Ou...

Koch Lorber officially announced today the DVD releases of Godard's La Chinoise and Le Gai savoir for 13 May. Eric's right in saying that 2008 looks like the year of Godard on R1 DVD.

Contender

I wish I had known about this a few years back, but fellow blogger Edward Copeland has been conducting Oscar polls each year, finding out just where the Academy went right and (of course) where they went wrong. It all began two years ago when it was determined (as if a survey really needed to be conducted for this) that Crash was the all-time worst Best Picture winner; Casablanca was the best (which I FINALLY saw, jesus). Last year was the best and worst actresses (Vivien Leigh at the top, Helen Hunt at the bottom...), and this year, it's the actors. You can send him an email with your top 5 and bottom 5 picks. I believe the voting continues for the next day or so, so hurry up! Here's the official link.

What Kind of Fuckery Is This??

The shoulda-been Catwoman (at least in her eyes), Sean Young, officially became my personal hero at the Directors Guild of America awards by "heckling" Julian Schnabel, among others. I don't much care for the goings-on of celebrities' personal lives, but I'm saddened to hear that Ms. Young has checked into rehab. Not because, you know, I was concerned about her health, but because she single-handledly made the awards show worth watching. I was really hoping she'd liven up this year's Oscars, whether they go on or not. Michael K of Dlisted offered a fine suggestion, get Bai Ling on the line pronto! We need somebody to fuck-start those Oscars.

Jew No

Good news! My computer has just made it back from a (two-week long) check up at the (not so) free clinic... and though she wasn't released with what I'd call a clean bill of health, I have her back. Hopefully this will mean that my posts will be a tad more frequent than they have been. Maybe I can share the nightmare I had about Diablo Cody or how a revisit of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! jump started my fading interest in cinema as of lately. We'll save those tales for another time.

I've got a bladder the size of a seedless grape

Strand has officially announced the "Remixed and Remastered" DVD of Gregg Araki's The Living End, set for 29 April. The special features have yet to be announced, but this shit is long overdue.

Up the Game

Television has always been public enemy #1 for cinema. Once cinema adapted to cinemascope though, the challenge of competing seemed to end there… that is until now. With the popularity of DVDs now, television series have become something entirely different, not merely just time-wasters for bored Americans. You can pick your starting point from a variety of sources as to when television became something to be reckoned with, artistically, dramatically and comedically (I’m not as concerned with the financial aspect). Perhaps it was the advent of cable television. Maybe it was Twin Peaks. Maybe it came when HBO started producing original programming. Or maybe it just came as a result of DVD and Tivo. Plenty of articles were written this past year when the definitive Twin Peaks set was released by Paramount, most of them speculating a question more fascinating than the series’ central mystery: who or what killed not Laura Palmer but Twin Peaks? Few would argue that, if the show were pitched today, it would be a Lost-sized hit, but it’s quite likely that, all the drama between Lynch and ABC aside, viewers just weren’t ready for it. That seems ridiculous now, as the most popular dramatic shows on TV today (aside from those lousy CSI shows) demand viewer participation, even if it’s just to remember what happened in the previous week.

I’m going out on a limb to suggest that it’s the growing competition of television drama that crafted 2007 into the best year of cinema in recent memory (most chalk 1999 as the last great year for the medium). How does cinema take a step up from the compelling, serialized drama and character involvement of shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Lost or Six Feet Under? 2007 showed us that cinema’s best bet is “taking chances” on films that were completely uncompromising in their cinematic vision and scope. There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and No Country for Old Men should be commended, no matter how you felt about any of the three, for at least reminding us of cinema’s often unreached potential.

Though I’m completely unorganized in my thoughts about this matter, not to mention that finding a definitive idea of what’s going on with the two mediums could be nearly impossible, I think this conflict could provide the best for both worlds. As both a reaction to the tripe of network programming and even the lack of compelling drama in the film world, HBO unleashed a giant of a television corporation, constantly giving their time to challenging, complex and utterly fascinating programming. As a result of this, cinema gave us films of lasting importance and of unmatched scope. We’ll always have to suffer through shit like Everybody Loves Raymond and Good Luck Chuck, no matter what happens. Cinema will never die under TV (we’ll always have Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Pirates of the Caribbean in some form to force the people off their sofas), but perhaps TV was always what cinema needed to keep it in check. Perhaps the battling forces will continue to challenge one another with their respective strengths.

Toute Vitesse

I'm sure you can find other places for details and/or heartfelt requiems, but I couldn't not mention what a loss Heath Ledger's passing is.

Norbit is an Oscar nominee

Yeah, that's fucking right. Norbit has been recognized by the Academy (and not just in being the possible reason for a snub of Eddie Murphy last year), but for make-up. Yep, Norbit, Oscar nominee. Other than that, I'm pretty disappointed I woke up early for this shit (also not because I had to watch Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera ruin my morning leading up to the nominations) because all of the surprises (Laura Linney, Tommy Lee Jones) were hardly earth-shattering. One good thing I'll say is that I'm just fine with Hal Holbrook receiving Into the Wild's only nomination this year (though if it had to be nominated for something, I'd rather it gone to Catherine Keener). And Once's chances at a Best Original Song win increased extraordinarily without the competition of Eddie Vedder.

And, you guessed it, I beat Mike in our Battle #2, though you probably didn't guess that I would have only beat him by 1 single point! The rules stipulate that he's going to have to wine and dine me in the near future, and you best believe that shit gunna be expensive! Here's how the shit went down (me in red, him in blue):

Best Picture: 20 / 18
Best Director: 16 / 13
Best Actor: 18 / 19
Best Actress: 15 / 17
Best Supporting Actor: 20 / 20
Best Supporting Actress: 17 / 16
Best Original Screenplay: 18 / 18
Best Adapted Screenplay: 19 / 17
Wild Card: 14 / 18

Neither Mike nor I were aware that Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood was disqualified for using other material and previously recorded material, so that screwed my wild card further. Anyway, here are the full nominations.

Suffering

I have been trying to write a number of posts over the weekend, but both a cold and writer's block have gotten the best of me, so I'll keep this brief. Benten Films announced their third DVD release, Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake starring Will Oldham, for 29 April. The new studio continues their streak of releasing American cinema from young, unique voices. That's all for now.

Asshole 400

If you're feeling superficial: You're in good company! This is my 400th fucking post and instead of making a boring list of films or bitching about the Oscars, I'm just going to post 20 photos of filmic individuals who I'd give the business to (for a variety of reasons...). Yeah, I'm shallow. And no, I'm not sexually confused, but would you really turn down Asia Argento or Grace Jones? Not this faggot.

In no particular order:
Rosanna Arquette (pictured with Thom Yorke, to whom the business would not be given)
Monica Vitti (I like the variety in hair color I get with L'avventura or La notte)
PJ Harvey (Um, she was in Hal Hartley's The Book of Life, so it counts)
Paul Schneider (In George Washington)
The Renier brothers, Jérémie et Yannick (Together... in Private Property)
Romain Duris (Yikes, I'll take him in anything, especially The Beat That My Heart Skipped)
Grégoire Colin (Again, in anything, take your pick, but how about Beau travail?)
Harry Baer (in Gods of the Plague, definitely)
Jane Fonda (pre-exercise tapes, maybe even in Vietnam)
Jean-Marc Barr (Post-The Big Blue)
Lior Ashkenazi (Late Marriage, Walk on Water)
Daniel Hendler (Family Law, though really anything)
Emmanuelle Seigner (particularly in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and with Roman Polanski watching)
Gina Gershon (hell, and Jennifer Tilly too)
Grace Jones (!!!!)
Aiden Gillen (Either with crazy hair or as Mayor Carcetti on The Wire)
Alain Delon (Purple Noon or L'Eclisse)
Asia Argento (with blood, lots of it, and her dad filming)
Béatrice Dalle (Betty Blue 4-ever)
Bibi Andersson (Persona)

Dare-aoke #2

Tekkonkinkreet - dir. Michael Arias - 2006 - Japan

Yuck. Where to begin? I neglected to mention in my first post that there are other individuals who aren't Mike involved in this project. The notion of watching shitty movies is addictive, what can I say? Before even receiving my second film, I issued a blanket rule for my viewing, one which unfortunately did not apply to this week. I said, "absolutely no fucking animation. No anime, no Disney, no fucking Garfield." I had suspected that the person choosing for me this week was going to give me the ol' knee-in-the-crotch, and boy was I right. Tekkonkinkreet? What the fuck? I don't even know how to pronounce that, nor do I even know what to say about it. Though I gave Mike a real doozy of awfulness (Prey for Rock and Roll with Gina Gershon, Drea de Matteo and Lori Petty!), I'd imagine that his viewing probably went down easier than mine. I can't tell you a single thing about Tekkonkinkreet except that I hated it. Actually, I just hate anime, and there isn't anyone or any film that's going to change that in my mind. I hate children and I hate the way the Japanese think children talk. I hate the way the Japanese animate, and above all, I'm not a fucking wiener with a pot belly and back hair that would be the normal audience for such a film. I know I'm being closed-minded, but anime to me is the sort of thing I don't even dignify with a justification of my hatred, as controversial as that seems. Perhaps I don't even know why I hate it, but let's just say the gods were not looking in my favor when I got my second entry of dare-aoke.

Bitch, bitch, moan, moan

I think it's only now hit me the fact that the Academy Awards snubbed the two biggest sure-bets of the foreign film category: 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days from Romania and Persepolis from France. I can let it slide that The Orphanage from Spain didn't make the cut (I've talked to a few that hated it as much as Joshua... ha!), but those two?? I was initially irked by the fact that Mike has taken an unprecedented five point lead against me in our Oscar nominations poll, but it's official: the Academy Award for best foreign film is a complete sham. And I haven't even seen either of the movies that have provoked these feelings! I think I literally gasped when Volver didn't make the final five nominees last year, as not only was it the best of the lot, but it was better than all of the nominees for Best Picture anyway (even last year's winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck expressed his befuddlement in Volver's absence when I interviewed him last year, particularly its snub over Pan's Labyrinth). And for that matter, so was Paul Verhoeven's Black Book which wasn't nominated either. As further proof of the Academy's confusion when it comes to foreign language titles, you can look no further than City of God or Y tu mamá también, two films submitted by their respective countries as official entries for the foreign category, not nominated, and then nominated a year later in other categories (as different rules apply based on a US theatrical release). "Well, we fucked up with those ones and gave some awards to movies no one will remember like Nowhere in Africa." Even the film that would otherwise be the frontrunner in the Foreign race, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, couldn't be nominated - as France chose Persepolis as their pick this year instead. Every year something shitty happens in regards to this category and every year we hope that something will change. (The only change that's occurred in the foreign rulings is the allowance of films whose language does not have to be in the official language of the country submitting it, a problem faced with Lukas Moodysson's Lilja 4-ever from Sweden and averted by Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light from Mexico and Manoel de Oliveira's Belle toujours from Portugal) Perhaps nothing will change, but if 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Persepolis get completely snubbed this year (both are eligible in all the other categories), hopefully someone will speak out.

Here are a bunch of notable films that got snubbed this year:
XXY - dir. Lucía Puenzo - Argentina
The Silly Age [La edad de la peseta] - dir. Pavel Giroud - Cuba
Persepolis - dir. Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi - France
The Edge of Heaven [Auf der anderen Seite] - dir. Fatih Akin - Germany
Exiled - dir. Johnnie To - Hong Kong
Silent Light [Stellet licht] - dir. Carlos Reygadas - Mexico
Belle toujours - dir. Manoel de Oliveira - Portugal
4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days [4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile] - dir. Cristian Mungiu - Romania
King of Fire - dir. Chatrichalerm Yukol - Thailand

Here's the ones that made it:
The Counterfeiters [Die Fälscher] - dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky - Austria
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation [O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias] - dir. Cao Hamburger - Brazil
Days of Darkness [L'âge des ténèbres] - dir. Denys Arcand - Canada
Beaufort - dir. Joseph Cedar - Israel
The Unknown [La sconosciuta] - dir. Giuseppe Tornatore - Italy
Mongol - dir. Sergei Bodrov - Kazakhstan
Katyn - dir. Andrzej Wajda - Poland
12 - dir. Nikita Mikhalkov - Russia
The Trap [Klopka] - dir. Srdan Golubovic - Serbia

Arcand (The Barbarian Invasions), Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, yuuuuck!), Wajda (honorary award) and Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) are all previous Oscar winners.

Godard, Bette Davis and another zombie celebrity, together at last

Via Eric, Koch Lorber will be releasing Godard's La chinoise, with Jean-Pierre Léaud and Anne Wiazemsky, in May. 2008 is lining up to be the year of Godard on Region 1 disc, as Lionsgate has already announced their set, Pierrot le fou is coming from Criterion and Koch has also mentioned that Le gai savoir will be available sometime later this year (also via Eric).

Water Bearer Films will be releasing the latest from Todd Verow, a director I have negative- to mixed-feelings about, on DVD in March. Hooks to the Left is shot entirely on a cell phone, chronicling a young man's return to prostitution after a bad break-up. Verow is probably most famous for his unsuccessful adaptation of Dennis Cooper's Frisk in 1994.

20th Century Fox will be releasing the Hammer horror film The Nanny, starring Bette Davis, as part of their Bette Davis Centennial Celebration Collection, which will also include a two-disc of All About Eve, as well as Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Virgin Queen and Phone Call from a Stranger. All will be available separately as well as in the set. Cross another off the MIA list.

A special edition of Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (another title I'm embarrassed I haven't seen) will be available on both DVD and Blu-Ray at the beginning of April. If you're concerned with how I'm doing on eradicating my cinematic negligence, I watched Gilliam's Brazil for the first time this past week. How about that?

Lionsgate will release the Alain Delon collection in the same fashion they did with the Brigitte Bardot box. The set includes The Widow Couderc, Julien Duvivier's Diabolically Yours, La piscine, Le gitan and Bertrand Blier's Notre histoire.

New Yorker will finally release Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's The Last Supper in March, despite false alarms sometime last spring. This could bode will for Paris vu par... which was also incorrectly announced by certain websites at the same time. New Yorker will also have out Abderrahmane Sissako's Bamako a week later.

The Weinstein Company has postponed the releases of Christophe Honoré's Dans Paris and Anton Corbijn's Control until mid-March. The documentary Joy Division, acquired along with Control but never released into theatres, will be available on the same day as Control, also chronicling the rise and fall of the influential band.

Zeitgeist will be releasing Peter Delpeut's Diva Dolorosa in March, a pseudo-documentary using archival footage of silent-era Italian cinema. Zeitgeist previously released a two-film set of Delpeut's Lyrical Nitrate and Forbidden Quest.

It looks as though The Weinstein Company have officially forgone a theatrical release for the French horror film Inside (À l'intérieur) and set a date for 15 April. Their intentions were to keep the film intact, so it will likely be available in an "unrated director's cut" version. However, keeping it from a theatrical release is still rather disappointing. Tartan Films, a division of Genius Products, will finally be releasing Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer on DVD in March as well.

Music Video Distributors will be releasing the documentary Richard Kern: Extra Action (and Extra Hardcore), which chronicles his life as a photographer of natural looking women getting naked, in March. The disc reportedly has previously unreleased shorts available though I haven't been able to find out which ones those might be. I'll be sure to get back to you when I find that out.

New Video/Docurama will have out Lynn Hershman-Leeson's documentary Strange Culture in March as well. The film features her frequent actress Tilda Swinton as well as Thomas Jay Ryan and Peter Coyote.

The documentary Who Is Henry Jaglom? will be out late-March from First Run Features. The film takes a look at the New Year's Day and Last Summer in the Hamptons' director, an acquired taste for sure, and features plenty of famous talking heads including Dennis Hopper, Candice Bergen, Karen Black, Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, Milos Forman and Martha Plimpton.

TLA Releasing has Socket, a queer horror film in the vain of David Cronenberg, in March, along with the British horror film The Living and the Dead, which I've heard excellent things about. More about these two around the time of their release.

And, finally, I figured I'd mention, in case you hadn't heard, the untimely passing of troubled former-child star Brad Renfro, who died yesterday in his home. The actor became famous alongside Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in The Client to go on to act in films such as Bully, Apt Pupil and Ghost World. He was reportedly working on a film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' collection of short stories The Informers, with Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger and Billy Bob Thornton.

Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw!

Already, Mike has taken the unofficial lead in our Oscar nominees battle as the Academy released their nine finalists in the category of Best Foreign-Language Film, which shockingly did not include this year's Palme d'Or winner 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days (or France's Persepolis). I suppose I thought too much of the Academy that they would allow a film about abortion or an animated film make it the cut. Shame on me.

And... a proposition for a proposition

I'm strongly considering hosting my own blog-a-thon and the topic would have to combine two of my favorite things: sex and cinema. If I proposed such blog-a-thon and set a date for, perhaps, Valentine's Day, would this interest anyone? And would you tell your fellow blogger friends? I have this fear that the Sex and Cinema blog-a-thon would go over as well as a nightmare I used to have where I'd throw a party and no one would show up. Plus, who doesn't like writing about, watching or having sex? Feedback encouraged.

Huevos de oro

So, yeah, those Golden Globes. I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about how they turn out, even more so than for being the first of three cutthroat competitions Mike at Hetero-erotica and I partake in this time of year. I suppose the backlash is already beginning, thanks to their non-ceremony tonight in which two dolts from Access Hollywood (I think?) read off the nominees and (some of the) winners. I'd personally like to thank Marion Cotillard and Julie Christie for putting me ahead of the game and trumping Mike in battle number one, but how about Juno going home empty handed? And Julian Schnabel winning best director? The Globes started the backlash trend by shutting Sean Penn's Into the Wild out of all the major awards (thank God) and have begun to suggest that maybe Hollywood isn't as smitten with Juno as the numbers may suggest. No Country for Old Men, the frontrunner in the best picture race, also lost to Atonement, a film I had suspected would have gotten the backlash long before No Country.

Tonight also marked the day that Mike and I had to turn in our Oscar ballots, better known as Battle #2. The rules were a little different this year. We both got six choices for the big categories: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supp. Actor, Supp. Actress, Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay (foreign is such a weird category, and unlike last year, the Academy didn't narrow their choices down to ten). The choices were to be ranked in order of probability, giving the person 6 points for their number 1, 5 for number 2, and so on. In order to make things a bit more interesting, we also threw in a wild card category, in which we could list six picks for any of the categories not mentioned, also in order of probability. It's an effective system if you care to use it or care to waste time being a dork like Mike and I love to do. Being the clueless saps we are, we didn't realize that those Academy Award nominations won't be announced until 23 January, but we decided to finalize our choices tonight anyway. My choices will be in red; Mike's will be in blue. They are as follows:

Best Picture
6 points: No Country for Old Men / No Country for Old Men
5 points: There Will Be Blood / Atonement
4 points: Atonement / The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3 points: Michael Clayton / There Will Be Blood
2 points: Juno / Michael Clayton
1 point: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly / Juno

Best Director
6p: The Coen Brothers - NCFOM / The Coen Brothers - NCFOM
5p: Paul Thomas Anderson - TWBB / Paul Thomas Anderson - TWWB
4p: Julian Schnabel - TDBATB / Joe Wright - Atonement
3p: Joe Wright - Atonement / Sidney Lumet - BTDKYD
2p: Sidney Lumet - BTDKYD / Julian Schnabel - TDBATB
1p: Tony Gilroy - MC / Sean Penn - ITW

Best Actor
6p: Daniel Day-Lewis - TWBB / Daniel Day-Lewis - TWWB
5p: George Clooney - MC / George Clooney - MC
4p: Viggo Mortensen - EP / Viggo Mortensen - EP
3p: Johnny Depp - ST / Johnny Depp - ST
2p: James McAvoy - Atonement / Ryan Gosling - LATRG
1p: Frank Langella - SOITE / James McAvoy - Atonement

Best Actress
6p: Julie Christie - AFH / Ellen Page - Juno
5p: Marion Cotillard - LVER / Julie Christie - AFH
4p: Ellen Page - Juno / Marion Cotillard - LVER
3p: Keira Knightley - Atonement / Angelina Jolie - AMH
2p: Helena Bonham Carter - ST / Laura Linney - The Savages
1p: Angelina Jolie - AMH / Keira Knightley - Atonement

Best Supporting Actor
6p: Javier Bardem - NCFOM / Javier Bardem - NCFOM
5p: Casey Affleck - TAOJJBTCRF / Casey Affleck - TAOJJBTCRF
4p: Philip Seymour Hoffman - CWW / Philip Seymour Hoffman - CWW
3p: Tom Wilkinson - MC / Hal Holbrook - ITW
2p: Hal Holbrook - ITW / Tom Wilkinson - MC
1p: Max Von Sydow - TDBATB / Tommy Lee Jones - NCFOM

Best Supporting Actress
6p: Amy Ryan - GBG / Amy Ryan - GBG
5p: Cate Blanchett - INT / Tilda Swinton - MC
4p: Tilda Swinton - MC / Cate Blanchett - INT
3p: Catherine Keener - ITW / Catherine Keener - ITW
2p: Saoirse Ryan - Atonement / Kelly Macdonald - NCFOM
1p: Vanessa Redgrave - Atonement / Ruby Dee - AG

Best Original Screenplay
6p: Juno / Juno
5p: The Savages / Ratatouille
4p: Michael Clayton / Michael Clayton
3p: Ratatouille / Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2p: Waitress / The Savages
1p: I'm Not There / Lars and the Real Girl

Best Adapted Screenplay
6p: No Country for Old Men / No Country for Old Men
5p: There Will Be Blood / There Will Be Blood
4p: Atonement / Atonement
3p: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly / Charlie Wilson's War
2p: Charlie Wilson's War / The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
1p: Away from Her / Gone Baby Gone

Wild Card
6p: Ratatouille - Animated Film / Roger Deakins - NCFOM - Cinematography
5p: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Foreign Film / Roger Deakins - TWBB - Cinematography
4p: No End in Sight - Documentary / Ratatouille - Animated Film
3p: Janusz Kaminski - TDBATB - Cinematography / No End in Sight - Documentary
2p: Jonny Greenwood - TWBB - Score / Dario Marianelli - Atonement - Score
1p: "Falling Slowly" - Once - Original Song / Jonny Greenwood - TWBB - Score

A New Year's Resolution

In browsing my video store's classics library, I realized that I'm probably about as big of a douche bag as Dane Cook is. I'm shocked at how many important films (and I'm not saying just because a video stores deems a film a 'classic' means anything more than just 'it's old') I haven't seen, and how many terrible, terrible films I have. Perhaps with this weekly "dare-aoke" in which I have to watch a film I'd normally scoff at, I should throw in a film that I'm embarrassed to admit not having seen it (I haven't seen a lot of movies I would like to have due to availability, so I'm referring to films that are readily available to me instead). Here's ten sad examples, and feel free to share your own, as I'm sure I'm not the only sucker out there.

I've seen Marci X, but I haven't seen North by Northwest.
I've seen It's Pat, but I haven't seen Casablanca.
I've seen Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, but I haven't seen Once Upon a Time in the West.
I've seen Jury Duty, but I haven't seen Das Boot.
I've seen Phat Girlz, but I haven't seen Rebecca.
I've seen Batman & Robin, but I haven't seen The Apartment.
I've seen The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps, but I haven't seen Barton Fink.
I've seen Sudden Death, but I haven't seen Nights of Cabiria.
I've seen Exit to Eden, but I haven't seen Tokyo Story.
I've seen Sliver (more than once), but I haven't seen M.

Unfortunately, I could probably go on from there, but you get the picture. Hopefully 2008 will be the rear of eradicating my shameful ignorance.

Dare-aoke: Part 1

Good Luck Chuck - dir. Mark Helfrich - 2007 - USA

Good Luck Chuck is the first in a series of blog posts that I will be making throughout the year, in which I'm dared to watch something that I would never choose to watch on my own. My homegirl Mike over at Hetero-erotica was the man responsible for this horrendous viewing party, where I, at least, got my basement cleaned while enduring Dane Cook's feeble attempt at deriving laughs from stupid viewers. I'm looking at its IMDb page right now and if you want an example of how good Good Luck Chuck is, the first two plot keywords listed are "hit in groin" and "non-statutory female-on-male rape." Ya dig? You probably won't here. The laugh-count hit a whopping zero, and when you multiply that by the numbers of breasts seen in the film.... you still get zero. I wish I had more to say here other than, "surprise! this blows!" but if you've ever seen Dane Cook or Jessica Alba before, you'd spot the redundancy in that statement a mile away. I think what astounds me most is how I can't even picture anyone deriving the least bit of enjoyment out of this, but - really - don't help me out with that. Up next week: Boondock Saints (yeah, yuck).

3 Honorary Awards

I kind of rushed myself to get the 1st Annual Fin de cinema Film Awards published that I forgot three very important awards to bestow. My apologies to the recipients.

The John Malkovich Award: Michelle Monaghan - Gone Baby Gone

The John Malkovich Award goes to the outstandingly bad/forgettable/annoying performance in an otherwise decent film. I'm kind of stretching the word "decent" for Gone Baby Gone, but Michelle Monaghan was so exceptional in being more of a set piece than an actor that I couldn't have her go home empty-handed. She literally cowers opposite every single actor in the movie (Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Amy Ryan, Ed Harris) to the point that makes the audience question why she's even there in the first place. She's the "love interest" whose purpose only comes late in the film, and by that time, you've forgotten why you should even care what she has to say, or how her opinion would affect Casey Affleck.

Runners-Up: David Strathairn - The Bourne Ultimatum; Brad Pitt - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [for being another example of Casey Affleck's performance rendering another actor's absolutely forgettable]

The Teaching Mrs. Tingle Award: Catherine Keener - Into the Wild

The Teaching Mrs. Tingle Award goes to the actor who manages to still retain their usual "fabulousness" despite working under the conditions of a shitty movie (read: Helen Mirren). Into the Wild sucks. I've bitched and moaned about it for months now. Catherine Keener is radiant in just about everything she does (as long as it's not playing a stock character in a stock movie like The Interpreter). In Into the Wild, she manages to hit a home-run every time she's onscreen, which for the laboring runningtime certainly isn't enough. What's also remarkable about Keener's performance here is that she isn't condemned to her usual role of ice queen cunt, which admittedly she does wonderfully. Her performance is probably the only authentic moment of Into the Wild, even though more people are leaning toward Hal Holbrook.

Runners-Up: Marion Cotillard - La Vie en rose; Tea Leoni - You Kill Me [It really pains me to say that, but it's true]; Margot Martindale - Paris je t'aime

The Best (And, Therefore, Gayest) Idea for a Broadway Musical: Xanadu

All this talk in my comment forum about Xanadu reminded me, "how could I forget to shamelessly include Xanadu as an award recipiant this year?" Certain films, like Xanadu, exude time-frame, so giving it an award for 2007 is perfectly acceptable in my book. Thankfully, for those who would disagree, there's validity to its inclusion: it was the surprising hit of the Broadway season this year. A lot of people were surprised, but not me. When I found out that they were still going to use such songs as "Suddenly" and the rousing closing-number "Xanadu," I knew they had a hit-in-the-making, even if the film itself never took off when it hit theatres. I'm sure the Electric Light Orchestra music is probably sadly missing from the production, but I've got to hand it to Broadway for adapting a Hollywood film in dire need of a revival, because, well, Broadway is about as fresh out of ideas as Hollywood is.

List #5: The First Annual Fin de cinema Film Awards

So, the Golden Globes ceremony is canceled and someone's going to read the winners off... and I don't care. Instead, I've made a list of my own awards, which will hopefully be a bit more interesting than what you might have seen at the Globes and won't be giving any awards to Diablo Cody, except maybe an honorary award to her parents for giving their daughter the most unfortunate name in all of Hollywood. Alas, here they are (most of them sexual), Fin de cinema's Specialized Awards for the Best (and Worst) of 2007.

Best Fuck Scene: Kim Dickie and Tony Curran - Red Road

Let's start this baby off right! Not only was Dickie and Curran's graphic cunnilingus and fucking so perfectly intricate to the story and the emotions of the characters involved, but it was pretty sizzling otherwise. I guess a lot of the intensity came from not expecting its explicitness, especially after debuting at Cannes, where you can always expect to see a couple unsimulated blow jobs in competition (um, The Brown Bunny and Battle in Heaven are recent examples). But Red Road is not only from a woman's perspective but from a female director and should probably go down in history as the best oral-sex-on-a-woman scene in history.

Runners-Up: Tang Wei and Tony Leung - Lust, Caution [PS: do you think they really fucked? My friend Mike sure does.]; Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead [what a way to open a film!]


Best Film to Invoke a Fear in Religion (tie): There Will Be Blood and The Mist

As many of you haven't seen There Will Be Blood, I won't go into much detail as its anti-religion content comes late into the film. In The Mist, there's a small debate going around as to determining its stance on religion, specifically fire-and-brimstone Christianity. On one hand, Marcia Gay Harden is absolutely terrifying as the ringleader and their savage sacrificing of the guy with creepy eyebrows, at the very least, depicts them as hypocritical, cruel and stupid. On the other hand, what if Harden's preaching breathes true in the end? Decide for yourself, but whether she's right or not, The Mist fears the fanatically- religiously-inclined than it does the reaper.

Best Musical Scene: "Falling Slowly" - Once

A friend of mine and I have concurred that listening to the soundtrack to Once isn't nearly as effective as watching the songs performed in the film. This is either due to the Hedwig and the Angry Inch syndrome (in which, perhaps, the music works better in the context of the musical than it does outside of it) or because most of Glen Hansard's music just works better when you see the intensity in his face. It's all about those eyes and those eyebrows, I'm telling you. The best moment of the scene in which Glen and Marketa Irglova sing "Falling Slowly" comes when the director cuts to the man who owns the music shop where they're singing. That moment wonderfully takes you outside, looking in, and reminds you of how intense and intimate singing together truly can be.

Runner-Up: The Corny Collins dance-off - Hairspray (as long as you close your eyes when John Travolta shows up)

The Vincent Gallo Award: Julie Delpy - writer, director, star, music supervisor, and editor for 2 Days in Paris

The Vincent Gallo Award goes to the person who displays the most overt self-congratulations and self-adoration in cinematic vanity. I'm pretty sure that if it were humanly possible, Ms. Delpy would have shot the film herself, except that would have taken away from her appearing onscreen, which is much more important of an ego booster when you think about it. However, the credentials alone didn't give Delpy this esteemed prize, but the fact that she depicted herself as, probably, the most desirable woman in all of Paris. Sweetheart, I think Ludivine Sagnier would have something to say about that.

Best Documentary: The Cats of Mirikitani - dir. Linda Hattendorf

The Cats of Mirikitani works so well because of its sheer curiosity. You don't have to know anything about the film outside of seeing it to understand why Hattendorf would have made this portrait of Jimmy Mirikitani, a street artist in New York City. She also doesn't adhere to any of the set rules of a documentary, taking her subject into her home, featuring herself in it (not in an act of vanity like the previous award). It's touching without losing an essential element of mystery.

Runner-Up: Sicko - dir. Michael Moore

Best Nude Scene: Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

I don't care if you're gay or straight, man, woman, or child, there's no question in my mind that Viggo Mortensen's bathhouse fight scene is the best in film nudity this year. It's ballsy (no, no, no pun intended), exuberant and exciting. It's also probably the only nude scene in recent memory that's used to reflect a mood, instead of just titillation, and though I regret choosing a naked scene that's almost entirely non-sexual (except maybe for those who enjoy violence with their cock), I could choose no other.

Runners-Up: All the ladies in The Exterminating Angels; Marisa Tomei - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; Carice von Houten - Black Book

Worst Use of Nudity (tie): Beowulf; I Know Who Killed Me; The Brave One

All three have been selected for different reasons, though most deserve to be mentioned for (in their own way) hiding the 'goods.' The naked fight scene between Beowulf and Grendel in Beowulf is exactly the opposite of Viggo Mortensen, which I described as more Austin Powers than it is Eastern Promises. Whether it was an MPAA issue or not, Beowulf jumping across banisters fighting the giant monster, all in the nude, was just laughable. And I'd rather not see a nude, animated Angelina Jolie again. In the case of I Know Who Killed Me, the question of believability soured it. Are we supposed to believe that the "gentlemen" attending the strip club would really line up to see Lindsay Lohan twirl around a pole when she doesn't even take off her damn top? All the rest of the sluts have theirs off, so why would they bother with Lindsay? I'd rather the director keep the pasties on the other girls because at least then we could imagine the club to not feature any nudity at all. Plus, who hasn't seen Lohan's nip-slips and beave-flashes all over the Internet already? With The Brave One, Neil Jordan tried to show us how intimate and loving a couple Jodie Foster and Naveen Andrews were (before he's killed, of course), giving us a forced sex scene where it appears Foster's body double is giving the audience some nipple action. Spare us; we know it isn't Jodie's tits on display, and if I really wanted to see a hot Jodie Foster sex scene, I could just rent The Accused.

Best Biopic: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dir. Julian Schnabel

If you know me well enough, you know how much I absolutely hate the cinematic biopic. This year proved that it isn't just Hollywood that does it wrong, but other countries too (that means you, La Vie en rose). Thankfully, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly rose above its trappings, creating something lurid, artful and dazzling. It still deals with the inspirational, but Julian Schnabel handles it well... better in fact than his previous Basquiat and Before Night Falls. It also has the benefit of not being about anyone American audiences would recognize.

Runner-Up: Control - dir. Anton Corbijn

Best Leftist Propaganda Posing as Film: Year of the Dog - dir. Mike White

The title of this award sounds condescending, but in fact, most films that fall under this category usually end up tickling my fancy. My favorite sub-genre of the leftist propaganda is the vegetarian wing (perhaps because I happen to be one). My friend Chris described Marina de Van's gory, masochistic In My Skin (Dans ma peau) as one of the most effective pushing of not eating meat he'd ever seen, and Year of the Dog gets my vote this year. Mike White balances Year of the Dog on a thin rail, where you're not always sure whether to empathize or laugh at the animal lover in Molly Shannon. By the end, you're pretty sure it's choice A as Shannon comes to fully understand her place in the world that refuses to understand her. Plus, she buys a copy of Babe for her young niece to scare her away from eating meat. When my brothers have kids, I'm going to do the exact same thing... kids are so easy to manipulate, especially when you can bait them with cuteness.

Best Cinematography: Agnès Godard - Golden Door [Nuovomundo]

Wow, if this wasn't the toughest category to narrow down... And I know my pick probably wasn't the most popular of choices, but, as this is the first annual Film Awards from Fin de cinema, I'm giving Ms. Godard the award for her cumulative work, kind of in the same way Judi Dench won her Oscar. Godard has shot a number of my favorite films, and not just my favorite films, but my favorite aesthetically-pleasing ones: Beau travail, Trouble Every Day and L'Intrus for Claire Denis, Wild Side for Sébastian Lifschitz, and The Dreamlife of Angels for Erick Zonca. She really accomplishes amazing work in Golden Door, in dealing with the surreal, the period detail, and lack of scenery change (just about the entire film takes place on a boat). I really could have given this to a number of other cinematographers, as 2007 was a year for jaw-dropping visuals (and I haven't even seen the new Wong Kar-wai film yet).

Runners-Up: Janusz Kaminski - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Roger Deakins - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men; Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood; Oliver Wood - The Bourne Ultimatum; Karl Walter Lindenlaub - Black Book

Best 2006 Film I Didn't See Until 2007: Mutual Appreciation - dir. Andrew Bujalski

Oh, what beauty, what awkwardness, what purity. Mutual Appreciation is exquisite on every level and marks Andrew Bujalski as my favorite American filmmaker working under the radar.

Runners-Up: Old Joy - dir. Kelly Reichardt; Wild Tigers I Have Known - dir. Cam Archer

The Macy Gray Award: Sigourney Weaver - Snow Cake

The esteemed Macy Gray Award goes to a particularly performance that is embarrassingly miscalculated to the point that it achieves greatness in its awfulness. I could think of no better recipient this year than Sigourney Weaver in my favorite hate-love movie Snow Cake. She certainly has the Cuba Gooding Jr. advantage of playing a mentally handicapped individual (her character has autism), but Ms. Weaver takes her performance to soaring heights of absurdity in every scene she graces her presence with.

Runner-Up: John Travolta - Hairspray

Best Way to Kill Your Otherwise-Wonderful Film: Fay Grim

I hate Hal Hartley, and more than just hating him, I hate Henry Fool. Naturally, I had little desire to see a sequel to the overpraised, irritating Fool, but seeing as how Parker Posey was going to take the lead instead of Thomas Jay Ryan... and for about the first two-thirds of Fay Grim, Hartley's little experiment worked. Then, here comes Ryan reprising his role as Henry. And there goes the film's pulse.

Best Way to Revive Your Otherwise-Awful Film: The Bubble

Eytan Fox's The Bubble is quite a chore to behold. It's a comedy that lets you know early on its love for Sex & the City which is a killer in its own right. It's a melodrama that hopes you don't mind tossing out plausibility. And it's a fuckin' hippy parable of love conquering adversity. And it's fucking shit. However, in the film's final moments, Fox puts all of his stupid characters in their place and leaves his audience with a chilling, unexpected climax. The Bubble thus serves as a litmus test for a date. Most of the people who enjoyed the rest of the film hated the ending, and vice versa. Their reaction should tell you a lot.

Best Masturbation Scene: John Krasinski - Smiley Face

So, I didn't have a whole lot to choose from, and throwing the sexy awards to The Exterminating Angels is perhaps too obvious in circles of people who actually know what the film is. So, how about that scene in Smiley Face? It's not graphic, nor is it sexy, but it at least allows Gregg Araki to return to his Nowhere days properly by inserting an unnecessary shot of John Krasinski jerking off in the shower (sound familiar?) to Anna Farris. Plus, special kudos to the hairy chest and surprising us with how good The Office star looks without a shirt on. Who knew?

Runner-Up: Nicole Kidman - Margot at the Wedding

Worst First-Name of an Actor: Jessica - for Alba, Simpson, and Biel

Can you think of a worse trio of "actors" who share a first name? Probably, but I don't feel like racking my brain. And, whoever you come up with probably won't match the fucking shithole careers that the three Jessicas made for themselves this year. Alba gave us such abortions as Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Good Luck Chuck, The Ten and Awake (her other non-multiplex film, Bill, is reportedly dreadful too), all which exhibiting her desert-like void of charisma and charm. Ms. Biel wasn't nearly as busy in 2007, but she didn't fail in bringing her questionable stardom to two notable turds this year: I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Next. Fortunately, everyone who lives outside of Texas didn't have to make the decision to skip Jessica Simpson's Blonde Ambition, as it only played in a few select theatres in the talentless starlet's home state. You will have your opportunity to skip over renting it when it hits DVD shelves in a few weeks.

The Take Away My Oscar Right Now Award: Nicolas Cage - Ghost Rider and Next

Oh, Nicolas Cage. I don't think either of your performances this year were as bad as yours in The Wicker Man, but what a shitty year you've had! Okay, I'm sure a bunch of dorks really liked the sequel to National Treasure (it sure did make a lot of money), but that doesn't mean that your Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas shouldn't be revoked for the other duds you churned out this year. Even your enjoyably hammy cameo in Rob Zombie's She-Wolves of the SS trailer in Grindhouse couldn't put you a notch below Cuba Gooding Jr., who only has one lousy starring role this year.

Runner-Up: Cuba Gooding Jr. - Daddy Day Camp

Dreamboat of the Year: Javier Bardem

Spanish hunk Javier Bardem told the Coen brothers, when they suggested the moppy hairdo for his character in No Country for Old Men, that he should thank them for guaranteeing that he wouldn't get laid for a year afterwards. Au contraire, mi amigo, for No Country for Old Men (and the seven people who saw Love in the Time of Cholera) gave American audiences their first real exposure to the dreamboat of a man international film lovers have been pining over for years. The first thing my friend Jessie had to say about No Country for Old Men was how perverse she felt for finding Bardem so irresistibly sexy even while he was killing people. I responded, "I think we're getting into the root of your relationship problems, Jessie," but I was only pulling her chain. I know her sentiment was felt by many.

Runner-Up: Daniel Day-Lewis

Most Deliciously Pervy Scene in a Film: Joshua

There's a moment in Joshua that I will never forget. In it, little Joshua spooks his mother Vera Farmiga as she's getting a glass of water in the kitchen. He startles her, which causes a glass to break then manipulates her to walk into it. She sits on the ground as the blood consumes her foot and tells her son about a sexy pair of red boots she once owned, all while rubbing the blood from her foot up her leg. It's absolutely saucy.

Runner-Up: The threeway lesbo scene in The Exterminating Angels

Best Direct-to-DVD Release: Sombre - dir. Philippe Grandrieux

The direct-to-video market was once the dumping ground for cheap Jean-Claude Van Damme action films that no studio wished to embarrass themselves with giving a theatrical release. Though some studios are still throwing out bad DTV sequels to theatrical films like Boogeyman, The Dukes of Hazard, and Wild Things, some more respectable studios are releasing foreign gems that were never picked up by a distributor when they first hit theatres internationally. Sombre is a tense, agonizing film about a serial killer that will hopefully sit in your mind for days afterward. Sombre has been my film no one's seen to champion for 2007, so excuse me for taking another opportunity to do so.

And for the technical awards (or just the ones I don't feel like elaborating on):

Best Dressed: Parker Posey - Fay Grim
Worst Casting: Albert Finney - The Bourne Ultimatum [why cast someone who looks exactly like Brian Cox? Why not just bring Brian Cox back to life?]
Best Unofficial Remake: Zodiac - dir. David Fincher (All the President's Men)
Best Dialogue: Starting Out in the Evening - written by Fred Parnes, Andrew Wagner
Best Moment Featuring Sharon Stone: When Ms. Stone dons a fat suit and gives us the always reliable laugh-cry - Alpha Dog
The Return to Form Award: Rose McGowan - Grindhouse
Worst Second-Viewing of a Film I Liked the First Time: Hot Fuzz - dir. Edgar Wright

And finally, to end the awards (I might have continued on, but my computer is being rather uncooperative as of lately), I've listed the twenty best acting performances of 2007, not divided into gender or alloted screen time. They are in no particular order.

Ashley Judd - Bug [Ms. Judd is mentioned also for giving the single finest moment of acting in all of 2007, when she shouts the line, "I am the queen mother bug!" It's perfection.]
Parker Posey - Broken English and Fay Grim
Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald - No Country for Old Men
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton and Stephanie Daley
Anna Farris - Smiley Face
Brittany Murphy - The Dead Girl
Carice von Houten - Black Book
Frank Langella - Starting Out in the Evening
Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Kate Dickie - Red Road
Isabelle Huppert - Private Property and Comedy of Power
Pat Healy, Kene Holliday - Great World of Sound
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en rose
Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga - Joshua
Ulrich Muhe - The Lives of Others
Gordon Pinsent - Away from Her
Leslie Mann - Knocked Up
Catherine Keener - Into the Wild

Ready? Okay!

I have no idea what the Critics Choice Awards are, except that I saw commercials for them all weekend when I was watching the I Love New York 2 marathon (yeah... spare me your grief). Well, they apparently named No Country for Old Men and the Coens as best film and director. In fact, most of their trophies went to the expected winners, though I read that the publicity-whore Diablo Cody is getting a lot of backlash from the Hollywood community for just about everything she's been doing (read: whoring). I won't be sorry to see her go home empty-handed come Oscar night. You can find the rest of the winners at this link from MovieCityNews.com.

Frown-y Face?

I can't really defend or explain why... but Gregg Araki's Smiley Face got to me. Sure, it was probably the worst follow-up Araki could have had after Mysterious Skin, and yeah, it sounds really awful (a pseudo-actress accidentally eats her roommate's pot brownies only to embark on an outrageous journey to pay off her dealer, make sure her electricity doesn't get turned off, go to an audition, and return a copy of the Communist Manifesto to its rightful owner). A fellow Araki-fan-slash-friend-of-mine said, bluntly, "this movie was for all those critics who'd always suspected all Araki was ever doing was making stupid teen movies. Here you go!" In Anna Farris, Araki found probably the most charming lead he could... and, shit, I just don't know how to convince anyone that it's worth their time, especially Araki fans, but it sure was worth mine.

MIA List Update

It's officially 2008, and of the surplus of titles I listed for MIA in 2008 on Region 1 disc, only nine have so far been announced. I also noticed that I included the films Mother Joan of the Angels and Amos Gitai's Promised Land on the list even though they had already been released in the US (albeit by lousy studios, Polart and Sisu, respectively). The titles you can cross off the list are as follows:

I Live in Fear - dir. Akira Kurosawa - Eclipse/Criterion
Le bonheur - dir. Agnès Varda - Criterion
She's Gotta Have It - dir. Spike Lee - MGM
Détective - dir. Jean-Luc Godard - Lionsgate
Passion - dir. Godard - Lionsgate
Hélas pour moi - dir. Godard - Lionsgate
Fiorile - dir. the Taviani brothers - Koch Lorber
The Kingdom 2 - dir. Lars von Trier, Morten Arnfred - Koch Lorber
Lost Highway - dir. David Lynch - Universal

If you have a region-free player, a couple other titles have been announced for Region 2, including Alain Resnais' Je t'aime, je t'aime (08/01), Jacques Rivette's L'amour par terre (25/02), Victor Sjostrom's The Phantom Carriage (11/02), and Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth, retitled Naked Youth in the UK (25/02)

Erections and what to do with them

The Weinstein Company released the 2-disc Indie Sex collection this past Tuesday which features three hour-or-so long specials from IFC with filmmakers, critics and actors discussing the history of sexuality on the screen. I can save you the trouble of watching it by informing you that it's precisely nothing new or eye-opening and perhaps better addressed in films like This Film Is Not Yet Rated or Inside Deep Throat, to name a few. Jami Bernard manages to make a few interesting points, and of course, Shortbus and Hedwig director John Cameron Mitchell is always on board to take any opportunity to let you know how groundbreaking of a filmmaker he is in the realms of sexuality. Curiously, IFC decided to interview a bunch of other folk whose contributions to cinema or even sexuality in cinema are slight at best. Shadowboxer director Lee Daniels and The Quiet and But I'm a Cheerleader director Jamie Babbit are on hand for no apparent reason, not to mention actress Piper Perabo, who seems uncomfortable during the whole interview process. In fact, burlesque dancer Dita Von Tresse, who has no physical relationship to cinema, makes for a much more game interviewee than most. And Peter Sarsgaard is also on board to assure you that all the gay sex he's had onscreen has never slipped into his personal life. Hm.

If you really must indulge your curiosity, the best part of the collection comes on the second disc, which includes a half-hour segment on Sex Taboos, which features wonderful commentary from The Sweet Hereafter director Atom Egoyan, one of the few people with a direct relationship to cinema who appears to have something to actually say about it. The segment is really only worth watching for the much improved crop of talking heads which also includes Allison Anders and the always-reliable John Waters, though the segment itself places most of its importance on Blue Velvet and Crash and not many others. There's also some deleted footage which asks the interviewees a series of questions in which you'll find out that the first sex Ally Sheedy ever saw onscreen came from the film Cabaret and that Rosanna Arquette is finished taking her top off unless Bernardo Bertolucci comes knocking at her door.

Koch Lorber in March/April

Koch Lorber has announced both their March and April DVD releases. On 4 March, they will release En la cama from Chile which takes place almost entirely in a bed and Radiant City, a documentary about suburbia. In April, they will release three films from the Taviani brothers (Padre Padrone): Fiorile, Kaos, and Night of the Shooting Stars. The first two films will make their debut on R1 disc, while the latter will be a new transfer update from the former MGM release.

Lust and Caution; or the Anxieties of a New Year

I’ll be the first to admit I’m overzealous when it comes to making an end-of-the-year list. As awful as it sounds, I usually hate going to the movie theatres. The seats are uncomfortable, the people are rude, I have to sit through commercials beforehand, I hate when people eat during movies, and I’ve become accustomed to seeing films in the comfort of my own home and on my own time schedule. With that said, I never get to see all the films I want to see before the year comes to a close and yet still feel the need to post a list of the best and worst of each year around or before the ball drops in Times Square. In reality, this doesn’t do me or the films justice, as I can never examine their lasting effects on me, particularly when the best of each year usually comes near its end. The music list got me thinking. 2007 began with a lot of new, excellent albums from established musicians (Interpol, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, and what not), and I had already convinced myself that I was going to be fully prepared to make a music list this year, a first for me. By the time December rolled around, I’d discovered maybe two new artists who released music this year and the albums of all the artists mentioned above (except PJ Harvey) had long been out of rotation on my iPod. Studios are always afraid that their early-year releases will get forgotten come award season, and it’s a legitimate fear, because how many films are released in a year that you’re going to remember nine months later? When you see as many as I do, not a whole lot are going to make the cut.

With 2008 now in full-swing, I’m not as concerned about my 2007 list or even the impending 2008 list (I’m pretty sure Rambo will top it though, I’m telling you now), but instead, I’m realizing now that this whole fucking nameless decade is going to end in two short years. I don’t know where the time went, nor do I care wasting more of it by pondering that question, but with 2010 on the horizon, how am I going to decide what were the best films of the decade? What films will best exemplify this subjective division of time? I can say with absolute certainty that none of the films that have thus far won the Best Picture Academy Award will, but will the choices be easy to make? Certainly, one can have their personal favorites of any given decade. Matthew Bright’s Freeway could have come out during any given decade and I’m sure that it would rank as a top ten favorite of whatever timeframe you put it. But, the best? It’s not.

I want films that have memorably shaken me, to the point in which their power only grows upon reflection. For that I can only think of a few films. Catherine Breillat’s Fat Girl will certainly fall high on the list; of that I can assure you. Lars von Trier’s Dogville has a good shot, and so does Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher. I’ve come to an unofficial declaration that the only films that even need to be remembered are the ones that, at simultaneous moments, angered one viewer that was sitting right next to someone who was absolutely enthralled (I’m not referring to the one smart person who accidentally stumbled onto a screening of Delta Farce). Was this the case with Fellini’s La Dolce vita or Bergman’s Persona, two films that I would easily rank among the best of the 60s? Does it matter if they did? I don’t think it does. I would probably throw Antonioni’s L’Eclisse on that list from one of the most lucrative periods of cinema, and I know that pissed people off… but that alone doesn’t justify its placement. If I were to throw out title names now for a proposed list, you could add Mutual Appreciation, Morvern Callar, and Talk to Her to the others.

I think I’m just expressing my love-hate relationship with cinema right now. I exhausted myself with end-of-the-year hoopla, only to have worn out my excitement for film in general (this occurs every couple of months or so)… or maybe it’s even my love-hate relationship with list making. As strongly as I felt about my top 3 (No Country for Old Men, Grindhouse and Black Book), I’m having second (and third and fourth) thoughts about There Will Be Blood, which placed 9 on the final version. Could it actually be the best film of 2007, only to make the eventual best of the decade list over the films I chose above it in this given year? It’s probably the most audience-dividing, afterthought-demanding film I saw all year. And, I’m still torn, because I’d still rather see Carice van Houten topless and getting shit poured on her or Rose McGowan killing zombies with her machine-gun leg. And, yes, even Javier Bardem bringing destiny in the form of grisly death to scattered Texas individuals.

One other thing that keeps bothering me is my reasons for keeping up this blog. I look back at a lot of what I’ve said, and on some of it, I’ve changed my mind, and in other instances, outright disagreed with my own damned self. As for the film reviewing, what am I really providing in structured, glorified plot synopsis and fleeting critique? I’m also not even sure that anyone reads that crap.

I think 2008 will bring about a reassessment of priority and, most importantly, what my purpose is in the examination of cinema. Or even what I’m looking for. Or even what any of it means to me. So for all this mumbling, I wish you a happy, inflective, introspective new year.