The Best of 2009, the Best of the Decade
The in my opinion film of the decade
It's with perverse pride that I look upon Sight & Sound's Ten Best Films of 2009 and note that none of my own choices (scroll down) made it there--and that two of the titles I might have conceivably chosen (Peter Doctor's Up and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds) I didn't even like.
It's with perverse pride that I look upon Sight & Sound's Ten Best Films of 2009 and note that none of my own choices (scroll down) made it there--and that two of the titles I might have conceivably chosen (Peter Doctor's Up and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds) I didn't even like.
Jonathan Romney's essay pretty much sums it up: I do have orphans I champion, I do have an agenda I'm pushing with my list--directors and films that I think deserve more attention, hence their inclusion, plus movies I'd rather not waste my time with, like the two aforementioned titles (hence their non-inclusion).
Even agree with Romney's conclusion, that the real value of such exercises isn't the plain-vanilla combined list composed out of statistics (as Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) put it: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'), but the list of esoteric titles behind that combined list.
Glad to see, then, Bong Joon-ho's Mother mentioned, and that Tony Rayn's list includes Yang ik-june's Breathless and Joko Anwar's Forbidden Door. Appreciate those who preferred Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo over the Pixar, and Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In over that Twilight movie (though another strong contender in the bloodsucking sweepstakes, I submit, is Thirst, easily the first Park Chan-wook film I ever liked). And kudos to Adrian Martin for picking Filipino filmmaker Sherad Anthony Sanchez's Imburnal.
My Sight & Sound top five films of 2009 then (with links to articles where ever applicable):
Melancholia (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
Karaoke (Chris Chong Chan Fui)
Best revival: Santiago! (Lino Brocka, 1970, Philippines)
It's with even more perverse pride that I note that none of my picks for best of the decade made Film Comment's Top 100 list either--a more difficult achievement, I suspect, because of the number of participants polled, number of films seen, the scope involved.
Didn't mean to be so perverse. Was asked to give my ten best of the decade, looked back at what I saw, tried to remember which ones had the greatest impact, and wrote accordingly. No, I did not reject one or another because it was too well-known; I usually rejected them because I either 1) thought there was something better, or 2) ran out of slots.
Honest.
That said, I like to think that if you saw the films in my list you'd gain some kind of insight into some kind of sensibility, at least the one I've carried with me this past ten years--a little grim, perhaps, a little skewed, a little concerned about everything that's happened and may happen still.
I should have included a comedy, shouldn't I? Something lighthearted or at least comparatively lighter-hearted, like Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, or Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy movies or (and I was strongly tempted to include this) Joe Dante's Looney Tunes: Back in Action. But "that's how the crumbling cookie," as an old Filipino-English joke used to go.
So (with accompanying links):
Best Films of the Decade:
Demons (Pangarap ng Puso, Mario O'Hara, 2000)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)
Edmond (Stuart Gordon, 2005)
Election / Triad Election (Johnnie To, 2005/2006)
Pulse (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2001)
A Short Film About the Indio Nacional (Maicling pelicula nang ysang Indio Nacional, Raya Martin, 2006)
The Sky Crawlers (Mamoru Oshii, 2008)
Todo Todo Teros (John Torres, 2006)
We Own the Night (James Gray, 2007)
West Side Avenue (Batang West Side, Lav Diaz, 2001)
Best filmmakers of the decade:
Lav Diaz
Mamoru Oshii
Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Michael Mann
Stuart Gordon
George Romero
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Film of the Decade:Demons (Pangarap ng Puso, Mario O'Hara, 2000)
10 Filipino Films That Deserve to be Known Better
Altar (Rico Ilarde, 2007)
Biyaheng Langit (Paradise Express, Tikoy Aguiluz, 2000)
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Auraeus Solito, 2005)
Heremias, Book One: The Legend of the Lizard Princess (Unang aklat: ang alamat ng prinsesang bayawak, Lav Diaz, 2006)
Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga Engkanto (Death in the Land of Encantos, Lav Diaz, 2007)
North Diversion Road (Sa North Diversion Road, Dennis Marasigan, 2005)
Taon noong ako'y anak sa labas (Years When I Was a Child Outside, John Torres, 2008)
The Teacher (Manoro, Brillante Mendoza, 2006)
Third World Hero (Bayaning Third World, Mike De Leon, 2000)
La Vida Rosa (The Life of Rosa, Chito Rono, 2001)
1.15.10
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