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COMING IN November/December 2004:
Pedro Almodóvar interviewed about his new film Bad Education
Video games and cinema by Graham Leggat
Howard Hampton on Date Movies
The political documentaries of Robert Greenwald by Alice Lovejoy
A special 18-page Korean film section
Mid Festivals: Venice
Toronto
New York
New Fiction by Theordore Roszak, author of the cult novel Flicker
COMING IN January/February 2005:
The current state of cinephilia by Chuck Stephens
Jean Rouch, France's great ethnographic filmmaker by Sam DiIorio
Jean-Luc Godard by Richard Combs
Plus, Godard interviewed by Frederic Bonnaud And much more
FILM COMMENT
March / April 2004
Above: Mystic River
FILM COMMENT'S READERS' POLL: TOP FILMS OF 2003
The numbers in parentheses refer to the films' rankings in last issue's critics' poll. And congratulations to this year's winners: Rebecca Finkel of Holliswood, NY (First Prize recipient of DVDs from the Criterion Collection), Jenny Rogers of San Francisco, CA (Second Prize), Afandi Gunawan of Reseda, CA, and John A. Smith of Philadelphia, PA (Third and Fourth prizes).
1. Lost In Translation (1)
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (7)
3. Mystic River (2)
4. Kill Bill: Vol 1 (4)
5. American Splendor (5)
6. Elephant (3)
7. City of God (-)
8. Finding Nemo (16)
9. 21 Grams (-)
10. Capturing the Friedmans (8)
11. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (17)
12. Spider (15)
13. The Fog of War (6)
14. The Man Without a Past (10)
15. All the Real Girls (-)
16. Spellbound (-)
17. Big Fish (-)
18. 28 Days Later (-)
19. The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (-)
20. School of Rock (14)
21. The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy, U.S.) (-)
22. Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, France) (25)
23. House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman, U.S.) (-)
24. Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, U.S.) (39)
25. In America (Jim Sheridan, U.S.) (26)
26. The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, France) (30)
27. A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest, U.S.) (43)
28. Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, UK) (23)
29. Whale Rider (Niki Caro, New Zealand) (50)
30. demonlover (Olivier Assayas, France) (11)
31. The Son (Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne, Belgium) (9)
32. Dogville (Lars von Trier, Denmark) (3, unreleased films list)
33. To Be and To Have (Nicolas Philibert, France) (19)
34. The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullen, Ireland/UK) (38)
35. Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden) (32)
36. Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, U.S.) (48)
37. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran) (13)
38. Monster (Patty Jenkins, U.S.) (-)
39. Swimming Pool (Francois Ozon, France/UK) (-)
40. Bus 174 (José Padilha, Brazil) (18)
41. Seabiscuit (Gary Ross, U.S.) (-)
42. Raising Victor Vargas (Peter Sollett, U.S.) (28)
43. The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, U.S.) (-)
44. Gerry (Gus Van Sant, U.S.) (-)
45. X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer, U.S.) (-)
46. Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand, Canada) (-)
47. The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph, U.S.) (40)
48. Friday Night (Claire Denis, France) (36)
49. Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke, China) (12)
50. Man on the Train (Patrice Leconte, France) (44)
The Year in Film
"It seems like every year for the past few people have been talking about what a weak year for films it has been. I feel more like there are great films being made but the current environment (especially in the States) is not allowing these films to be seen. Half of my top 10 films from 2003 are from festivals and I honestly could have had all 10 from films that didn't get a proper release in the US. Obviously, commercialism has always been an issue in film distribution and exhibition, but people are taking fewer and fewer chances both in the industry and in the audience. I honestly don't know what to do about that, but someone or something is going to have to light a fire under the collective ass of the movie-going public or we'll be dead in the water in a decade." - Ned Hinkle, Cambridge MA
"What happened? We finally get our own Vietnam and our own Nixon (or the closest thing we may get for awhile) and instead of channeling this escalating madness into urgent, ground-breaking cinema (i.e. the early Seventies), we tuned in and dropped out to whatever dope they had at the party-there were numbing empty highs, like Kill Bill or Return of the King, for some, and for others, murky lude hazes, like Mystic River or Lost In Translation, (the latter two drunk enough on their own atmosphere to distract us from how graceless, maundering and scrappy they were as films). But still, if this era is truly Vietnam on Benzedrine, and if we consider that The Sound of Music was a big winner back then, how far removed from that is Peter Jackson's shrill, shallow spectacle? Are we too cynical for another phase of Easy Riders and Raging Bulls?" -Andrew Miller, New York NY
"2003 was a year in which the French showed great insight (Iraq) as well as great taste (#s 1, 3 and 4 on my list). Anyone for "freedom" films? Meanwhile, the two movies with the hippest street cred (Lost In Translation, Elephant ) were disappointing exercises in style, vacantly hollow at the core and incapable of stimulating conversation beyond the proverbial water cooler." - Redbeard Simmons, Burbank, CA
"2003 was a year in which we finally discovered what the cinematic reaction would be to 9/11. Through disparate images of unrelenting despair (House of Sand and Fog, 21 Grams ) and optimism-disguised-as-cynicism (American Splendor ), the world cinema reflected the uneasy uncertainty of an age where cultural paranoia and American self-righteousness dominate the pop culture landscape." - Jason Struss
"Where in recent years, I have had a difficult time delineating my favorites, this year my list easily exceeded ten, and could have exceeded even twenty. The most exciting aspect of 2003 filmmaking was its diversity of subject matter, genres and scope. From major studios to independents, from big budget to small, the quality of films this year was excellent and the entertainment, artistic and substantive value high. As an avid filmgoer, I had so many more choices that mirrored my moods and desires at any given time. The panoply of films added to rather than limited the marketplace of ideas, which is, after all, the best use of the freedom of expression that we enjoy in this country." - Annette Ferstenberg, New York NY
"It was a terrific year in films. Many of them never come to my neck of the woods in Montana (only the awful Blockbusters) so I have to travel to Seattle to see good films (10 hr drive) I miss so many of the good ones. To fill in the gaps I rent the DVDs and subscribe to Netflix. I subscribe to 4 film mags, too." - Sandra Carpenter, Whitefish, MT
"The consensus seems to be that this was a weak year for cinema. I would contend that the first three on my list [La Commune, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, Ten] are among the most formally dazzling films I have ever seen. How's that for inverse hyperbole! Also, a great year for comic performances (Bill Murray, Johnny Depp, Jack Black, Robert McNamara...um, sorry). As someone in the Village Voice pointed out recently, for one strange week in October the top 3 box office films were by Tarantino, Linklater, and the Coen Bros. 2003. Respect." - Jim May, New York, NY
"This has been one of the weakest years for films in quite sometime. Most critics are beginning to jump on the proverbial bandwagon by acclaiming films that are special effects and gimmick ridden, rather than plot, or character driven. This is unfortunate as it weakens the potential for sharp, stronger movies with a thought in their head." - Alexis Neapolitan, Jr.
"This year was just like any other year in movies; filled with good and bad. It was nice to see the return of Tarantino. Cronenberg and S. Coppola put out spellbinding films this year. It was also a great year for comedies; with Guest and Linklater's films leading the pack, and American Splendor being the biggest suprise of them all. I loved seeing Soderbergh moving into new territory (television) and I'm glad that FILM COMMENT was the only place to write intelligently on the series (as I was hooked every week). Listing all these things I loved about the year more than makes up for any of the bad, which I would prefer to just say nothing about." - Matthew Nader, Tulsa OK
"Whether it be Harvey Pekar escaping geekdom by allowing two women into his life or Kiarostami's examination of a society forcing women into mobile imprisonment, 2003 was a prominent year for women, if anyone bothered to observe closely. The sanity of Eastwood's Boston thugs were dependant upon their wives, while Little Women held a family together in Sheridan's America, and destoyed a family in Scott's Matchstick house. Then leave it all to Tarantino to fashion a cinematic feminist statement about sexuality using a bloodbath inter-cultural orgy in Japan. And I'm not even mentioning demonlover's corporate ice-queens." - Chiranjit Goswami, Winnipeg, Canada
"Despite the surplus of summer sequels, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality family fare released in 2004. Films like Finding Nemo, Freaky Friday, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Bend it Like Beckham left me hoping and praying that their box office success could put an end to the Daddy Day Cares of the world." - Erin Miskey, New York NY
"I continue to be grateful and impressed for/by the ever-increasing accessibility of undistributed and neglected films on DVD. With a region-free player, people who live in cities without major festivals can catch up with major films a lot faster than they were able to before. Rightly or wrongly, DVD is changing cinephilia in a major way." - John Powers, Grand Rapids, MI
"The U.S. is continuing to lower its standard (except for those masterpieces that are Mystic River , the best Eastwood film to date, Elephant, a cold, Bresson-like film by Gus Van Sant and The Fog of War by Errol Morris) but films around the world continue to perpetuate, despite American domination and cultural control, cinematic art. Films from Belgium (Dardenne Bros.), Austria (Haneke), Iran (Kiarostami), France (Dumont, Rivette), Mexico (Reygadas), Finland (Kaurismaki) appear on my list, proof that you have to take a worldwide approach when searching for great movies. For 2004, I wish that more people will take interest in those "foreign" films rather than spend their time (and money!) on American corporative-fuelled garbage. One can always dream. Thank you." - Eric Lacombe, Quebec, Canada
"The year of water movies! Finding Nemo ... Big Fish... Mystic River... Pirates of the Caribbean... Swimming Pool... Master and Commander... The Sea..." - Dan Smith, Nashville TN
"It is a miracle that films even exist, so why would anyone complain at something as arbitrary and meaningless as how many great films accidentally did or did not debut in the same year? It's not as though 1939 was planned well ahead of time to be one of the landmark years in cinema history. Enjoy the wonderful movies, shrug off the bad ones, and look forward to the next films by P.T. and Wes." - Gabriel Bowles, Columbia, SC
"There were great movies. There were awful movies. It's like that every year." - Michael Kwolek, Cedar Grove, NJ
