost a sort of a female mashup of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Very funny at times. The soundtrack features these childlike bare bones songs gleefully "spoken" by Kimya Dawson. It was perfectly cast and because of this, the movie successfully clicks, IMHO.

Now, I have been salivating at the chops to see Anderson's new opus THERE WILL BE BLOOD, which there WILL BE if I don't see this film soon. We finally got it here in Cincinnati this weekend, but I am waiting on my friend to go and see it. A friend who once upon a time stopped immediately after watching MAGNOLIA late one night to thank me for the recommendation and to talk about the film because he was so worked up over it. It is one of those films, those pieces of art, like I anticipate TWBB to be, where you just watch with your mouth agape and wish you could sit down and discuss it with Marty Scorsese before turning around and going in for a second screening. Can't wait.

Juno, on the otherhand, was an awful piece of bile. Hiding inside Little Miss Indie Film 101 was a deeper story (Bateman's and Garner's story) but on the outside the audience has to deal with an overindugent talk-fest. Certainly, Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody (nee Brook Busey-Hunt) understands words, but she hasn't quite grasped the power of words. Juno relies on dialogue that's too quick and witty for its own good; people simply don't speak like that (even if we all do know our own little Juno, and I certainly do, we always hate that girl). Sometimes, less is more. For folks who relate Cody's screenplay as "subtle" (and my favorite critic, Roger Ebert has knowingly done) seem to be overlooking what subtlety truly is. For instance, PTA's script for There Will Be Blood hardly relies on dialogue to get the point of its characters across, but yet we're told a more epic and fascinating tale then what's had in Juno, a script that seems to rely solely on pop culture and pop rocks. It seems that this "independent spirit" that Tristan speaks so highly of is a prefabricated medication of the Sundance-bulge post-Pulp Fiction: everything needs to brim over with excessive wit to keep a healthy audience. It worked for Napolean Dynamite (but only in short supply), but seems to have fizzled (in my eyes) with Little Miss Sunshine and Juno.

The group of a schoolgirls dead in the field has significance in that it's a scene Briony invented. In reality it's her looking at the consequences of her action, but she imagines her 'victim' (Robbie), representing England, looking at 'her' (schoolgirls) wondering what more could have been done. That it comes as close as it does to the flashback where Robbie fishes her out of the water is telling, I think. I don't remember it from the book - I thought it was one of the clever aspects of the adaptation, that whenever we're in a scene that Briony could not have witnessed, it starts to lean towards war movie cliches (Robbie running down the street after Cecillia's bus, Cecillia waiting by the sea shore, etc).

ATONEMENT really comes across to me as this year's CHILDREN OF MEN in that it seems to pit me against everyone else, except this time I like the film, I think it's actually convincingly about something, and find the epic tracking shot doesn't distract from the story-telling at all. I actually think the main reason American reviewers have not taken to this film as a whole is that they've listened to others praising it for a few months rather than discovering it on its own merits. They've already acquired favourites which this film seems too conventional and bourgeois to displace, and in their reviews, they're really not thinking that much about it, ruling it out on technicalities and the like. (Like the tracking shot business being distracting -- was DePalma's one substantial tracking shot setpiece in BLACK DAHLIA distracting or indulgent, which it should have been by this kind of value system?) This tends to happen to me when an overhyped film is released in Australia well after everyone has given it every award imaginable. (The Queen, and Pan's Labyrinth both come to mind.)

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
Also of note: TWBB features many, many long tracking shots in the vein of Kubrick and Altman, and like both directors, these shots draw very little attention to themself.

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I'll grant you that Anderson tends to do this, but I don't know that Kubrick was trying to hide his tracking shots that much. THE SHINING is full of that sense of 'hey, we can make these shots smooth now! Ooops --- I mean, this is bloody terrifying, following this kid around on the bike eh?'