Despite the increasing living room presence of huge
TVs and DTS sound systems, there still something unique
about seeing films in the cinema, the communal experience
as much as the screen size and that still uniquel
feel that only projected film can provide. Not one
for mainstream Hollywood pap, I managed to steer clear
of just about all of them this year, but gave in to
peer pressure once and accompanied two friends to
War
of the Worlds, which helped remind me
just why I don't find myself in multiplexes very often.
Refusing to restrict myself to a specific number,
the films in this section may not all go down in history
as great movies, but they were the ones I enjoyed
the most in that special atmosphere only the cinema
can provide.
As
usual, there were plenty of also-rans, films I enjoyed
that didn't quite make the list. They include Agnès
Jaoui's Comme une image, Alexei Popogrebsky's
Koktabel, Theo Angelopoulos's visually
stunning Trilogy 1: The Weeping Meadow,
Bob Smeaton's Festival Express, Saul
Dibb's Bullet Boy, Pablo Berger underrated
Torremolinos '73, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's
Café Lumiere, Andés
Wood's Machuca, Gianni Amelio's Keys
to the House, Eléonore Faucher's A
Common Thread, Bronwen Hughes' Stander
and Emir Kusturica's Life is a Miracle.
The
films are listed in the order I saw them - it's as
good a way to do it as any, I guess.
The
Motorcycle Diaries
A
bit of a cheat, since technically this belongs to
2004, but we had arranged a cinema screening and there
wasn't a print available to us until early January,
and it got my year off to a splendid bang (and filled
the cinema). A fabulous adaptation of a book that
was almost required reading for us angry young men
of the 70s, it features two splendid central performances,
a spot-on blend of character study, travelogue and
humanist politics and direction to die for from Walter
Salles (who has now, tragically, joined the remake
brigade). Forget the 'look, we're celebrities' sheen
of Long Way Round - this is the business.
Film
review
In
My Skin / Dans ma peau
Marina
de Van's compelling, disturbing study of self-destructive
obsession was the only film I attended this year that
had the audience squirming in their seats, and yet
afterwards expressing their admiration for the film's
subtextual complexity and the boldness of both the
direction and the central performance, also de Van.
Films like this work so well in the cinema precisely
because you can't just put them on pause or skip through
the tough bits or divert your attention to what the
cat is doing - you're trapped, and have to go exactly
where the director chooses to take you.
DVD
review
Kontroll
Nimród
Antal's utterly engaging tale of a scruffy band of
ticket inspectors on the Budapest underground is almost
a dictionary definition of the term 'offbeat', and
went down a storm with our cinema audience. Shot entirely
on location in the Budapest Metro, it lives through
its delightfully oddball characters, and is handled
with a breathless energy and confidence by first-time
feature director Antal, who should be one to watch.
As long as he doesn't fo Kontroll 2,
that is.
DVD
review
The
Sea Inside / Mar Adentro
A
thoroughly involving and largely unsentimental examination
of the tricky subject of euthanasia, Alejandro Amenabar's
film presents both sides of the argument with intelligence
and even wit, and in the end edges us almost invisibly
towards the pro-euthanasia stance. The vivid fantasy
sequence, in which lead character Ramon flies across
the landscape and descends gently onto a beach, is
pure cinema, and its effect is considerably dwarfed
on DVD.
Head
On /Gegen Die Wand
A
bloody marvellous tale of mismatched love in the German
Turkish community, Fatih Akin's terrifically handled
and performed work may feature some familiar situations,
but they are handled with such wit and attention to
detail that they feel fresh. This also features the
most exciting use of a rock track this in any film
I saw this year. Punk...is...not...dead!
DVD
review
15
/ Shiwu
An
expanded feature version of director Royston Tan's
earlier short of the same name, this extraordinary,
hyper-stylised study of live on the edge for Singapore
youth mixes fragmented drama with straight-to-camera
raps to disorientating but sometimes exhilarating
effect. Something of an audience divider, it's one-of-a-kind
treat for those prepared to go with Tan's approach,
though I have to admit I've yet to see the short that
started it all off - those who have do tend rate it
higher than the feature.
Turtles
Can Fly
The
first film to be shot in post-Sadam Iraq, Bahman Ghobadi's
extraordinary look at life in a Kurdish refugee camp
on the Iran/Iraq border focuses on a group of children,
led by the bossy but resourceful Satellite, who make
a very basic and dangerous living collecting unexploded
land mines and selling them to the local arms dealer.
Featuring some wonderfully engaging performances from
real-life refugees and land mine victims, the film's
biggest surprise, given the subject matter, is its
humour, something that played very well with the cinema
audience.
Film
review
Tropical
Malady / Sud pralad
This
gets an honourable mention quite simply for being
the most baffling experience I had in the cinema all
year, but I don't mean that as a negative criticism
- I emerged from the screening with my head spinning,
but curiously thrilled by the experience. What starts
as a toucjingly handled gay love story switches suddenly
halfway through to a Thai folk tale, but unlike the
mid-way story shift in Lynch's Lost Highway,
no clues are offered at the film's conclusion, and
it's left to us to draw the parallels between the
two stories.
Kung
Fu Hustle
The
funniest, most inventive, most outrageously over-the-top
comedy actioner since, well, the same director's Shaolin
Soccer, Stephen Chow's blend of kung fu,
40s gangster movies and Chuck Jones cartoons had me
laughing so hard I nearly fell of my seat. Great fights
courtesy of the legendary Yuen Woo-ping, a complete
disregard for the physics of the real world, and some
sterling work from genre stars of years past make
for a must see for anyone with a sense of humour and
a love of cinema.
DVD
review
Moolaadé
Veteran
director Ousmane Sembéne shows no sign of either
slowing up or letting the quality slide with this
compelling story built around the barbaric practice
of female circumcision, also taking in issues such
as the subjugation of women, and the problems caused
when rural values come in conflict with the increasing
effects of modernity and globalisation. Made at the
ripe age of 81 by the leading light of African cinema,
this is a powerful, beautifully made plea for enlightenment
that should be far more widely seen than it has been.
DVD
review
Festival
Annie
Griffin's wonderfully barbed deconstruction of entertainment
industry egos, especially those in the stand-up comedy
fraternity, has proved a bit too harsh for many but
for my money is about the best British feature this
year. The script and performances alone make it a
winner, but it scores real points for a cynicism that
is really refreshing, and marks it as a very different
film to others wearing the badge of comedy drama in
recent years.
DVD
review
Whisky
Pablo
Stoll and Juan Pablo Rebella's droll tale of two brothers,
a pretend wife and a dour sock factory has divided
opinion a little, but I thought it was a sheer delight,
tonally recalling Aki Kaurismäki's The
Match Factory Girl but having its own, unique
approach to character and storytelling that is unflashy,
gentle and utterly enchanting.
DVD
review
And that's about it for this year. If there's one
tile missing it's probably Kamal Tabrizi's Lizard,
which I was SO looking forward to but missed through
illness. If it ever gets out on DVD, then maybe next
year....
