10th Anniversary Survey Responses

I want to thank all those who took the time to respond to my survey (and to everyone else who contributed to Offscreen over the past ten years). Here are the eight questions which I asked my respondents to approach in any way which way they felt:

1. Ten best/favorite films?

2. Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

3. What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

4. Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film or filmmaker?

5. An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

6. Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

7. Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

8. A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

David Church: David Church graduated from Western Washington University in 2005 with a B.A. in English. He is currently pursuing graduate cinema studies at San Francisco State University. Aside from contributing to Offscreen, his work has also been published in Disability Studies Quarterly and Senses of Cinema.

Casting a retrospective gaze over these last ten years—essentially my first ten years as a dedicated cinephile—it remains very tempting to write a long rant against Hollywood’s general ineptitude during the past decade, its persistent cultural imperialism, its relentless dispersal of reactionary ideologies, its high ticket prices for substandard product, its cooptation of “independent” cinema, its vertical re-integration of theatres and studios under huge media conglomerates, its inability to change to fit the new digital age, and its refusal to foster a legitimate film culture in the United States. However, simply listing those reasons should amply suffice. May the next decade bring about Hollywood’s demise, leaving only the bloated carcass of an industry that has spent itself to death. (Wishful thinking, I know.)

Meanwhile, certain filmmakers have drifted from very strong works into relative mediocrity in recent years (Joel & Ethan Coen, Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino), while otherwise skillful directors have disappointed with individual films (Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Peter Greenaway’s 8 ½ Women, David Fincher’s Panic Room).

Nevertheless, there have been a smattering of consistently fascinating directors at work during the 1997-2007 period, including Guy Maddin, Takashi Miike, Lars Von Trier, Michael Winterbottom, Chan-wook Park, Todd Solondz, Darren Aronofsky, Gaspar Noé, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jane Campion, Tranh Anh Hung, and Michael Haneke. From the past several years, one beautiful and brilliant film that consistently lingers in my mind as worthy of much greater critical appraisal is Sally Potter’s Yes (2004), followed closely by Lou Ye’s haunting Vertigo redux Suzhou River (2000). Apart from the continual decline of American independent cinema in the wake of corporate appropriation, the reinvigoration of East Asian cinema in the past decade has been absolutely fascinating to watch, especially the much-touted Asian horror boom.

As a dysfunctional white male, my own inadequacies, masochistic desires, and fragmented thoughts were apparently well served by cinema during the past decade, as the following list probably makes all too obvious. (Despite my general scorn for Hollywood, I must admit that many of these pictures are from the margins of Tinseltown, part of that category misleadingly marketed as the “indie film,” even as the big studios continue to bankroll and distribute said films through their specialty divisions.) Here then are ten films that have stood out as personal favorites, in chronological order:

Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1998): At the top of my personal pantheon of “suburban hell” movies (along with Blue Velvet and Edward Scissorhands), this gleefully perverse look at soul-crushing middle-class ennui cuts very deep, just barely avoiding any major blood vessels. Perhaps the bleakest and funniest dark comedy ever made, featuring a wonderful ensemble cast overflowing with spleen and mismanaged libidos.

Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998): Still in high school when this film arrived, it was difficult not to see my present and future selves in this loving ode to the passive-aggressive male. Anderson’s personal obsessions fully emerge here, matching the immature passions of his protagonists. The stench of upper-class New York intellectualism (read: Woody Allen Syndrome) that wafted into The Royal Tenenbaums is largely absent at this point.

Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999): When film historians look back at American cinema in the 1990s, this will be upheld as one of the crowning achievements, an endlessly entertaining but highly problematic work that crystallizes so many of the economic/sexual/racial tensions of the era. An anti-consumerist film nicely packaged for mass consumption by a major Hollywood studio, this one seemingly can’t avoid its reactionary third act. “Where is my mind?” indeed.

eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999): Cronenberg does for VR video games what he did for television in Videodrome, but perhaps with less immediate sense of dread. As might be expected, the body intersects with postmodern technology in many grotesque ways, with very perplexing results. Playfully self-referential and clever to no end, though I was secretly disappointed that there was no cameo by a trifurcated cervix.

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001): A delightfully dark puzzle-box in the tradition of Lost Highway (though somewhat simpler to solve), but also a scathing attack upon Hollywood’s Dream Factory. This is arguably the single finest film of Lynch’s career, an ill-fated romance rivaling the deviance of Blue Velvet and the horror of Eraserhead.

Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002): After 1999’s brilliant Being John Malkovich, the Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonze partnership strikes another high note with this anti-Hollywood Hollywood film. Many pictures have tried to wring some sort of drama from the inherently unwatchable activity of writing, but none come remotely close to this wildly convoluted and hilariously self-loathing satire.

Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar, 2004): Spanish cinema’s guiding light eschews melodrama for a huge injection of noir in his best film. Another entry on the list with filmmaking as its subject matter, this grim tale of clergy molestation, transsexual desire, and blackmail breathlessly compounds twist upon twist. Sexy, sinister, and full of wonderful surprises.

2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004): To call Wong’s films “romantic” is a well-worn cliché, but this film outdoes the heart-rending effects of his previous work, including even my old favorite, Fallen Angels. The sci-fi influence works well here and every frame is breathtakingly beautiful. Many might argue that In the Mood for Love was a superior film with a more sympathetic protagonist, but in my opinion, 2046 far outdoes its predecessor.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004): A splendidly strange and yet very believable romantic comedy (of sorts) from the pen of Charlie Kaufman. A mindfuck film (yes, another!) that nicely captures the schizophrenic experience of love and loss at this moment in history. Amid all the surreal trickery and po-mo play going on here, there is an emotional core that feels authentically honest. One of the very few love stories worth a damn anymore.

The Brand upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin, 2006): The second part of an autobiographical trilogy (beginning with Cowards Bend the Knee and concluding later this year with the documentary Love Me, Love My Winnipeg), this film is perhaps the most emotionally mature film of Maddin’s career, a remarkably fecund fever dream shot over a scant nine days. After mourning a dead father and brother over small installments in his earlier films, here Maddin takes a pre-emptive strike upon potential future grief by looking back upon repressed childhood memories of his still-living mother and sister. With a somewhat different feel than his other films (perhaps due to the abundance of outdoor location shooting), this is Guy Maddin at his best—erotic, eccentric, macabre, hilarious, and very, very sad!

While Criterion’s DVD series continues to be the yardstick of excellence for any self-respecting high art patron (followed closely by Kino and Zeitgeist), the one DVD company that I feel has separated itself from all the rest in the past ten years is Anchor Bay. Their discs are consistently good, presenting uncut versions of hard-to-find films in their correct aspect ratio, often peppered with fine extra features and great picture/audio quality. My love for Anchor Bay grows out of their dedication to Italian horror films, of which they have a substantial selection, including the major works of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Mario & Lamberto Bava, Michele Soavi, and an ample library of other past and present horror/cult films from Europe and North America. Of course, they also release more “reputable” films, like several excellent Werner Herzog collections and a fantastic (and long-awaited) Alejandro Jodorowsky box set.

While by definition not to everyone’s taste, the rise of cult film criticism in the past decade (following the publication of Jeff Sconce’s seminal 1995 article “Trashing the Academy”) has been the most exciting development in film criticism for me. Certain studies and collections have become essential reading, including Defining Cult Movies (2003), Joan Hawkins’ Cutting Edge (2000), and Eric Schaefer’s Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! (1999), while others have been somewhat less successful, such as Trash Aesthetics (1997), Unruly Pleasures (2000), Mikita Brottman’s Offensive Films (2005), and several collections from Wallflower Press. The 2007-2008 period will continue to see more growth in this area with the upcoming publication of Sleaze Artists (ed. Jeff Sconce), The Cult Film Reader (eds. Xavier Mendik & Ernest Mathijs), and Eric Schaefer’s Massacre of Pleasure: A History of the Sexploitation Film, 1960-1979. Thankfully, Offscreen has always been eager to explore this field, and I hope to see this particular trend continue on into the foreseeable future.

Roberto Curti: Roberto Curti (Parma, Italy) is a free lance writer for several Italian and foreign magazines. He’s a regular contributor to Nocturno and has collaborated, among others, to the Spanish mag Quatermass. In 2003 he co-wrote (with Tommaso La Selva) Sex and Violence, a volume on extreme cinema, which is in its second edition, 2007, and in 2004 a Spanish-published monography on James Coburn, El samurai del oeste (The Samurai of the West). He is also the author of Italia odia (Italy Hates, 2006), an in-depth history of Italian crime and noir films, and Stanley Kubrick: Rapina a mano armata (Stanley Kubrick: The Killing, 2007), an in-depth analysis of Kubrick’s The Killing.

Ten best/favorite films?

Grizzly Man (2005, Werner Herzog)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Stanley Kubrick)
Caché (2005, Michael Haneke)
L’ora di religione (2002, Marco Bellocchio)
25th Hour (2002, Spike Lee)
The Prestige (2006, Christopher Nolan)
Mulholland Dr. (2001, David Lynch)
Bin-jip/3-Iron (2004, Kim Ki-duk)
Mies vailla menneisyyttä/The Man Without a Past (2002, Aki Kaurismaki)
A Hero Never Dies (1998, Johnnie To)

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

I’d say Michael Haneke, whose exploration of violence and its representation has a lucidity and a theorical weight which makes it all the more relevant in comparison to the way Hollywood mainstream cinema deals with it. Also, Werner Herzog has found a renewed, outstandingly strong inspiration with his documentary work.

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

The Art of Sleep, Michel Gondry’s follow-up to Eternal Sunshine (which I loved) was, to me, simply unbearable, a concoction of annoying self-indulgences and half-baked would-be poetry. Also, Kitano’s post-Hana Bi work is often not on a par with his early ‘90s films.

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

I’ll concentrate on Italian cinema, Michele Soavi’s Arrivederci amore, ciao (2006) was a truly great genre film which dealt with Italian history (the Seventies, terrorism etc.) in a much more uncompromising way (both thematically and stylistically) than Michele Placido’s Romanzo criminale (2005) which in itself was a fairly good work. And I think the most interesting Italian director around is Matteo Garrone, whose two more recent films, L’imbalsamatore (2002) and Primo amore (2004), truly deserve to be seen by a larger, non-Italian audience.

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

South Korea has obviously replaced Hong Kong as the next big thing for Occidental critics and audience alike, with such directors as Kim Ki-duk, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho and Hong Sang-soo. And Hollywood mainstream cinema is as hollow and depressing as ever, but I guess that’s just how things go.

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

Criterion.

Ryan Diduck: Ryan Diduck began his studies at the University of Alberta in Film and Media Studies and Sociology in 2002. In 2006, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Film Production at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia, and is continuing as an M.A. candidate in Film Studies. Ryan has won numerous awards and scholarships, has written extensively for Offscreen, and his work shall be included in an upcoming Canadian media text published by Thomson Learning. Ryan’s research areas include independent American, European and Canadian cinemas, Gangster and Film Noir, and new directions in media culture of the 21st Century.

Obligatory Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and are not necessarily equivalently held, in whole or in part —before, during, after, ever— by the publisher. Thank you.

Eleven best/favorite films?

1997 – Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
1998 – Last Night (Don McKellar)
1999 – Fight Club (David Fincher)
2000 – The Sopranos (Granted it’s not a movie, but is, nonetheless, consistently of higher quality than much silver screen fare.)
2001 – Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
2002 – Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsey)
2003 – The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin)
2004 – Les Invasions Barbares (Denys Arcand)
2005 – Caché (Michael Haneke)
2006 – Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
2007 – INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

David Lynch, without a doubt. In the span of 10 years, he has produced a body that includes Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Dr., INLAND EMPIRE, a labyrinthine website, rabbits, lamps, napkin drawings, dumbland, distorted nudes, and some oddly painted baloony-like things. And, all this is only at the surface.

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

The Ultimate visual beauty of ‘film’ film is evidenced in works culled from the above list such as Casino, or Mulholland Dr.; however, in light of the increasing necessity of rapidity, and a hopefully genuine concern for our natural surroundings, it seems that the more interesting, and perhaps, more significant developments in terms of cultural impact, are digital.

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

We don’t like to dwell on it…

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

Cremaster V

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

Both French and English Canada are producing some very, very good work.

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

The Palm Pictures Director’s Label has changed the way I regard video artists, and the short film format.

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema, by Haidee Wasson

Thank you for including me in this survey; here’s to another decade – and more – of offscreen awesomeness!

R./
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Kino Pravda

Simon Galiero: Simon Galiero, born in Montreal in 1978, has been the co-editor of the online film journal Hors Champ since 1998, in which he has published many articles, and interviews with Jonathan Nossiter, Jean Pierre Lefebvre and Bernard Émond. In 1999, under the auspices of Hors Champ, he began programming a long series of projections/discussions at the Cinémathèque québécoise, screening films by Stan Brakhage, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, John Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Otar Iosseliani, Peter Kubelka, and Ermanno Olmi. Galiero has been part of editorial board of the film journal 24 Images since 2005 and has written articles for Le Devoir and les Cahiers du Cinéma. Since 1998 Galiero has also directed several short films, both documentary and fiction, including Encore dimanche, The Immigrant and Our Jail is a Kingdom.

Ten best/favorite films?

Kasaba (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 1997)
Celebrity (Woody Allen, 1998)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami 1999)
Adieu, plancher des vaches! (Otar Iosseliani 1999)
Nuages de mai (Nuri Bilge Ceylan 1999)
Je rentre à la maison (Manoel de Oliveira 2001)
Gerry (Gus Van Sant 2002)
Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, 2003)
Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004)
Junebug (Phil Morrison 2005)

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

Abbas Kiarostami, Bélà Tarr, Manoel De Oliveira, Alexander Sokourov, Dardenne brothers.

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

-The increase in “home cinema”

-Digital cameras

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders.

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

Junebug (Phil Morrison) and Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy).

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

Disappointment: I would say France’s “popular” cinema. For example, the large gulf in quality between Quai des Orfèvres (Clouzot, 1947) and the horrible 36, quai des orfèvres (2004). What was specific about the good classical French cinema (Renoir, Carné, Truffaut, Sautet) seems to have been a little bit crushed by the desire of the new generation to adapt the worst of Hollywood cliché’s. This is also true for Quebec cinema.

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

No doubt Criterion, and their box sets of Carl Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman or Jean Renoir. Also the complete collection of Eric Rohmer, edited by his company “Les films du Losange”. I add to this a nice and unexpected discovery by the Cinémathèque Française (released on DVD by “Cinéma” magazine, Editions Leo Scheer): John Ford’s silent film Bucking Broadway.

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Bertrand Tavernier’s 50 ans de cinéma américain (50 Years of American Cinema) is, for me, the most enjoyable kind of literature about movies.

Philip Gillett: Philip Gillett is a freelance writer on film and author of The British Working Class in Postwar Film (MUP, 2003). An essay on realism in postwar British film is appearing in a forthcoming issue of Film International and he is currently working on a re-examination of the film canon.

I’d like to celebrate rising standards in the cinema over the last ten years, but I can’t. The multiplex has increased its stranglehold and Hollywood churns out dross with undiminished enthusiasm. There are glimmers of hope. High-definition video has made it cheaper to shoot films, even if the limitations of the process are sometimes apparent on the large screen. A few films without English dialogue are infiltrating British multiplexes, notable examples being Ang Lee ’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan/HK/US/China, 2000) and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall (Germany/Austria/Italy, 2004). As more cinemas install digital projection equipment, distribution costs should fall, allowing single screenings of minority interest films to become economic. That’s the theory, but yet another screening of the latest blockbuster seems irresistible to accountants. Internet downloads and DVD releases may become the norm for disseminating minority interest films. This will improve availability, even if it means more chamber pieces which are at home on the small screen. The rise of the documentary is a mixed blessing: directors want the prestige of a cinema release, so we have been deluged with material which belongs on television. The same might be said of animated film.

France and Italy, those traditional heartlands of the art-house film, have lost their dominance to Germany and the former eastern bloc countries. Difficulties in financing projects may be to blame, or young directors are being lured into other media or to other countries. For the most consistently interesting work we have to look even further east to directors like Hsiao-hsien Hou in Taiwan. Parallelling the growth of the Chinese economy is the emergence of China as a cultural force in the worlds of sport and music. The cinema may be the next field to conquer. A generation of directors like Lang Ying could give us some intriguing film-making; my qualm is that commercial pressures will come to the fore and I shall have to slumber through another beautifully-choreographed epic with a cast of thousands.

Quentin Tarantino is the major disappointment among directors. Jackie Brown (US, 1997) shows what he can achieve, but his subsequent meagre output has been marked by a regression to jokey knowingness and juvenile violence. On the plus side Richard Linklater has proved his talent across the genres. In Europe Michael Haneke has a narrower range, but is consistently watchable. The most compelling and varied body of work comes from Ki-duk Kim. He might tailor Eastern tradition for Western audiences, but this does not detract from his craftsmanship and hypnotic visual sense. The lack of distribution is to be deplored.

My ten best films among those which have received widespread distribution and/or press coverage and which merit repeated viewing are (in alphabetical order):

American Beauty (Sam Mendes, US, 1999)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, US, 2004)
Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, US, 1997)
The Death of Mr Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania, 2005)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, US, 2004)
Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, US/Japan, 2003)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch , France/US, 2001)
Run Lola, Run (Tom Tykwer, Germany, 1998)
Sideways (Alexander Payne, US, 2004)
The Truman Show (Peter Weir, US, 1998)

Sadly, many of the films which move me most and linger in the memory are little seen and difficult to obtain. They deserve better. Among these I include:

The Coast Guard (Ki-duk Kim, S. Korea, 2002). The place of the militaristic mentality in modern South Korea.
Dogme 25: Converging with Angels (Michael Sorenson, Denmark/US, 2002). An unexpectedly tender story of a male escort and a girl he befriends.
Laundry (Junichi Mori, Japan, 2001). Two damaged young people are drawn together and survive against the odds.
Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Julio Medem, Spain/France, 1998). Similar in structure to Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt, GB/US, 1998) and Run Lola, Run in giving multiple perspectives on the same story, but more a more emotional treatment.
Samaritan Girl (Ki-duk Kim, S. Korea, 2004). A dying prostitute wants to see the man she loves, but he exacts a high price from her best friend.
16 Years of Alcohol (Richard Jobson, GB, 2003). The costs of abandoning your old life and finding redemption.
Suzhou he (Ye Lou, Germany/China, 2000) An allusive and subtle love story.
Weekend Plot (Ming Zhang, China, 2001). A group of young people take a trip up the Yangzhe, resurrecting old loves and tensions against the backdrop of the river.

André Habib: André Habib is completing a Ph.d. on the “the imaginary of ruins in cinema,” in the Department of Comparative literature (cinema option) at Université de Montréal. He finished his master’s thesis in Film Studies at Concordia in 2001, on Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinema. He has taught classes at Concordia, Université de Montréal, and McGill University. He is also a film critic and co-editor for the journal Hors champ; he has curated film programmes at the Cinémathèque québécoise, and is also editorial coordinator of the journal Intermédialités. His articles have been published in Substance, Lignes de fuite, Senses of Cinema, Intermédialités, Offscreen, Discours social, and CiNéMAS. He is also co-editing with Viva Paci a collection of texts entitled L’imprimerie du regard: Chris Marker et la technique which will be published in the collection “Esthétiques” at L’Harmattan, in 2008.

Ten best/favorite films?

Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1987-1998)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000)
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005)
The Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
The Sun (Alexander Sokourov, 2005)
Clouds of May (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 1999)
Les amants réguliers (Philippe Garrel, 2005)
The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
West of the Tracks, Wang Bing

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

Jia Zhang-ke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Gus Van Sant, Alexander Sokourov, the Dardenne Brothers, and Bruno Dumont.

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

-Digital culture and the loss of the “idea” of cinematic imprint/indexicality

-The youtube phenomena (at large)

-Post-9/11 symptom films

-Rediscovery of minimalism (sequence shot, still camera, etc.)

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

Filmmaker: Raoul Ruiz; Peter Greenaway; Moshen Makhmalbaf, and Wim Wenders

Film: Eros (Soderbergh/Antonioni/Wong)

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or appraisal)?

The New World (Terrence Malick); Psycho (Gus Van Sant); The films of Pedro Costa (in particular his last film, En avant, Jeunesse!); Jean-Luc Godard’s George Pompidou exhibit (Voyage en utopie, 1946-2006) and his video works of the late 90’s and 2000’s.

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

Come to the fore: Korean Cinema; Taiwan Cinema.

Both come to the fore and disappointed: Iranian Cinema.

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

DVD releases: Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman), Satantango (Bela Tarr), Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard), By Brakhage (Criterion compilation), Four Short Films (Godard-Miéville, EMI).

DVD companies: Carlotta Film, Criterion, Cahiers du cinéma

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

Victor Burgin, The Remembered Film
Mary Ann Doane, The Emergence of Cinema Time
Paolo Cherchi Usai, The Death of Cinema
Georges Didi-Huberman, Devant le temps
Nicole Brenez et al., Jean-Luc Godard. Documents (George Pompidou exhibit catalogue)

Randolph Jordan: is a graduate of the MA Film Studies programme at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently enrolled in Concordia’s Interdisciplinary PhD Humanities programme. His research in the MA programme focused on sound/image relationships in the cinema with a particular interest in the bearing of film sound practice on theory (and vice-versa). His thesis concerned sound in the films of David Lynch and the issues they raise within the field of contemporary film sound theory. His doctoral research expands his interest in sound to explore the intersections between film studies, electroacoustic music and acoustic ecology.

Top 12 International Shorts

Outer Space – 1999 – Peter Tscherkassky – Austria
Heart of the World – 2000 – Guy Maddin – Canada
In Absentia – 2000 – Brothers Quay – UK
??#11 (Marey <-> Moire)?? – 2001 – Joost Rekveld – The Netherlands
Copy Shop – 2001 – Virgil Widrich – Austria
The Cat With Hands – 2001 – Robert Morgan – UK
Opus Pia – Pia 01 – 2001 – Takagi Masakatsu – Japan
11.09.01 – Mexico Segment – 2002 – Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
Love from Mother Only – 2003 – Dennison Ramalho – Brazil
Coffee and Cigarettes – Champagne – 2003 – Jim Jarmusch – USA
Collage D’Hollywood – 2004 – Richard Kerr – Canada
Blind Spot – 2005 – Raul Navarro + Alex Montoya – Spain

Top 10 from Europe, The Colonies, and Russia

Run Lola Run – 1998 – Tom Tykwer – Germany
L’Humanite – 1999 – Bruno Dumont – France
Goddess of 1967 – 2000 – Clara Law – Australia
Sous le Sable – 2000 – Francois Ozon – France
Werckmeister Harmonies – 2000 – Bela Tarr – Hungary
Spider – 2002 – David Cronenberg – Canada/UK/France
La Vie Nouvelle – 2003 – Phillippe Grandrieux – France
L’Intrus – 2004 – Claire Denis – France
The Sun – 2005 – Alexander Sokurov – Russia

Top 10 American

Lost Highway – 1997 – David Lynch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – 1998 – Terry Gilliam
Ghost Dog – 1999 – Jim Jarmusch
Eyes Wide Shut – 1999 – Stanley Kubrick
American Psycho – 2000 – Mary Harron
Gerry – 2001 – Gus Van Sant
Donnie Darko – 2001 – Richard Kelly
The Man Who Wasn’t There – 2001 – Cohen Brothers
Reflections of Evil – 2002 – Damon Packard
The New World – 2005 – Terrence Malick

Top 10 English Language Documentaries

Lucky People Center International – 1998 – Erik Pauser + Johan Soderberg
How’s Your News? – 1999 – Arthur Bradford – USA
Mr. Death – 1999 – Errol Morris – USA
Dogtown and Z Boys – 2001 – Stacey Peralta – USA
Rivers and Tides – 2001 – Thomas Riedelsheimer
Gambling, Gods and LSD – 2002 – Peter Mettler – Canada/Swizerland
Grizzly Man – 2005 – Werner Herzog – USA
No Direction Home – 2005 – Martin Scorsese – USA
Jesus Camp – 2006 – Heidi Ewing + Rachel Grady – USA
When the Levees Broke – 2006 – Spike Lee – USA

Top 10 Asian

Fireworks – 1997 – Takeshi Kitano – Japan
Afterlife – 1998 – Hirokazu Koreeda – Japan
The Hole – 1998 – Tsai Ming-Liang – Taiwan
Charisma – 1999 – Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Japan
Gojoe – 2000 – Ishii Sogo – Japan
In the Mood for Love – 2000 – Wong Kar-Wai – Hong Kong
Dead or Alive 2: The Birds – 2001 – Takashi Miike – Japan
Last Life in the Universe – 2003 – Pan-Ek Ratanaruang – Thailand
Tale of Two Sisters – 2003 – Ji-Woonn Kim – Korea
Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space – 2003 – TOL – Japan

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

David Lynch

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

Most developed genre of the last 10 years: documentary.

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

Most disappointing filmmaker of the last 10 years: George Lucas

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

Reflections of Evil

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

Come to the fore: Korean

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

Most important DVD release: Sogo Ishii: The Punk Years

Consistently Best DVD Company: Criterion

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

Important Theory Book: Into the Vortex. Britta Sjogren (2006).

Betty Kaklamanidou: Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, Dr. Betty Kaklamanidou studied French Literature at the Aristotle University, as well as journalism. She completed a Ph.D. on Film and Literature in May 2005. Dr. Kaklamanidou has written film reviews as well as theoretical articles in the Greek cultural magazines Exostis and Fix Carré from 2003 to 2005. Since October 2005, she has been teaching film history and theory at the newly-founded Film School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is the author of When Film Met Literature (Aigokeros editions, Athens, in Greek) and is currently working on her second book on the history of the romantic comedy.

Congratulations for the 10th anniversary of Offscreen and 10 million wishes for its persistence to quality, its fresh outlook on film and the chances it gives to new scholars around the world.

My Ten Favorite Films

To be completely honest, I thought it was going to be very easy to choose ten films as I feel that every year fewer and fewer films manage to attract my attention or haunt my thoughts long after I leave the theatre or turn off the DVD player (!). However, as I started my search into the past, I quickly found myself with a list of more than 25 films. So, I guess, there is still hope for the art we all feel so passionate about. I tried to shorten the list and did my best to include one film for each year. Of course, my failure is evident in the list that follows, which includes the 10 films I found most compelling, moving, cinematically and directorially complete, and script-wise tight, witty and strong.

The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998)
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aranovsky, 2000)
Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (Kim Ki-Duk, 2003)
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2005)
5×2 (François Ozon, 2005)
Le couperet (Costa-Gavras, 2005)

Which directors have consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

Richard Linklater (Fast Food Nation, 2006, Before Sunset, 2004)
Marc Forster (Stranger Than Fiction, 2006, Stay, 2005, Finding Neverland, 2004, Monster’s Ball, 2001)
Alexander Payne (Election, 1999, Sideways, 2004)
Kim Ki-Duk (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, 2003, 3-Iron, 2004)
Haya Miyazaki (Spirited Away, 2001, Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004)

Overlooked films that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

I feel that the romantic comedies of the past decade have been ignored by critics and film theory although recent research by Steve Neale, Frank Krutnik, et al. provide us with valuable food for thought and an opportunity to reassess the dynamics and the forces that hide behind this externally superficial genre. There seems to be an ongoing prejudice against feel-good movies and I have to wonder why only a few film theorists seem to go past the surface and examine romantic comedies. That is why I believe films such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, What Women Want, Notting Hill, Love Actually…, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Gray Matters, Punch Drunk Love deserve a second reading.

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

Kathrina Glitre’s (2006) Hollywood Romantic Comedy, States of the Union 1934-1965, Manchester: Manchester University Press (for her incisive analysis and her theoretical background).

Frank Krutnik’s (1998) ‘Love Lies: Romantic Fabrication in Contemporary Romantic Comedy’, in Terms of Endearment. Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1980s and 1990s, Peter Williams Evans & Celestino Deleyto (eds.), UK: Edinburgh University Press (for his awareness of the age of lost innocence in new romantic narratives and his strong arguments)

Robert Stam’s (2005) ‘Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation’, in Literature through Film, Robert Stam & Raengo Alessandra (eds), USA: Blackwell (for introducing the French scholar Gérard Genette to the American public and his vast theoretic knowledge).

Brett Kashmere: Brett Kashmere is a filmmaker and educator based in Central New York. His work combines traditional research methods with hybrid interfaces, handmade equipment, and materialist aesthetics. Kashmere’s films, videos, scholarship and curatorial projects have been presented at festivals, conferences and venues internationally and used in university curricula. His writing has appeared in journals, magazines and anthologies such as The Canadian Journal of Film Studies, The Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, Take One, The Films of Jack Chambers, esse, Senses of Cinema, and the forthcoming Pleasure Dome publication, Excesses and Extremes in Film and Video. Kashmere holds an MA in Film Studies and an MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University. He will be a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oberlin College in 2008.

Ten best/favorite films?

Ten (or so) memorable film/video/media-based experiences from the past decade:

Two exceptional hybrid films by R. Bruce Elder: Crack, Brutal Grief seen at the Festival of New Cinema, Montreal; and Eros and Wonder, which premiered at Cinematheque Ontario in Toronto. Parts of Elder’s current film cycle, The Book of Praise, both pieces explore new formal territory, employing elaborate and sophisticated electro-chemical interfaces. More importantly, these exhilarating, visceral films provide a fugitive, quivering vision of human fragility and fleeting glimpses of beauty amidst a background of contemporary violence and decay.

Thom Andersen’s incisive essay-film, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Festival of New Cinema in Montreal.

An intimate screening of Kitch’s Last Meal, Carolee Schneemann’s long-neglected (and seldom seen) Super 8 domestic epic, partially unfurled across a sweltering Montreal summer night. Stacked vertically (which requires a different type of visual reading) as if to suggest windowpanes, the dual-projected five-hour conclusion of her Autobiographical Trilogy explores issues of social and personal identity with grace and fluidity. Employing her cat (co-star of Fuses), then-partner Anthony McCall, and a train that ran behind her house daily as collaborator-muses, Schneemann shapes ordinary objects and interactions into a sublime meditation on the generative potential of artistic living.

A recreation of Matsumoto Toshio’s For My Crushed Right Eye, using the original 1970 screening technique – with three synchronized projectors and a lightning storm of flashbulbs at the end, at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany. Viewed through a jet-lagged fog, it woke me up.

The premiere of Ken Jacobs’ Star Spangled to Death, an astonishing, intemperate condemnation of postwar American society (a film five decades in the making), at the New York Film Festival’s Views from the Avant-Garde. Combining vintage blocks of found ethnographic film, racist cartoons, chilling presidential addresses and political campaigning with wildly improvised camp performances by his cohorts Jack Smith and Jerry Sims, Star Spangled to Death alternates between complicit boredom and disorderly unrest. The cornerstone of Jacobs’ life/work, Star Spangled to Death demonstrates that formal experimentation and sociopolitical critique are necessarily intertwined.

Live, media-based performances by Wynne Greenwood’s quasi-real electro-pop art project, Tracy + the Plastics at assorted cabarets around New York City. During her video concerts, Greenwood (as singer/bandleader Tracy) interacts with carefully timed, pre-recorded music and video projections of alter egos Nikki (keyboards) and Cola (drumbeats). Amazing!

Isaac Julien’s installation, Baltimore –a gritty, complex investigation of African American representation, presented at New York’s Metro Pictures, and featuring the legendary film director and Renaissance man Melvin van Peebles. Grainy 16mm footage filmed in Baltimore’s inner city neighbourhoods, The Great Blacks in Wax Museum, the Peabody Library, and the Walters Museum, a strangely stationed female cyborg (a 21st century updating of the Foxy Brown archetype), and high-tech special effects are knit together in a nifty, if somewhat disjunctive, three-screen projection. Riffing on the language, iconography and style of Blaxploitation cinema, Baltimore both celebrates and interrogates black identity within American culture.

Sitting on a suspended tree bench watching Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure (Emily vey Duke & Cooper Battersby) at The Warehouse Gallery, Syracuse, NY.

Discovering Hans Schabus’ bizarre, inventive, earthworks-inspired films at the Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival in Germany. A nice surprise.

Jacqueline Goss’ How to Fix the World, a smart, digitally animated, experimental doc, screened during her artist talk at Concordia University in Montreal. Based on Soviet psychologist A.R. Luria’s research on Central Asian collective farms in the 1930s, How To Fix The World illustrates the cultural conflicts between speaking and writing, drawing and photography and between Soviet Socialism and Islam. Combining interests in science, history, technology and the construction of knowledge, Goss continues to generate new forms for the presentation of non-fiction subject matter, while maintaining humour, whimsy and revelation. Also great: Goss’ lastest video, Stranger Comes to Town, seen at the PDX Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival, Portland.

Daniel Barrow’s The Face of Everything, a manual animation and performance, witnessed at various places here and there. The Face of Everything is simultaneously innovative and entertaining, a carefully controlled, romantically melancholic flight of fancy. Throughout its 20-minute duration, transparencies of hand-drawn and coloured vignettes traipse atop an overhead projector, lavishly narrating the life experiences of Liberace’s most notorious boyfriend. Also fun: Barrow’s Winnipeg Babysitter, an annotated clip-trip of Winnipeg public access television, held at the Museum of Science and Technology’s IMAX bubble, Syracuse, NY

Karl Lemieux’s incredible, emotionally complex, multi-projector performances with Jerusalem in my Heart (Radwan Moumneh), held at Sala Rossa in Montreal. On two occasions, opening for Guy Sherwin and the Nihilist Spasm Band, respectively, the concise Lemieux-Moumneh collaborations stole the show, blending intense chamber-style music and violently affected and burnt film loops.

Most recently: Two sold-out screenings of Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (Douglas Gordon & Phillipe Parreno) at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. An unbelievable scene, with line-ups stretching several blocks! The film –17 cameras all pointed at the now infamous soccer star, spring-coiled– wasn’t bad either.

Other memorable film viewing experiences: The Great Art of Knowing (David Gatten), Seoul Film Festival and Cinéma Parallèle in Montreal; Gambling, Gods & LSD (Peter Mettler) at the Festival of New Cinema, Montreal; Atanjuarat: The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk & Norman Cohn) at the AMC Forum, Montreal; Borat (Larry David), at the mall in Syracuse, NY; Jean Genet in Chicago (Frédéric Moffet), at the Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival; “George and Mike Kuchar Preserved,” a screening of the Kuchar Brother’s restored 8mm melodramas, hosted by John Waters at the New York Film Festival’s Views from the Avant-Garde; You, Me and Everyone We Know (Miranda July), at Cinema du Parc, Montreal; Alex MacKenzie, Parallax (the devil made him do it!) at Concordia University, Montreal; Peter Kubelka’s Dichtung und Wahrheit/Poetry and Truth, 35mm film and lecture –I took home four frames.

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

Several artists and filmmakers that come to mind: Miranda July, Walid Raad, Jem Cohen, Spike Lee, Jacqueline Goss, Seth Price, Robert Todd, Julie Murray, Paper Rad, Werner Herzog, Duke & Battersby, Guy Maddin, Su Friedrich, Brakhage…

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

The continued development of live cinema forms and re-purposing of old, even antiquated film equipment, as well as the proliferation of film and media collectives worldwide.

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

I didn’t think Inland Empire (David Lynch) was very good. I also thought Decasia: The State of Decay by Bill Morrison, was dull and overrated. How about some rhythmic variation!

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

Just about any experimental film or video made over the past decade could be described as overlooked. I’m glad to see Charles Burnett’s film Killer of Sheep finally receiving the attention (and theatrical release) it deserves.

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

Not my area of speciality, but it seems like there’s a lot of good work coming out of Canada these days!

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

“by Brakhage: An Anthology” (The Criterion Collection)

The INDEX series of Austrian experimental film and video

The Peripheral Produce catalogue, which includes DVD releases of work by Bill Brown, Naomi Uman, Deborah Stratman, Matt McCormick, and others

The Plexifilm catalogue, which includes important music docs and undervalued features such as Benjamin Smoke (Jem Cohen & Peter Sillen), Space is the Place (Sun Ra), and Mysterious Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

The Language of New Media, by Lev Manovich
The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema, edited by Chris Gehman and Steve Reinke
Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video, by Catherine Russell
The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas, by Thomas Waugh
A Line of Sight: American Avant-Garde Film since 1965, by Paul Arthur (particularly the last chapter)

Sándor Lau: Sándor Lau is a writer and filmmaker. Originally from the US, he moved to New Zealand as a graduate student on a US Fulbright scholarship. In New Zealand he made the films Behaviours of the Backpacker and Squeegee Bandit, as well as doing time as a television reporter. Sándor has written fiction and fact for newspapers, magazines, anthologies, radio and the web in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. He recently returned to the United States and lives in Oregon.

Ten best/favorite films?

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles, 2006)
The Corporation (Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, 2003)
Oasis (Chang-Dong, Lee 2005)
Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, 2003)
A Tale of a Naughty Girl (Buddhadev Dasgupta, 2002)
An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006)
Maqbool (Vishal Bharadwaj, 2003)
Blind Shaft (Yang Li, 2003)
The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003)
Genghis Blues (Roko Belic, 1999)

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

With so many people’s work out there, I am always trying to see something new, and don’t often see more than one film by a director.

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

In the last ten years, I think the digital revolution has changed film more than anything. It has not changed all that much in terms of the big studios’ distribution monopolies, but made it possible for anyone with a few thousand dollars and a year to spare to make a film. Making films costs a lot of money, though not nearly as much as telling the truth about how the world’s most powerful institutions operate. So the lowered cost threshold for production means a lot more stories that were previously censored are getting told, though they are still not reaching wide audiences. In practical terms, governments and corporations now have to worry about the possibility of being held to account for their policies in a way that they didn’t when documentaries had to be made and projected on film.

In terms of style, I’m very happy that first-person documentaries are breaking through more. No one is ever objective, and the most biased and slanted films are the ones that put themselves across as even-handed, especially those with omniscient narration, spouting forth truth like the Wizard of Oz without ever showing themselves. First-person work like Bowling for Columbine or Super Size Me lets you know where it’s coming from which is both more enjoyable and more honest.

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

Most of my list.

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

I am very excited by the films coming out of South Korea in the last few years. That a relatively small country with a language that doesn’t have any currency in the world market should develop a national cinema that is self-sustaining and making large inroads in the world is I think an inspiration for all small countries.

I’m hardly objective on this one but I think that now having built a stronger infrastructure and understanding of itself overseas, New Zealand is on the verge of something.
Canada for me is kind of a grand tragedy. They keep making these amazing films that seem doomed to obscurity.

And after the great promise and glory days of the ‘90s, I can’t help but be disappointed in Australia.

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

More than any one DVD or company, the long tail that DVD and really all digital exhibition formats provide means diversification and fragmentation of content means new styles and stories are more feasible than ever. Filmmakers can afford to be marginal and niche in a way that they couldn’t ten years ago. It’s almost a form of digital Darwinism, old distribution models are not producing the monetary offspring they once did, and all those years of in-breeding are making these mutant children, some of which are insufferable and some of which are pure genius.

Najmeh Khalili Mahani.: Najmeh Khalili Mahani was born in Iran and lived her childhood through the turmoils of revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. She left Iran at the age of 21, after 3 years of uninspired study in Computer Engineering at Tehran Polytechnic (Amir Kabir University.) After obtaining a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University in Canada she enrolled as a part time MA student in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Concordia University), and in the PhD program in Neuroscience at McGill University. Her multidisciplinary research interests focus on how the environment (history, technology, politics) can modulate human perceptual experience with respect to ontology.

Congratulations on Offscreen’s 10th anniversary. I like to thank you for allowing me to be a part of this project; it’s been a great pleasure and I hope to contribute more in the near future.

Ten best/favorite films?

In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai,
V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005)
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
Don’t Come Knocking (Wim Wenders, 2005)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
11’09”01 -September 11 (Many, 2002)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)
Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, 2003)

Which director has consistently made the most interesting work during this period?

Defining “interesting” is hard; but Woody Allen and David Lynch are always.

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

Digital Simulation.

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

Kubrick’s passing.

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

I maintain that Claude Lelouch is an overlooked director.

Is there a national cinema which you feel has come to the fore in this period? A national cinema which has disappointed?

I think Hollywood has been reinventing itself.

A work of critical, historical, or theoretical analysis (article or book) which you found to be particularly important and relevant?

The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft, by Anne Friedberg (The MIT Press, 2006)

Nicolas Renaud: Nicolas Renaud has an academic background in Film and Sociology. He is co-founder of Hors Champ (1996), an online film and media journal affiliated with Offscreen, and has published numerous articles on cinema, art and media in Hors Champ and other publications. In conjunction with Hors Champ, Renaud organized special screenings and lectures in collaboration with the Cinemathèque québécoise, including an event with Stan Brakhage in 2001. Renaud instructs camera and Super 8 film workshops at Main Film (an independent film center/co-op in Montreal). Since 1998 he is also a practising artist who has made video installations and short films that have been exhibited across Canada and Europe.

Ten best/favorite films?

Uzak (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)
Clouds of May (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 1999)
Le fils (Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2002)
Japon (Carlos Reygadas, 2002)
Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005)
Junebug (Phil Morrison, 2005)
Mondovino (Jonathan Nossiter, 2004)
Gerry (Gus Van Sant, 2002)
Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)
Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano, 1999)

I thought I would include my all-time list too:

Pour la suite du monde, Pierre Perrault (co dir. Michel Brault, 1963)
The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975)
Le miroir (Andreï Tarkovski, 1975)
Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, Allemagne – Pérou, 1982)
Papa est en voyage d’affaires/Father Away on Business (Emir Kusturica, 1985)
Crimes and Misdemeanours (Woody Allen, 1989)
Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993)
Uzak/Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)

What have been some of the more important developments and trends in cinema (in terms of technology, subject matter, genre, or cultural impact)?

One of many… the Documentary. Despite the influence of TV formating, the overload of all kinds of production with the light technology, often poor in style, with no artistic ambition, still 2 things strike me:

-Wide reaching (mass distributed) documentary films on political/social subjects, made with intelligence and seeking (having?) a large impact, like Michael Moore’s 9/11 (whatever we think of it).

-Cinematic heights, renewal in documentary form, in films that are as rich in content as aesthetics, such as: Mondovino, Darwin’s Nightmare, The Fog of War…

Any major disappointments in terms of a specific film(s) or filmmaker(s)?

Michael Haneke (Le temps des loups, Caché)

An overlooked film that you feel is worthy of critical appraisal (or reappraisal)?

Japon (Carlos Reygadas, 2002)

Most important DVD releases? DVD companies?

Releases of Brakhage, McLaren, Perrault, Polanski, Herzog (documentary compilation box set)...

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