Eric Rohmer, 1920-2010

New Films from Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau, Sébastien Lifshitz, Anahí Berneri, Jan Hřebejk, Michael Stock, Others at Berlinale '10

Twenty-five titles were announced for the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival yesterday in the Main Programme, Panorama Special and Panorama Dokumente. The previous announcement included new films from Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese and Jasmila Žbanić. This round of titles includes films from Sébastien Lifshitz which I've mentioned several times previously, Anahí Berneri (Un año sin amor), Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (Jeanne et le garçon formidable, Côte d'Azur), Mat Whitecross (The Road to Guantanamo, The Shock Doctrine), Peter Kern (Gossenkind), E.J. Yong (Untold Scandal), Miguel Albaladejo (Cachorro), Michael Stock (Prinz in Hölleland), Reha Erdam (Times and Winds), Lucy Walker (Devil's Playground), Jan Hřebejk (Divided We Fall) and Scud (City Without Baseball, Permanent Residence). The titles are listed below.

- The Actresses, d. E.J. Yong, South Korea
- Alle meine Stehaufmädchen: Von Frauen, die sich was trauen [All My Tumbler Girls or All About Women Who Dare To...], d. Lothar Lambert, Germany
- Amphetamine, d. Scud, Hong Kong/China
- L'arbre et le forêt [Family Tree], d. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau, France
- Beautiful Darling: The Life And Times Of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar, d. James Rasin, USA
- Besouro, d. João Daniel Tikhomiroff, Brazil
- Blutsfreundschaft [Initiation], d. Peter Kern, Austria/Germany
- Gay Days, d. Yair Qedar, Israel
- Golden Slumber, d. Yoshihiro Nakamura, Japan
- Just Another Love Story, d. Kaushik Ganguly, Rituparno Ghosh, India
- Kawasakiho růže [Kawasaki's Rose], d. Jan Hřebejk, Czech Repblic
- Kosmos, d. Reha Erdam, Turkey/Bulgaria
- Making the Boys, d. Crayton Robey, USA
- El mal ajeno, d. Óskar Santos Gómez, Spain
- The Man Who Sold the World, d. Swel Noury, Imad Noury, Morocco
- Nacidas para sufrir [Born to Suffer], d. Miguel Albaladejo, Spain
- Parade, d. Isao Yukisada, Japan
- Phobidilia, d. Doran Paz, Yoav Paz, Israel
- Plein sud [Going South], d. Sébastien Lifshitz, France
- Por tu culpa [It's Your Fault], d. Anahí Berneri, Argentina/France
- Postcard to Daddy, d. Michael Stock, Germany
- Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, d. Mat Whitecross, UK
- Son of Babylon, d. Mohamed Al-Daradji, Iraq/UK/France/United Arab Emirates/Netherlands/Egypt/Palestine
- Waste Land, d. Lucy Walker, UK/Brazil
- Wiegenlieder [Lullaby], d. Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt, Germany

All My Friends: Millennium Mambo, Take 5: Nathan E. House

A mutual love of Lynne Ramsay and French chanson (combined with a fairly intense disdain for the shitty company we were working for) solidified my friendship with Nathan House. After we parted ways with said shitty employer, we would often find ourselves crossing paths in not-so-unexpected situations (lately: a screening of Made in USA, the St. Vincent concert and a bitter cold house party). You can check out a couple of Nathan's video projects on The Auteurs. Thanks, Nathan.

On Film: All i can say for my turn-of-the-century film list is i picked my favorites, not the best, just the ones i plan to revisit again & again.

L'intrus (Claire Denis, 2004) ~ The phrase 'hauntingly poetic' gets used far too often. After Joe recommended Betty Blue, I did a library search for Béatrice Dalle, the only other film of hers they had was L'intrus. This was my first entry into the world of Claire Denis, & it caught me wildly off guard. I was lulled & hypnotized. I'm sure Beau travail may be her 'best', but L'intrus will always be closest to my heart.

Vicky Christina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008) ~ The best narrative dramatic-comedy-romance Woody has offered us since Husbands & Wives. A stunning screenplay. Vicky Christina Barcelona is a mine-field of diamonds. Beautiful, rare gems exploding everywhere, at the slightest touch of love.

Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000) ~ As a Björk fan, this was my first serving of Von Trier. I still tear up at the 'Next to Last Song', no matter what. The master of cinematic manipulation does it again.

Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont, 2003) ~ This film destroyed me. Utterly unaware of its contents, my jaw hung agape at its audacity. I was mortified; couldn’t get it out of my head for days; still thought about it on a regular basis weeks/months later. A serious challenge; a powerful film.

Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004) ~ The phrase 'hauntingly poetic' gets used far too often.
Never has a tail been used with greater effect.

The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005) ~ The phrase 'hauntingly poetic' gets used far too often.
POCAHONTAS, LEARNING ENGLISH, SPINNING AROUND: "Wind! Wind! Wind!"

Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001) ~ I used to watch this everynight before bed; i think it accounts for the wild dreams I've had in my twenties. That, & legal Native American drugs.

V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005) ~ On a whim I wandered into a movie theatre at 9pm to find out the foreign film i wanted to see didn't start 'til 11. So i moseyed into this after seeing a cardboard advertisement donning Natalie Portman's sexy bald-head. Long-story short, I was enthralled, love its anti-establishment sentiment & ended up liking it better than the foreign film i had originally wanted to see. I love a film about 'the power of ideas'.

Transformers (Michael Bay, 2007) ~ Quality escapist entertainment & funtastic directorial orchestration.
KID ON CELLPHONE RUNNING THROUGH DEMOLISHED STREET: "This is easily a thousand times cooler than Armageddon!!"

Up (Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, 2009) ~ Brilliant comedy. I’ve such a deep admiration for innocent comedy. Comedy that needs no shock-value, degradation/sadism, or subversive ‘adult’ jokes thrown-in. There are so many irreproachably clever jokes along this adventure. A beautifully funny film.


On Music: For this list of my turn-of-the-century favorites, I've decided to single out the artists that I hold closest, & go double-time as I refuse to hold any one of their albums above another.

The Books ~ Thought for Food (2002)
The Books ~ Lemon of Pink (2003)

Erykah Badu ~ Mama's Gun (2000)
Erykah Badu ~ Worldwide Underground (2003)
Erykah Badu ~ New Amerykah: 4th World War (2008)

Parenthetical Girls ~ Safe as Houses (2006)
Parenthetical Girls ~ Entanglements (2008)

Camille ~ Le fil (2005)
Camille ~ Music Hole (2008)

Beirut ~ Gulag Orkestrar (2006)
Beirut ~ Flying Club Cup (2007)

Björk ~ Selmasongs (2000)
Björk ~ Vespertine (2001)

Funky 16 Corners ~ Funky 16 Corners (2001)

Lonely Island ~ Incredibad (2009)

Rifle Recoil ~ Rifle Recoil (2009)

Prince ~ Musicology (2004)
Prince ~ 3121 (2006)

Something Resembling a 2009 Wrap-Up

I'm still of the mind that it's little use for me to create any sort of "Best Of" list for 2009 when it comes to film. More than most years, the 2009 release calendar in the US was difficult, as so many of the notable releases came from years past (a lot of which I'd already seen thanks to importing DVDs when the films' future in the US looked grim). So instead of mulling over a list of official '09 releases, most of which I didn't see, I singled out the films released theatrically in the US within the past twelve months that made the Decade List; or in the case of Fish Tank, premiering internationally... or in the case of Love Exposure, making its festival debut in the US. I will be writing more about both Fish Tank and The White Ribbon once I get a chance to see them again.

1. The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza] / Lucrecia Martel / Strand Releasing
2. Summer Hours [L’heure d’été] / Olivier Assayas / IFC Films
3. Fish Tank / Andrea Arnold / IFC Films
4. Love Exposure / Sion Sono
5. The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band] / Michael Haneke / Sony Pictures Classics
6. 35 Shots of Rum [35 rhums] / Claire Denis / Cinema Guild
7. Liverpool / Lisandro Alonso
8. Taxidermia / György Pálfi / Here! Films
9. Julia / Erick Zonca / Magnolia
10. Tony Manero / Pablo Larraín / Lorber Films
11. Drag Me to Hell / Sam Raimi / Universal

And, following those 11, here's a supplemental list of films that impressed me on some level (alphabetically). Antichrist resonated in ways I didn't expect... Nancy Kissam's Drool balanced its dark humor and self-discovery perfectly, with two hilarious performances from Laura Harring and Jill Marie Jones... The Girlfriend Experience is pretty fantastic and easily the best offering from Soderbergh over the past 10 years... Goodbye Solo defied its Driving Miss Daisy set-up to reveal a painfully sad portrait of two fascinatingly different men... while wholly unnecessary, Halloween 2 was Rob Zombie's love letter to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Rocky Horror Picture Show and Irrèversible, tied with a nasty, tattered bow and a big fuck-you to the original's tedious sequel... like The Seventh Continent minus its misanthropy, Home introduced a new voice in European cinema, Ursula Meier, as well as showcasing a pair of great performances from Isabelle Huppert (in high heel boots!) and Olivier Gourmet... while more of a series pilot than a film, In the Loop was unquestionably the funniest film of '09... a bad idea on nearly every level, Gregor Jordan's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers benefited from working from his weakest book and became the most successful film translation of Ellis' writing... it's always refreshing to see a film, like The Maid, that thwarts every single one of your notions of where you think the narrative is headed... unsettling doesn't begin to describe Martyrs... Silent Light is another radiant film from Mexico's finest auteur, Carlos Reygadas... David Lowery's Malick-esque St. Nick was certainly the best feature directorial debut by an American filmmaker I saw all year... improving upon Boxing Helena isn't hard, but Jennifer Chambers Lynch's second film Surveillance, fifteen years later, is a really enjoyable piece of trash and has the year's most delectably perverse fuck scene (well, aside from Antichrist)...

Antichrist / Lars von Trier / IFC Films
Beeswax / Andrew Bujalski / Cinema Guild
Drool / Nancy Kissam / Strand Releasing
The Girlfriend Experience / Steven Soderbergh / Magnolia
Goodbye Solo / Ramin Bahrani / Roadside Attractions
Halloween 2 / Rob Zombie / The Weinstein Company
Home / Ursula Meier / Lorber Films
In the Loop / Armando Iannucci / IFC Films
Import/Export / Ulrich Seidl / Palisades Tartan
The Informers / Gregor Jordan / Senator
The Limits of Control / Jim Jarmusch / Focus Features
The Maid [La nana] / Sebastián Silva / Elephant Eye Films
Martyrs / Pascal Laugier / The Weinstein Company
Revanche / Götz Spielmann / Janus Films
Silent Light [Stellet licht] / Carlos Reygadas / Palisades Tartan
St. Nick / David Lowery
Surveillance / Jennifer Chambers Lynch / Magnolia
Tetro / Francis Ford Coppola / American Zoetrope
Vinyan / Fabrice Du Welz / Sony Pictures
You, the Living [Du levande] / Roy Andersson / Palisades Tartan
You Wont Miss Me / Ry Russo-Young

...and the lousiest films of the year. Some were dreadfully mediocre (Youth in Revolt), some hilariously inept (Watercolors), some excruciating in every way (Between Love & Goodbye), some were ruined by their incompetent directors (Precious, Jennifer's Body), some were douche parades (Bronson, Donkey Punch), some were chores to get through (Adam, Humpday)... and all were fucking baaaaad.

Adam / Max Mayer / Fox Searchlight
Between Love & Goodbye / Casper Andreas / TLA Releasing
Bronson / Nicolas Winding Refn / Magnolia
Donkey Punch / Oliver Blackburn / Magnolia
Humpday / Lynn Shelton / Magnolia
Jennifer’s Body / Karen Kusama / 20th Century Fox
Make the Yule Tide Gay / Rob Williams / TLA Releasing
Mammoth / Lukas Moodysson / IFC Films
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire / Lee Daniels / Lionsgate
Watercolors / David Oliveras / Here! Films
Youth in Revolt / Miguel Arteta / The Weinstein Company

Spending most of the year focusing on the 2000s, I did a lousy job of keeping up with any film released before 1999, but of those I did see (most of them queer and/or French), these were the stand-outs.

Les corps ouverts / Sébastien Lifshitz
L’eau froide [Cold Water] / Olivier Assayas
L’important c’est d’aimer / Andrzej Żuławski
Loads / Curt McDowell
Made in USA / Jean-Luc Godard
Possession / Andrzej Żuławski
Salomè / Camelo Bene
Le sexe des anges / Lionel Soukaz

And... in a perfect world, I would have seen all of these as well. A wish-list of viewings, from festival premieres to belated US releases. Alas...

24 City / Jia Zhang-ke / Cinema Guild
About Elly / Asghar Farhadi / Here! Films
Accident / Cheang Pou-Soi / Palisades Tartan
Air Doll / Hirokazu Kor-eeda
Ander / Roberto Castón
The Ape [Apan] / Jesper Ganslandt
Around a Small Mountain [36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup] / Jacques Rivette / Cinema Guild
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans / Werner Herzog / First Look
The Beaches of Agnès [Les plages d’Agnès] / Agnès Varda / Cinema Guild
Bluebeard [Barbe Bleue] / Catherine Breillat / Strand Releasing

Bright Star / Jane Campion / Apparition
Brotherhood [Broderskab] / Nicolo Donato
Can Go Through Skin [Kan door huid heen] / Esther Rots
City of Life and Death / Lu Chuan / National Geographic Films
The Cove / Louie Psihoyos / Roadside Attractions
Cracks / Jordan Scott / IFC Films
La danse, le ballet de l’Opéra de Paris / Frederick Wiseman / Zipporah Films
Desert Flower / Sherry Horman
The Dirty Saints [Los santos sucios] / Luis Ortega
Dogtooth / Giorgos Lanthimos / Kino

Don’t Look Back [Ne te retourne pas] / Marina de Van
Due South [Plein sud] / Sébastien Lifshitz
Duplicity / Tony Gilroy / Universal
Enter the Void / Gaspar Noé
Everyone Else [Alle Anderen] / Maren Ade / Cinema Guild
Eyes Wide Open / Haim Tabakman
Face [Visage] / Tsai Ming-liang
Fantastic Mr. Fox / Wes Anderson / 20th Century Fox
Father of My Children [Le père de mes enfants] / Mia Hansen-Løve / IFC Films
Freedom [Liberté] / Tony Gatlif

The Girl on the Train [La fille du RER] / André Téchiné / Strand Releasing
Go Get Some Rosemary [Daddy Longlegs] / Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie
Hadewijch / Bruno Dumont / IFC Films
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno [L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot] / Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea
Hipsters / Valeriy Todorovskiy
Honeymoons [Medeni mesec] / Goran Paskaljević
The House of the Devil / Ti West / Dark Sky Films/Magnolia
I Am Love [Io sono l’amore] / Luca Guadagnino / Magnolia
I Am Not Your Friend [Nem vagyok a barátod] / György Pálfi
I Killed My Mother [J’ai tué ma mère] / Xavier Dolan / Here! Films

Independencia / Raya Martin
Inglourious Basterds / Quentin Tarantino / Universal
Ivul / Andrew Kötting
Jaffa / Keren Yedaya
Jerichow / Christian Petzold / Cinema Guild
Katalin Varga / Peter Strickland
Kill Daddy Goodnight [Das Vaterspiel] / Michael Glawogger
Kinatay / Brillante Mendoza
The King of Escape [Le roi de l’évasion] / Alain Guiraudie
Like You Know It All / Hong Sang-soo

Me and Orson Welles / Richard Linklater / Freestyle Releasing
The Milk of Sorrow [La teta asustada] / Claudia Llosa
The Misfortunates [De helaasheid der dingen] / Felix Van Groeningen / NeoClassics Films
Mother / Bong Joon-ho / Magnolia
Napoli, Napoli, Napoli / Abel Ferrara
Navidad / Sebastián Campos
Ne change rien / Pedro Costa
Life During Wartime / Todd Solondz
Lourdes / Jessica Hausner / Palisades Tartan
Making Plans for Lena [Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser] / Christophe Honoré

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? / Werner Herzog
Night and Day / Hong Sang-soo / IFC Films
No puedo vivir sin ti / Leon Dai
Of Time and the City / Terrence Davies / Strand Releasing
Passing Strange / Spike Lee / IFC Films
Persécution / Patrice Chéreau
Plan B / Marco Berger
Police, Adjective [Poliţist, adj.] / Corneliu Porumboiu / IFC Films
Polytechnique / Denis Villeneuve
A Prophet [Un prophète] / Jacqued Audiard / Sony Pictures Classics

The Refuge [Le refuge] / François Ozon
Ricky / François Ozon / IFC Films
Serbis / Brillante Mendoza / Here! Films
A Serious Man / Joel Coen, Ethan Coen / Focus Features
She, a Chinese / Guo Xiaolu
A Single Man / Tom Ford / The Weinstein Company
Soul Kitchen / Fatih Akin
Spring Fever / Lou Ye / Strand Releasing
Strella [A Woman’s Way] / Panos H. Koutras
Still Walking / Hirokazu Kor-eeda / IFC Films

The Sun / Aleksandr Sokurov / Lorber Films
Sweet Rush [Tatarak] / Andrzej Wajda
Sweetgrass / Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Tales from the Golden Age [Aminitiri din epoca de aur] / Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru / IFC Films
Thirst / Park Chan-wook / Focus Features
This Is Love / Matthias Glasner
Three Monkeys [Üç maymun] / Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Zeitgeist
To Die Like a Man [Morrer Como Un Homem] / João Pedro Rodrigues
Triage / Danis Tanović
Tsar / Pavel Lungin

Unmade Beds / Alexis Dos Santos / IFC Films
Vengeance / Johnnie To / IFC Films
Villa Amalia / Benoît Jacquot
Vincere / Marco Bellocchio / IFC Films
Weaving Girl / Wang Quanan
Where the Wild Things Are / Spike Jonze / Warner
Whip It / Drew Barrymore / 20th Century Fox
White Material / Claire Denis
Wild Grass [Les herbes folles] / Alain Resnais / Sony Pictures Classics
Zombieland / Ruben Fleischer / Sony Pictures

DVD Release Update, 6 January

Here are some DVD announcements from the past couple of weeks. Still, nothing super exciting, other than Kino's Blu-ray release of Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, set for 16 March. They are in descending order of release.

- Cairo Station [Bab el hadid], 1958, d. Youssef Chahine, Typecast Releasing, 23 February
- Tapeheads, 1988, d. Bill Fishman, MGM, 9 March, w. John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Jessica Walter, Susan Tyrrell
- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], 2009, d. Pedro Almodóvar, also on Blu-ray, Sony, 16 March
- The Black Balloon, 2008, d. Elissa Down, Terra Entertainment, 23 March, w. Toni Collette
- Séraphine, 2008, d. Martin Provost, Music Box Films/MPI, 23 March
- Afghan Star, 2009, d. Havana Marking, Zeitgeist, 30 March
- The Killer, 1989, d. John Woo, also on Blu-ray, Dragon Dynasty/Weinstein Company, 30 March
- Sabu Double Feature [Savage Drums / Jungle Hell], 1951, 1956, d. William Berke, Norman A. Cerf, VCI, 30 March
- Sea Devils, 1953, d. Raoul Walsh, VCI, 30 March
- The Daisy Chain, 2008, d. Aisling Walsh, Image, 13 April, w. Samantha Morton, Steven Mackintosh
- Monamour, 2005, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics, 27 April
- The Voyeur [L'uomo che guarda], 1994, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics, 27 April
- Prodigal Sons, 2008, d. Kimberly Reed, First Run Features, 20 July

Resolution Probability

I'm usually cautious about broadcasting any New Years resolutions that I may or may not have declared to myself; running around barking about how you've quit having one night stands (or whatever, that isn't mine, trust me) for the new year leads you to the inevitable quicker. Or so I've witnessed. However, as this particular resolution I've made (namely, to keep better records of the films I watch throughout the year) is one that comes about every year with little success, I was wondering if any of you had any special way of doing so. Perhaps online somewhere? I've already started an Excel sheet to track the three films I've already watched in '10, but it may be useful to have this list on the Internet somewhere. Maybe. The thought of avoiding all '00 films I've already seen crossed my mind, as a revisit of Rachel Getting Married yesterday made me regret its low-ish placement on my Decade List. But that sort of resolution doesn't seem likely to happen. We'll see if this project produces any success... as I'd love for it to move into other territories, like balancing my checkbook.

Can I Eternal Sunshine 2009, or Do I have to like the movie for that to work?

As 2009 slips away, sadly it has been chosen that I will be spending the evening at home, reliving the few moments worth salvaging before I Eternal Sunshine the year completely. It is just about that time for me to post something really maudlin that I'll regret later (and never end up taking down). But before I do so, I'll post some (hopefully) fascinating miscellany.

My entry to The Auteurs' Notebook's year-end writers' poll went up yesterday, alongside Andrew Grant, Glenn Kenny, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Evan Davis, Gabe Klinger, Dave McDougall, David Cairns and Ben Simington's choices for our 2009 fantasy double features (of a first-run theatrical release and an older film we happened to have seen in the past 12 months). Mine covers 2 Olivier Assayas films (though I guess technically, I saw L'heure d'été in 2008, it was in the final two weeks of the year...). Glenn's beautiful screencap of Sheryl Lee as the Good Witch in Wild at Heart has become my current desktop pattern.

Cahiers du Cinéma posted their annual 10 Best of the year and continued to prove to us Yankees how much the French love Clint Eastwood (no, not for Invictus but Gran Torino; Invictus will surely make the 2010 list). Alain Resnais' Wild Grass [Les herbes folles] was their #1 (Sony Pictures Classics' website still doesn't have an official date for its release in the States), and the pleasant surprise of the list was seeing Alain Guiraudie's Le roi de l'évasion [The King of Escape] make it. One of the (many) regrets I have in regard to the final Decade List posting was that I didn't get around to rewatching Guiraudie's Ce vieux rêve qui bouge or Pas de repos pour les braves and left them off the 100 (though I'm pretty sure they should have been there).

So the Decade List posting... thanks to everyone for the nice comments. Aside from a clerical error in posting the two Abel Ferrara films in the wrong positions (Go Go Tales should be at 55, Mary at 76), I'm happy (enough) with the way things lined up, and I will be working on a "defense" if you will for my #1 within the next couple weeks. Anyway, to those of you who sent me your list, they will be posted by the end of next week, and if you're still working on yours, don't take the posting of my list as the curtain drop for the 00's nonsense...

...and though there's a purposeful hesitancy in the way I've spoken of the project in the more recent posts, I'm still possibly considering trying the previous decade on for size for 2010... but that depends on a number of factors, not least of which coming up with a (clever) name for it and determining the amount of time I will have to dedicate to it (it would really be better if I didn't have all the time, actually, as being gainfully employed and/or leaving the Midwest sound much more appealing).

2010 looks to be your year if you happen to be a Blu-ray player owning, French-speaking cinephile, as a number of really exciting releases have already been announced by Gaumont on high-definition format:

- Danton, 1983, d. Andrzej Wajda, 9 February
- La nuit de Varennes, 1982, d. Ettore Scola, 9 February, w. Marcello Mastroianni, Hanna Schygulla, Harvey Keitel
- Le silence de la mer, 1949, d. Jean-Pierre Melville, 25 March
- Un condamné à mort s'est échappé [A Man Escaped], 1956, d. Robert Bresson, 25 March
- Les maudits [The Damned], 1947, d. René Clément, 20 May
- Le général della Rovere, 1959, d. Roberto Rossellini, 20 May
- La peau [La pelle / The Skin], 1981, d. Liliana Cavani, 15 June, w. Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Burt Lancaster
- Le rouge et le noir [The Red and the White], 1954, d. Claude Autant-Lara, 15 June, w. Danielle Darrieux

All of the films will also be released on DVD on the same date, some for the first time in France, as far as I can tell. Also in France, though not exactly exciting, the film I've been blabbing about all year, Sébastien Lifshitz's Plein sud, opens today, to almost exclusively damning reviews... Though I will reserve judgment for when I do see it, I was hoping the weariness I felt after watching the blasé trailer and noticing it wasn't announced for any of the autumn film festivals was unwarranted...

And finally, I never got around to posting a 2009 music list for the Decade List, which is fine as I generally only made those for my own benefit, and while I had planned on doing some sort of "the 25 '00 albums that did the most to shape me into the cynic I am today" list... it's looking less likely. I have, however, collected 50 of my favorite singles from 2009. I looked past the disappointment I felt in (a lot of) the particular albums and selected the tracks that left their mark on me in some way. I had planned the list to only include one song per artist, but the thing ran out of steam around 43, so instead of nixing three, I tossed a couple alternate choices from the albums I did happen to like a lot this year (Fever Ray, A Woman A Man Walked By, Logos). So if my plan to Eternal Sunshine all of 2009 actually works, I guess I won't have to look far to play catch up in the music world (though my ability to discern which of the 50 aren't really good songs and don't belong has vanished today). I could post an mp3 link at some point, but I haven't the energy at the moment. It looks like I'm finished rambling, and it doesn't look as dejected as I thought I might. That's good, right? Bonne année à tous.

01. Annie - My Love Is Better [Don't Stop]
02. Fever Ray - Keep the Streets Empty for Me [Fever Ray]
03. The xx - Crystalised [xx]
04. PJ Harvey & John Parish - Pig Will Not [A Woman A Man Walked By]
05. The Hidden Cameras - Walk On [Origin: Orphan]
06. Japandroids - Sovereignty [Post-Nothing]
07. Bat for Lashes - Sleep Alone [Two Suns] (yes, the album version is much better)
08. Röyksopp (featuring Karin Dreijer Andersson) - This Must Be It [Junior]
09. Dizzee Rascal featuring Calvin Harris and Chrome - Dance wiv Me [Tongue 'N Cheek]
10. No Age - You're a Target [Losing Feeling EP]
11. Junior Boys - Parallel Lines [Begone Dull Care]
12. St. Vincent - The Party [Actor]
13. Atlas Sound featuring Laetitia Sadier - Quick Canal [Logos]
14. Vivian Girls - Before I Start to Cry [Everything Goes Wrong]
15. Whitney Houston - Million Dollar Bill [I Look to You]
16. Phoenix - Fences [Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]
17. Sally Shapiro - Dying in Africa [My Guilty Pleasure]
18. Jay-Z - D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune) [The Blueprint 3]
19. The Radio Dept. - David [David EP]
20. Peaches - Talk to Me [I Feel Cream]
21. The Legends - You Won [Over and Over]
22. Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat [Hands]
23. Passion Pit - The Reeling [Manners]
24. The Juan Maclean - Happy House [The Future Will Come] (the 12-minute version is much better)
25. Alcoholic Faith Mission - Gently [421 Wythe Avenue] (The song I would have chosen from this album doesn't seem to be available streaming anywhere)
26. Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM [IRM]
27. Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is the Move [Bitte Orca]
28. Animal Collective - Bluish [Merriweather Post Pavilion]
29. Depeche Mode - Wrong [Sounds of the Universe]
30. Girls - Lust for Life [Album]
31. Deerhunter - Disappearing Ink [Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP]
32. Ciara featuring Justin Timberlake - Love Sex Magic [Fantasy Ride]
33. Bon Iver - Blood Bank [Blood Bank EP]
34. Beirut - The Concubine [March of the Zapotec / Rainpeople Holland EP]
35. Bill Callahan - Jim Cain [Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle]
36. Peter Bjorn and John - I'm Losing My Mind [Living Things]
37. Miike Snow - Animal [Miike Snow]
38. Antony Hegarty and Bryce Dessner - I Was Young When I Left Home [Dark Was the Night]
39. Grizzly Bear - Foreground [Veckatimest]
40. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - The Far Pavilions [The Century of Self]
41. The Decemberists - Sleepless [Dark Was the Night] (The only song I've ever liked by them, well at least 70% liked)
42. Fuck Buttons - Surf Sport [Tarot Sport] (The album version... exceedingly better)
43. Matt & Kim - Daylight [Grand]
44. Piano Magic - The Nightmare Goes On [Ovation]
45. Yeasayer - Tightrope [Dark Was the Night]
46. Atlas Sound - Shelia [Logos]
47. Annie - Anthonio [All Night]
48. Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart [Fever Ray] (my favorite music video of 2009)
49. Serge Gainsbourg featuring Jane Birkin - L'hôtel particulier [Histoire de Melody Nelson] (Obviously, this isn't new, but as the album was released for the first time in the US this year, and I needed to fill the 50)
50. PJ Harvey and John Parish - Cracks in the Canvas [A Woman A Man Walked By] (this isn't the 2nd best song off the album, but it's the perfect close and part of what keeps me wanting more)

The Decade List: #1-20

01. Dogville / d. Lars von Trier / 2003 / Denmark/Sweden/Norway/Finland/UK/France/Germany/Netherlands

02. Talk to Her [Hable con ella] / d. Pedro Almodóvar / 2002 / Spain

03. Morvern Callar / d. Lynne Ramsay / 2002 / UK

04. Zwartboek [Black Book] / d. Paul Verhoeven / 2006 / Netherlands/Germany/Belgium

05. The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza] / d. Lucrecia Martel / 2008 / Argentina/France/Italy/Spain

06. Yi Yi / d. Edward Yang / 2000 / Taiwan/Japan

07. The Piano Teacher [La pianiste] / d. Michael Haneke / 2001 / Austria/France

08. Tropical Malady / d. Apichatpong Weerasethakul / 2004 / Thailand/France/Germany/Italy

09. Late Marriage / d. Dover Koshashvili / 2001 / Israel/France

10. Wild Side / d. Sébastien Lifshitz / 2004 / France/Belgium/UK

11. Songs from the Second Floor [Sånger från andra våningen] / d. Roy Andersson / 2000 / Sweden/Norway/Denmark

12. The Intruder [L'intrus] / d. Claire Denis / 2004 / France

13. Summer Hours [L'heure d'été] / d. Olivier Assayas / 2008 / France

14. Water Drops on Burning Rocks [Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes] / d. François Ozon / 2000 / France

15. The Raspberry Reich / d. Bruce LaBruce / 2004 / Germany/Canada

16. Paranoid Park / d. Gus Van Sant / 2007 / France/USA

17. Mulholland Drive / d. David Lynch / 2001 / France/USA

18. Before Sunset / d. Richard Linklater / 2004 / USA

19. The White Diamond / d. Werner Herzog / 2004 / Germany/Japan/UK

20. There Will Be Blood / d. Paul Thomas Anderson / 2007 / USA