Mandel Maven's Nest Reel Life: Flick Pix
Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online; recent reviews are now counted in The TomatoMeter at 
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My Best Films of 2009
My Best Films of 2008
My Best Films of 2007
My Best Films of 2006
My Best Films of 2005
My Best Films of 2004
My Best Films of 2003
My Best Films of 2002
My Best Films of 2001
LILITH WATCH: CRITICAL GUIDE TO JEWISH WOMEN IN THE MOVIES (& TV and Pop Music)
CHICK FLICKS
MASTERPIECE THEATER: MOVIES AS MEDICINE
For the MIDDLE-AGED AT HEART: HURRAH FOR GROWN-UPS!
For the MUSIC (and/or the dancing)
NEW YORK NEW YORK: IT'S A HELLUVA TOWN
NOIR NIGHT OUT
OGLING TEENS AND '20SOMETHINGS
POPCORN EATERS
ROMEO AND JULIET ACROSS THE ETHNIC DIVIDE
And then there's RUSSELL CROWE (with commentary on the actor)
SCI-FI and FANTASY from A DISTAFF POV
Impact of 9/11 on NYC through Movies
Friends don't let friends watch bad movies! -- John Ridley
It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons. -- Pierre Rissient
Here's the index to my cinema-therapeutic recommendations without spoilers from a real Jewish movie-going mother.
For complete credits go to Internet Movie Data Base.
Shorter versions of my reviews (and, as of 2006, ones of movies made-for-TV or that I viewed uncut on video/DVD/cable though I’m zillions of reviews behind) are at IMDb's comments, where non-English films are listed by their native tiles. Since August 2006, edited versions of most of my reviews of documentaries/indie/foreign films are at film-forward.
indicates movies currently in theaters or first-run VOD that I don't think are yet out on video/DVD or uncut on cable (not counting streaming).
MY BEST FILMS of 2009 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Medicine for Melancholy
California Dreamin (endless) (Nesfarsit)
A Woman in Berlin (Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin) (briefly reviewed at 10th Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center (kudos to director/adapter Max Färberböck, Nina Hoss and Yevgeni Sidikhin)
Séraphine (briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Yolande Moreau)
The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER) (previewed at 14th Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Hunger (kudos to co-writer/director Steve McQueen)
Unmade Beds (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to the songs and soundtrack)
Barking Water (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Maid (La Nana) (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Home (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Silent Light (Stellet licht)
Empty Nest (El nido vacío) (previewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Incendiary (kudos to Michelle Williams and the score by Barrington Pheloung and Shigeru Umebayashi)
Katyn
Gomorra
Two Lovers (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons Eviga Ögonblick)
12
Tokyo Sonata
Amreeka (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Autumn (Sonbahar) (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center>/MoMA)
Parque via (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto) (previewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Shaking Tokyo (Joon-ho Bong's concluding segment of Tokyo!, despite similarities to the TV series October Road)
Good Bye Solo
The Song of Sparrows (Avaze gonjeshk-ha)
Sugar
BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Just Another Love Story (Kærlighed på film)
BEST COMING OF AGERS
Max Minsky and Me (Max Minsky und ich) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
The Apprentice (L’apprenti) (previewed at 14th Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Stella (briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Treeless Mountain (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
BEST MOVIE MUSICALS:
Paris 36 (Faubourg 36) (briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Tom Stern's cinematography and Clovis Cornillac as a contemporary Jean Gabin)
Copy of Coralie (La Copie de Coralie) (previewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA (Nicolas Engel's wonderfully romantic 22 minute short with Philippe Poirier's musique concrete score that uses office machines as accompaniment for workers' unexpected song spiels)
Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Fados
BEST ANIMATION
Coraline
$9.99 (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
BEST ACTIONERS
Mesrine: Part 1 (Mesrine, L’instinct de mort Mesrine) (nice to see Roy Dupuis!) and Part 2 (Mesrine, L’ennemi public no. 1) (previewed at 14th Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Vincent Cassel)
Runners-Up: ACTIONERS that stick with me despite my gripes
The Mugger (El Asaltante) (briefly reviewed at 10th Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center (kudos to Arturo Goetz and cinematographer Cobi Migliora)
BEST FILM INFLUENCED BY AMBROSE BIERCE's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge:
The Escapist (kudos to Benjamin Wallfisch's score and Theo Green's sound design)
BEST WOMEN AS GROWN-UPS:
Hiam Abbass in Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Mr. Rakowski (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Forgotten Transports: To Estonia (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Estonska) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Our Disappeared (Nuestros desaparecidos) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Must Read After My Death
The Beaches of Agnès (Les Plages d’Agnès) (briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Cove (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
Camp Girls (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Young Freud in Gaza (Unge Freud i Gaza) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Paradise (briefly reviewed at 10th Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center (more essay than doc)
Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Oblivion (paired with the even more abject Garapa seen at at Tribeca Film Festival))
Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Being Jewish in France (Comme un Juif en France) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Every Mother Should Know (Teda Kol Em Ivriya) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Runners-Up: BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
A Road to Mecca: The Journey of Muhammad Asad (Der Weg nach Mekka - Die Reise des Muhammad Asad) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Neither Memory nor Magic (previewed at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 8th International Festival of Nonfiction Films)
Carmen & Geoffrey (emendations coming after 9/13/2009)
WORST SUBTITLES:
Cargo 200 (Gruz 200)
BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Golem with Tom Nazziola's musical score performed live by The BQE Project at the World Financial Center
Night in the City
Leon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre)
Thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
C.R.A.Z.Y. (seen at MoMA's Canadian Front)
MY BEST FILMS of 2008 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Beaufort
Still Life (Sanxia haoren)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile) (despite subtitles in British slang)
Lost in Beijing (Ping guo)
The Grocer’s Son (Le Fils de l’épicier) (previewed at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Viva Nicolas Cazalé)
Megane (Glasses) (seen at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher)
Shotgun Stories (kudos to writer/director Jeff Nichols and his musician brother Ben, DP Adam Stone and Michael Shannon)
The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) (kudos to actors Habib Boufares and Hafsia Herzi, and writer/director Abdellatif Kechiche) (scroll down for my capsule review) (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival))
Strangers (seen at Tribeca Film Festival))
Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen seite)
Kabluey (kudos to writer/director/star Scott Prendergast)
Boy A (kudos to Andrew Garfield and Katie Lyons)
The Galilee Eskimos (Eskimosim ba Galil) (seen at Israel Film Festival)
The Wrestler (kudos to Mickey Rourke, Darren Aronofsky’s directing, cinematography of Maryse Alberti, make-up, editing, Clint Mansell's haunting leit motif, and Bruce Springsteen’s closing song)
Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
A Secret (Un Secret) (previewed at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NY Jewish Film Festival) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Let’s Dance! (Faut que ça danse!) (seen at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Paris (seen at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
La Zona (The Zone) (seen at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Visitor
Battle For Haditha (kudos to actor/former marine Elliot Ruiz, but needs to be seen with PBS’s non-fiction Frontline episodes Bad Voodoo’s War and Rules of Engagement, as well as Full Battle Rattle)
Sangre de Mi Sangre (Padre Nuestro)
Take Out
Estômago: A Gastronomic Story (previewed at MoMA’s Premiere Brazil!) (kudos to Giovanni Venosta’s score)
The Pope's Toilet (El Baño el Papa) (previewed at Lincoln Center’s Latin Beat)
August Evening
I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále)
A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers
Rachel Getting Married (kudos to Anne Hathaway and Declan Quinn’s cinematography)
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)
Milk (kudos to Sean Penn and ensemble)
The Class (Entre les murs)
BEST MOVIE MUSICALS:
Planet B-Boy (so it’s a dancing documentary)
A Story of the Red Hills (Lal Pahare'r Katha) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Jodhaa Akbar (kudos to the elephants, drums, dervishes, palaces and costumes as worn by the most beautiful-humans-on-the-planet Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan)
Young@Heart (so it’s a singing documentary)
Playing for Change: Peace Through Music (hey – first there was the songwriter before there was the performer) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
Soul Men
Were The World Mine
BEST ANIMATION
Fear(s) of the Dark (Peur(s) du noir) (previewed at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sita Sings the Blues (seen at Tribeca Film Festival))
Wall-E
Azur and Asmar: The Princes’ Quest (kudos to Gabriel Yared’s music) (seen at New York International Children's Film Festival)
The Tale of Despereaux
Runners-Up: (ANIMATED MOVIES that amused or touched me despite my gripes)
Kung Fu Panda (kudos to opening dream sequence and Dustin Hoffman’s voicing)
The Year of the Fish
Bolt 3D
BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
In Bruges
London to Brighton
Jar City (Mýrin)
Love, Pain & Vice Versa (Amor, Dolor y Viceversa) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
Stuck
Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS that stick with me despite my gripes
Fermat's Room (La Habitación de Fermat) (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival)
Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne)
Mad Detective (Sun taam) (kudos to the The Lady From Shanghai tribute)
Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes) (previewed at Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
King of the Hill (El rey de la montaña) (seen at Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the score by David Crespo and cinematography of José David Montero)
What Doesn t Kill You (kudos to Mark Ruffalo)
BEST COMING OF AGERS
XXY (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Paranoid Park (kudos to DP Christopher Doyle)
Water Lilies (Naissance Des Pieuvres) (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival)
The Pool
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (kudos to Kat Dennings and Ari Graynor) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Slumdog Millionaire (kudos to Danny Boyle’s direction, editing, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and music by A.R. Rahman)
Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS that stick with me despite my gripes
Somers Town (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
The Tracey Fragments (I seem to be the only who remembers that the 1964/5 NYC World's Fair movies used the multiple images technique before Woodstock, 24, etc.)
Son of Rambow
Reprise
The Wackness (kudos to Olivia Thirlby) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Nights and Weekends (kudos to co-writer/co-director/co-star Greta Gerwig) (though I have to admit that I missed the year’s other mumblecore romance In Search of a Midnight Kiss)
BEST ACTIONERS
The Bank Job
The Dark Knight- IMAX (kudos to Heath Ledger and the cavities-rocking sound design)
Runners-Up: ACTIONERS that stick with me despite my gripes
Cloverfield
Iron Man (kudos to Tom Morello’s guitar on the soundtrack)
The Incredible Hulk
Blindness (kudos to directing, cinematography and editing, not the heavy-handed metaphors)
Miracle at St. Anna (best subtitles of the year)
Defiance (kudos to Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies) (The History Channel produced the short, complementary The Bielski Brothers with family and survivors' interviews.)
BEST VILLAINS
Mark Strong in Body of Lies (his Savile Row tailor and hair stylist should have gotten listed rather than Russell’s and Leo’s)
Tom Wilkinson in RocknRolla (and Mark Strong isn’t bad as a baddie here too)
Meryl Streep in Doubt (though I think priest abuse survivors wouldn’t really see her as a villain)
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
BEST FEMINIST FABLES
Vivere (To live! kudos to Hannelore Elsner & writer/director Angelina Maccarone)
Irina Palm (kudos to Marianne Faithfull)
Flight Of The Red Balloon (Le Voyage Du Ballon Rouge) (kudos to Juliette Binoche)
Alexandra (kudos to Galina Vishnevskaya and writer/director Alexander Sokurov)
Runners-Up: FEMINIST FABLES that stick with me despite my gripes
Nana (kudos to Mika Nakashima and Ryuhei Matsuda)
Boarding Gate (kudos to Asia Argento channeling Aeon Flux)
Never Forever (kudos to Vera Farmiga and her “f**king blue eyes”)
Four Minutes (Vier Minuten)
Beauty in Trouble (Kráska v nesnázích) (kudos to Anna Geislerová and born-to-play-a-vampire Jirí Schmitzer)
Belgium, Moscow (Aanrijding in Moscou) (kudos to Barbara Sarafian) (Moscow is a small Belgian town district of Ghent is why they're speaking Dutch or Flemish)
Runners-Up: FEMINIST FABLES (JUST FOR ROMANCE'S SAKE)
My Blueberry Nights (I sure would like to know where I can eat at the Edward Hopper-esque outer borough diner where Jude Law is working.)
FEMALE-FOCUSED GENRE OF THE YEAR: Single Mothers Driven to Desperation Near the Canadian Border:
Best: Frozen River (kudos to Melissa Leo) (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Runners Up:
Turn the River
Snow Angels (the book took place in PA, but the movie is vaguely Canadian, as it was filmed in Nova Scotia)
Stone Angel (kudos to Ellen Burstyn)
And then there was: Sleepwalking
BEST FILM INFLUENCED BY AMBROSE BIERCE's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge:
Yella
BEST BEST FRIENDS FOREVER OF THE YEAR:
Christine Baranski and Julie Walters in the resistance-is-futile Mamma Mia!
Favorite Mother Line
Mad Money: Won’t your kids notice if you run away? Nah, they never call anyway.
MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Mister Lonely
The Fall (including looking at Lee Pace)
Synecdoche (kudos to make-up/hair and production design)
Australia (kudos to matte scenery, costumes and production design)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (kudos to make-up, production design, CG and score)
Runners-Up: MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Speed Racer
Changeling (kudos to the cinematography of Tom Stern, costumes and production design)
BEST SCENERY:
Up The Yangtze
Before the Rains
Mongol
Runners-Up: BEST SCENERY
Brideshead Revisited (what I could stay awake to see)
Appaloosa (kudos to Dean Semler’s cinematography that kept me from laughing at the script, but Most Egostical Song over the credits)
BEST COSTUMES
The Duchess
Runner-Up: BEST COSTUMES
Australia
BEST SONG:
In Rodanthe written and sung by Emmylou Harris
Dark Streets, the soundtrack songs and the score with B.B. King's guitar
BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Hebrew Lesson (Ha’Ulpan) (previewed at NY Jewish Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Murder of a Hatmaker (Assassinat d'une modiste) (seen at NY Jewish Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Trouble the Water (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Brothers in Arms (seen at NY African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center/Cinema Tropical)
Algeria, Unspoken Stories (Algérie, histoires à ne pas dire) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
To See If I’m Smiling (seen at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) (previewed at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Gran Torino is sort of the Hollywood take)
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*: The Side Effects of Being American
My Winnipeg
The Order Of Myths
Man on Wire
The Forgotten Woman - the non-fiction counterpart to Water (seen at DocuWeek)
Waltz With Bashir (Valse im Bashir) (also a Best Animation) (previewed at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NY Film Festival)
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
American Teen (see it with Nimrod Nation)
War Child (missed it at Tribeca Film Festival where the subject’s musical performances won it the Audience Award, caught it in preview at DocuWeek)
Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Chicago 10
Moving Midway (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (to also mark the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade is the related Traces Of The Trade: A Story from the Deep North that I previewed at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center before it went straight to PBS)
Cuba: An African Odyssey (seen at NY African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center/Cinema Tropical) (This is the missing link between the two parts of Che.)
Standard Operating Procedure (but needs to be seen with several other related docs)
Encounters at the End of the World (kudos to Herzog’s narration)
Pray The Devil Back To Hell (bravo to score by Blake Lleyh of The Wire and vocalizations by Angélique Kidjo) (missed it with the heroines in their colorful native garb at Tribeca Film Festival, previewed it at DocuWeek) Then see what is in effect Part 2: Iron Ladies Of Liberia)
Yodok Stories (seen at DocuWeek) (See Return to the Border as a useful supplement.)
Children of the Sun (seen at Israel Film Festival)
2nd The Other Israel Film Festival in New York- Desert Brides, Lady Kul El Arab, The Boys From Lebanon, ID Blues, Heart Of Jenin (emendations coming after 5/7/2009) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Runners-Up: BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Trumbo
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (though, technically, I saw it first on HBO)
Never Apologize: A Personal Visit With Lindsay Anderson (seen at Lindsay Anderson: Revolutionary Romantic at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fire Under the Snow (missed it at Tribeca Film Festival, caught it at DocuWeek instead of watching the Olympics)
An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story (previewed at DocuWeek)
Anita O’Day: The Life Of A Jazz Singer
Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite My Gripes about their offenses or nonsense:
Priceless (Hors de prix)
Pineapple Express) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Tropic Thunder (minus Tom Cruise's caricature)
Runners-Up: COMIC RELIEFS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Burn After Reading
Loins of Punjab Presents
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
It Always Rains On Sunday) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
Fanny and Alexander (the uncut 312 minutes)
I Don’t Hear the Guitar Anymore (J'entends plus la guitare)
Mickey One (seen at MoMA’s Jazz Scores)
Stuff and Dough (Marfa si banii)
Warsaw Bridge (Pont de Varsòvia) (previewed at MoMA)
Circus Performers (Saltimbancii) (seen at the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Romanian Cinema Rising)
Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)
The Exiles
The Human Condition (Ningen no joken): Part 1 - No Greater Love; Part 2 – Road to Eternity; Part 3 – A Soldier’s Prayer (yes, all 10 hours)
Delwende (Get Up and Walk) (seen at MoMA) which made an ironic match across time and continents about women as scapegoat witches with the beautiful new 35 mm print of Day of Wrath (Vredens dag)
Lola Montès (colorfully restored)
Ashes of Time (Dung che sai duk) (Redux)
Mishima (new 35 mm print with restored scene and Japanese narration)
Thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
Last Year in Marienbad (L’Année dernière à Marienbad); S.O.B.; Thirst (Atash); Or (My Treasure) and Kaddim Wind: Moroccan Chronicles (Ruah Kaddim – Chronika Marokait) at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Israel at 60; Black River (Kuroi kawa) (much more worth my time than the melodrama Immortal Love (Eien no hito) even in a new print) as part of the Film Forum’s Nakadai retrospective; Macario and Night Falls (La Noche avanza) at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Wounded Pride, Simmering Passion: Roberto Gavaldón retrospective; Killer’s Kiss (outdoors at the Elevated Acre); Amarcard in a new 35mm restoration; What Happened to Santiago (Lo que le pasó a Santiago) at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Latin Beat; new 35 mm print of The Catch (Shiiku) and Boy (Shonen) at the In the Realm of Oshima Sidebar of Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NY Film Fest; the documentary L'aimee with La Vie des Morts, all 144 minutes in a wavering sound print of La Sentinelle, all 178 minutes in a scratchy print (with British subtitles that translated Colette as Dickens) of My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into An Argument (Comment je me suis disputé... ma vie sexuelle), at Every Minute, Four Ideas: The Films of Arnaud Desplechin series at the IFCenter; Un Flic (A Cop) (with The Sicilian Clan in a new 35 mm print of the cartoon-sounding English version in an old-fashioned double-feature for Delon fans of all persuasions), Quai Des Orfèvres (double-featured with Pépé Le Moko), the full nerve-shaking 2½ hours of Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur); and a new 35mm Scope print of Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le pianiste) in the Film Forum’s French Crime Wave; and Contempt (Le Mépris) (me and all those young straight Bardot-appreciating men who found their way to an art house). But I should have continued the Film Forum’s Godard retrospective by seeing Vivre sa vie instead of their new print of 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle).
Is it OK here to salute revivals I didn’t see in a theater? So kudos to the excellent, well-moderated TCM’s Asian Images in Film Festival, as part of its Race & Hollywood series, where I saw Samuel Fuller’s Crimson Kimono (and others were also available On Demand).
MOST ILLEGIBLE SUBTITLES:
The Lovers (Les Amants) (shown in thanks-for-revival-anyway)
Live And Become (Va, Vis Et Deviens) (my additional commentary at Lilith Watch: Critical Guide to Jewish Women in the Movies)
MY BEST FILMS of 2007 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) -- view it with its non-fiction counterpart The Decomposition of the Soul (La Décomposition de l'âme)
Zodiac
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (scroll down for my capsule review)
Black Book (Zwartboek)
Offside
Red Road
Away From Her (kudos to Julie Christie and use of Neil Young songs)
Jindabyne
A Mighty Heart
Two Days in Paris (see the doc Forever for another view of the Père-Lachaise cemetery)
Quiet City
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (kudos to cinematographer Roger Deakins and Casey Affleck)
Lars and the Real Girl
American Gangster (not original but kudos to cinematographer Harris Savides, production and costume design, editing, NY/NJ locations, the clash of titans casting and director Ridley Scott for channeling Scorcese through Spike Lee)
No Country for Old Men (kudos for ensemble casting, cinematographer Roger Deakins and consistent thematic revisioning of the scenic, violent western)