The Decade List: Bungalow (2002)

Bungalow – dir. Ulrich Köhler

Through Germany’s illustrious cinematic history, one marked by soaring heights and long absences (we all know why), the country went through one of those droughts following the “New German Cinema” period during the ‘60s and ‘70s, though some of its key figures (Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Werner Schroeter) are still making great films (Wim Wenders and Volker Schlondörff released a couple of great films after that period, though their recent output isn’t very noteworthy). In the ‘00s, a new breed of young German filmmakers emerged, known as the “Berlin School.” While the term doesn’t resonate with anyone other than cinephiles, it’s what’s returning the country to its heritage of artful cinema.

Ulrich Köhler’s Bungalow isn’t regarded as the touchstone of the Berlin School (you’d have to ask someone better acquainted with the movement if there in fact is one), but it stands as a remarkable exemplar of such, far removed from the national mainstream (Downfall, The Lives of Others, The Baader Meinhof Complex) that’s still unable to address much outside of its own past. In Bungalow, teenage solider Paul (Lennie Burmeister) goes AWOL and retreats to his parents’ home in Marburg-Lahn. His solitude at the house (his parents are on holiday) is unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of his brother Max (Devid Striesow) and his new girlfriend Lene (Trine Dyrholm), a beautiful Danish actress working on a B-movie in Germany.

Bungalow is a striking, understated account of Paul, whose extreme awkwardness feels at odds with the fact that he’s modestly handsome. His interactions with Max haven’t developed beyond childlike horseplay and the cruel exchange of insults that only ever seem acceptable between family members. Though certain actions, like dispassionately playing with himself and trying on Lene’s bathing suit when she’s not around, stem from Paul’s truancy, all of his interpersonal interactions are incredibly unhealthy. He unconsciously sabotages each of them with an immature arrogance, something that also brings forth a number of uncomfortably candid remarks in the presence of others.

Köhler never suggests what the source of Paul’s unfortunate characteristics, which reach deeper than the usual tribulations of growing up, might be. Is the military responsible? His parents? Society? Paul’s departure from his squadron isn’t a premeditated act, and we’re never quite sure why he continues to avoid going back, as the life he’s returned to has only inspired apathetic inertia. Bungalow is a cryptic, deceptively sedate observation of wayward youth and a fine introduction to the exciting films of the Berlin School.

With: Lennie Burmeister, Devid Striesow, Trine Dyrholm, Nicole Gläser, Jörg Malchow, Lou Castel, Helke Sander
Screenplay: Henrike Goetz, Ulrich Köhler
Cinematography: Ute Freund
Country of Origin: Germany
US Distributor: Facets

Premiere: 7 February 2002 (Berlin International Film Festival)
US Premiere: 24 May 2002 (Seattle International Film Festival)

Awards: Silver Alexander – Ulrich Köhler (Thessaloniki Film Festival)

The Decade List: Sex Is Comedy (2002)

Sex Is Comedy – dir. Catherine Breillat

Though obviously inspired by her experience working on Fat Girl, Catherine Breillat does more than simply “defend” some of the more provocative elements of her work with Sex Is Comedy, her underappreciated ninth feature. To call Sex Is Comedy a “defense” for Fat Girl doesn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, Breillat would never feel the need to justify herself in such pedestrian terms. She’s too smart for that; check out any interview with her or read any of her books, and you’ll understand. Secondly, Sex Is Comedy doesn’t even address what I would argue to be the more controversial aspect of Fat Girl (the final act, namely). Instead, it centers on the “scènes intimes” a director named Jeanne, played by Anne Parillaud, tries to authentically depict in her own film despite the frustration of working with two actors who seem to hate one another.

Sex Is Comedy, above all else, is a film about the illusions of cinema, and a transformative one at that. The film within the film supplies a bevy of illusions, most of them intangible (like the way in which a freezing, overcast shoot on a Portuguese beach can mask as a romantic summer interlude through camera trickery), some of them corporeal (the director has a prosthetic cock molded to prevent the likely case of the actor being unable to achieve an erection, among other reasons). The fallacy of Jeanne’s highest concern is that of passion. She suspects the actors of undermining her and the film itself, a concern she vocalizes to Léo (Ashley Wanninger), her assistant director. Whether the actors’ mutual dislike of one another is in fact a manifestation of their anxiety about filming the sex scene or an actual clash of personality, Jeanne makes it her primary goal to elicit the illusion of intimacy from the two, played by Grégoire Colin and Roxane Mesquida, essentially playing herself acting out the scenes she portrayed in Fat Girl.

In keeping things especially meta, Sex Is Comedy employs its own set of illusions. For starters, the film Jeanne and company are making only resembles Fat Girl though both the use of Mesquida and certain script specifics (like Mesquida’s character’s virginity and the use of a prosthetic penis). In the film, Colin’s character takes Mesquida back to his place, while, in Fat Girl, she invites her lover (played there by Libero De Rienzo) to her parents’ vacation home while sharing a room with her sister. Parillaud’s character, while bearing quite a few similarities to the director, isn’t named Catherine. Like Anaïs Reboux’s character in Fat Girl, Parillaud actually looks quite a bit like Breillat but, instead of a rounder, pre-teen version of the director, resembles a “movie star” projection (have you noticed that all of the women in Breillat’s films tend to be brunettes?). Jeanne’s slight immobility, as a result of slamming her foot too hard against the ground (“a metaphor for the film,” she adds), is simply coincidental, as Breillat didn’t suffer the stroke that left her physically impaired until two years after Sex Is Comedy was made.

The setting of a film shoot also vaguely masks the fact that the way Jeanne speaks of her art is precisely the way not only Breillat does but all of her characters seem to in relation to their sexuality, among other things. It is, given Jeanne’s closeness to the director, a believable one, but the more interesting fallacies of Sex Is Comedy are ones Breillat directly alludes to within the film. In one scene, Colin’s character crudely plays around with his fake cock amongst the crew in a veiled act of charming them, while Jeanne and Mesquida’s character both recognize it as a way of precluding his own nervousness about the scene he’s about to film. But the film’s most telling moment occurs when the cinematographer (Bart Binnema) points out that Jeanne’s frustration with Colin directly mirrors the way she’s felt about all of her male actors in the past. In calling the director out in failing to recognize the sexual prejudices she seems to notice in everyone else, Breillat dispels the same myths about herself as she does the act of imitating passion for the greater good of art.

With: Anne Parillaud, Grégoire Colin, Roxane Mesquida, Ashley Wanninger, Dominique Colladant, Bart Binnema, Diane Scapa, Júlia Fragata
Screenplay: Catherine Breillat
Cinematography: Laurent Machuel
Country of Origin: France/Portugal
US Distributor: IFC Films

Premiere: May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 14 October 2004 (Austin Film Festival)

The Decade List: Funny Ha Ha (2002)

Funny Ha Ha - dir. Andrew Bujalski

It's so secret that the state of young American independent filmmaking is in sorry shape. The digital revolution hasn't yielded the surge of artful low-to-no-budget paragons the more optimistic film lovers had hoped. But in every trash heap, there's something of value to be extricated. For me (and many others), Andrew Bujalski's films are the salvageable ones. Lumped alongside young filmmakers of significantly less aptitude, Bujalski captures his generation with a rare skill. His subjects, the alienated lot of twentysomethings, stem from a very American cinematic tradition, one that's already grown tired thanks to some of Bujalski's peers. While his first film, Funny Ha Ha, doesn't reach the heights of his later Mutual Appreciation, it establishes Bujalski's vision in a cogent manner, which reaches further than most young filmmakers' admirable first exertions.

All of the filmmakers associated with the so-called "mumblecore" movement situate their characters within the same concurrent universe, but unlike most of the others (I'm sure you know who I'm specifically referring to), Bujalski is celebratory in the numbing mind state of his post-collegiates, acknowledging the humor of their seemingly overwhelming despair and ennui. In both Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation, every evening arrives like a box of mystery, laced with the possibility for excitement. In Funny Ha Ha, Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer), a girl both awkward and charming in her own right, stumbles upon a party of some guys she mistakenly thinks are friends of another friend's girlfriend, gets trashed, wakes up miserable and repentant. That misery dissipates because within this world the following day always holds that desirable potential. Watching Bujalski’s films unfold is like a small revelation, finding beauty in the confused path of his characters and allowing their misery to transpire, if only because it makes for brilliant humanity and, sometimes, exquisite comedy.

With: Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder, Myles Paige, Andew Bujalski, Marshall Lewy, Lissa Patton Rudder, Justin Rice, Vanessa Bertozzi
Screenplay: Andrew Bujalski
Cinematography: Matthias Grunsky
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: September 2002 (Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival)

Awards: Someone to Watch Award - Andrew Bujalski (Independent Spirit Awards)

The Decade List: Hukkle (2002)

Hukkle - dir. György Pálfi

Along with Lucrecia Martel's La ciénaga, Sébastien Lifshitz's Presque rien and David Gordon Green's George Washington, György Pálfi's Hukkle was certainly one of the most astonishing film debuts of the decade. Following a hiccup in La ronde style, Pálfi captures a rural village in Hungary (animals included) with an alternately twisted and playful sense of humor. Hukkle is a near-perfectly realized experiment; the only quibble I had arose during a brief sequence where Pálfi used noticeable special effects to show an X-ray view of one of the people (everyone else I know who had seen the film didn't seem as bothered as I was). Despite that (likely) singular complaint, it's hard to find anything else wrong with Hukkle, which Pálfi followed (after an omnibus film Jött egy busz... [A Bus Came...]) with the absolutely wonderful Taxidermia in 2006.

Screenplay: György Pálfi
Cinematography: Gergely Pohárnok
Music: Balázs Barna, Samu Gryllus
Country of Origin: Hungary
US Distributor: Shadow Distribution/Home Vision

Premiere: 12 September 2002 (Toronto Film Festival)
US Premiere: 12 October 2002 (Chicago International Film Festival)

Awards: Discovery of the Year (European Film Awards); New Director's Award (San Sebastián Film Festival)

The Decade List: Chi-hwa-seon (2002)

Chi-hwa-seon [Painted Fire] - dir. Im Kwon-taek

Like the antithesis of all the loathsome biopics coming out of the US (and elsewhere), Im Kwon-taek's depiction of the life of painter Jang Seung-up (Choi Min-sik) proved that films about artists can be artful on their own. It's not that it hadn't been done before (like Pialat's Van Gogh), but it felt like it had been a really long time since one as good as Chi-hwa-seon came around. With the help of Park Seon-deok's exquisite, elliptical editing, Im illustrated Jang's life outside of the expected biopic mold, a surprising feat for a subject whose turbulent life as a doubting alcoholic sounds quite similar to all the other artists whose lives have been turned into films. The French title Ivre de femmes et de peinture [Drunk on Women and Painting] is a more accurate title than the US subtitle Painted Fire (or the British one, which is called Drunk on Women and Poetry for some reason).

With: Choi Min-sik, Ahn Sung-kee, Yu Ho-jeong, Kim Yeo-jin, Son Ye-jin
Screenplay: Im Kwon-taek, Kim Yong-ok, Min Byung-sam
Cinematography: Jung Il-sung
Music: Kim Young-dong
Country of Origin: South Korea
US Distributor: Kino

Premiere: 10 May 2002 (South Korea)
US Premiere: 28 September 2002 (New York Film Festival)

Awards: Best Director (Cannes Film Festival)

The Decade List: Awards (2002)

For as wonderful of a year as 2002 was for film, I'm not sure you'd be able to gather that from the list of awards below. Other than Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her and Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven, most of the top prize-winning films left me rather lukewarm. Talk to Her and Roman Polanski's The Pianist seemed to have been the most widespread in their accolades, but I'm frankly not sold on the latter. In fact, you're likely to only see one WWII/Holocaust film on the entire decade list, and that won't be until 2006.

As I said earlier, there are still at least 15 films I want to write about from 2002. They will be unraveling throughout the next couple months as I get around to re-watching them (it's going to be easier the closer I get to December, with the later entries fresher in my memory).

Cannes

Palme d'Or: The Pianist [d. Roman Polanski]
Grand Prix: Mies vailla menneisyyttä (The Man Without a Past) [d. Aki Kaurismäki]
Prix du jury: Divine Intervention [d. Elia Suleiman]
Best Director: (tie) Im Kwon-taek - Chihwaseon; Paul Thomas Anderson - Punch-Drunk Love
Best Actor: Olivier Gourmet - Le fils [The Son]
Best Actress: Kati Outinen - The Man Without a Past
Best Screenplay: Paul Laverty - Sweet Sixteen
Camera d'Or: Bord de mer (Seaside) [d. Julie Lopes-Curval]


Venice

Golden Lion: The Magdalene Sisters [d. Peter Mullan]
Grand Special Jury Prize: House of Fools [d. Andrei Konchalovsky]
Best Actor: Stefano Accorsi - Un viaggio chiamato amore (A Journey Called Love)
Best Actress: Julianne Moore - Far from Heaven
Career Golden Lion: Dino Risi


Toronto

People's Choice Award: Whale Rider [d. Niki Caro]
Discovery Award: The Magdalene Sisters [d. Peter Mullan]
Best Canadian Feature: Spider [d. David Cronenberg]


Berlin

Golden Bear: (tie) Bloody Sunday [d. Paul Greengrass]; Spirited Away [d. Hayao Miyazaki]
Best Director: Otar Iosseliani - Lundi matin (Monday Morning)
Best Actor: Jacques Gamblin - Laissez-passer (Safe Conduct)
Best Actress: Halle Berry - Monster's Ball
Jury Grand Prix: Halbe Treppe (Grill Point) [d. Andreas Dresen]
Outstanding Artistic Achievment: Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Danielle Darrieux, Firmine Richard, Ludivine Sagnier - 8 femmes (8 Women)
Honorary Golden Bear: Robert Altman, Claudia Cardinale
Teddy (Feature): Walking on Water [d. Tony Ayres]
Teddy (Documentary): Alt om min far (All About My Father) [d. Even Benestad]
Teddy (Jury Award): Juste une femme [d. Mitra Farahani]


Sundance

Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Personal Velocity: Three Portraits [d. Rebecca Miller]
Grand Jury Prize (Documentary): Daughter from Danang [d. Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco]
Director (Dramatic): Gary Winick - Tadpole
Director (Documentary): Rob Fruchtman, Rebecca Cammisa - Sister Helen
Special Jury Prize (Dramatic): (three-way tie) Manito, for Franky G, Leo Minaya, Manuel Cabral, Hector Gonzalez, Julissa Lopez, Jessica Morales, Panchito Gómez; Real Women Have Curves, for America Ferrara, Lupe Ontiveros; Secretary, for Steven Shainberg
Special Jury Prize (Documentary): (tie) How to Draw a Bunny [d. John W. Walter]; Señorita extraviada (Missing Young Woman) [d. Lourdes Portillo)
Cinematography (Dramatic): Ellen Kuras - Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
Cinematography (Documentary): Daniel B. Gold - Blue Vinyl
Audience Award (Dramatic): Real Women Have Curves [d. Patricia Cardoso]
Audience Award (Documentary): Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony [d. Lee Hirsch]
Audience Award (World Cinema): (tie) Bloody Sunday [d. Paul Greengrass]; L'ultimo bacio (The Last Kiss) [d. Gabriele Muccino]


Academy Awards

Best Picture: Chicago [d. Rob Marshall]
Best Director: Roman Polanski - The Pianist
Best Actor: Adrien Brody - The Pianist
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman - The Hours
Best Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper - Adaptation
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago
Best Original Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar - Hable con ella (Talk to Her)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ronald Harwood - The Pianist
Best Cinematography: Conrad L. Hall - Road to Perdition
Best Documentary: Bowling for Columbine [d. Michael Moore]
Best Foreign Film: Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa) [d. Caroline Link]
Animated Feature: Spirited Away [d. Hayao Miyazaki]
Honorary Award: Peter O'Toole


BAFTAs

Best Film: The Pianist [d. Roman Polanski]
Best Director: Roman Polanski - The Pianist
Best British Film: The Warrior [d. Asif Kapadia]
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman - The Hours
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago
Best Original Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar - Hable con ella (Talk to Her)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman - Adaptation
Best Cinematography: Conrad L. Hall - Road to Perdition
Film Not in the English Language: Talk to Her


European Film Awards

Best Film: Hable con ella (Talk to Her) [d. Pedro Almodóvar]
Best Director: Pedro Almodóvar - Talk to Her
Best Actor: Sergio Castellitto - Bella Martha (Mostly Martha); L'ora di religione (Il sorriso di mia madre) (My Mother's Smile)
Best Actress: Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Danielle Darrieux, Firmine Richard, Ludivine Sagnier - 8 femmes (8 Women)
Best Cinematography: Pawel Edelman - The Pianist
Best Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar - Talk to Her
Best Documentary: Être et avoir (To Be and To Have) [d. Nicolas Philibert]
Discovery: Hukkle [d. György Pálfi]
Screen International: Divine Intervention [d. Elia Suleiman]
Audience Award (Actor): Javier Cámara - Talk to Her
Audience Award (Actress): Kate Winslet - Iris
Audience Award (Director): Pedro Almodóvar - Talk to Her
Life Achievement Award: Tonino Guerra


Independent Spirit

Best Feature: Far from Heaven [d. Todd Haynes]
Best First Feature: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys [d. Peter Care]
Best Director: Todd Haynes - Far from Heaven
Best Male Lead: Derek Luke - Antwone Fisher
Best Female Lead: Julianne Moore - Far from Heaven
Best Supporting Male: Dennis Quaid - Far from Heaven
Best Supporting Female: Emily Mortimer - Lovely & Amazing
Best Debut Performance: Nia Vardalos - My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Best Screenplay: Mike White - The Good Girl
Best First Screenplay: Erin Cressida Wilson - Secretary
Best Cinematography: Edward Lachman - Far from Heaven
Best Documentary: Bowling for Columbine [d. Michael Moore]
Best Foreign Film: Y tu mamá también [d. Alfonso Cuarón]
Someone to Watch Award: Przemyslaw Reut - Paradox Lake


Golden Globes

Picture (Drama): The Hours [d. Stephen Daldry]
Picture (Comedy/Musical): Chicago [d. Rob Marshall]
Director: Martin Scorsese - Gangs of New York
Actor (D): Jack Nicholson - About Schmidt
Actress (D): Nicole Kidman - The Hours
Actor (M/C): Richard Gere - Chicago
Actress (M/C): Renée Zellweger - Chicago
Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper - Adaptation
Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep - Adaptation
Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor - About Schmidt
Foreign Film: Hable con ella (Talk to Her) [d. Pedro Almódovar]
Cecil B. DeMille Award: Gene Hackman


Césars Awards

Best Film (Meilleur film): The Pianist [d. Roman Polanski]
Best Director (Meilleur réalisateur): Roman Polanski - The Pianist
Best Actor (Meilleur acteur): Adrien Brody - The Pianist
Best Actress (Meilleure actrice): Isabelle Carré - Se souvenir des belles choses (Beautiful Memories)
Best Supporting Actor (Meilleur acteur dans un second rôle): Bernard Le Coq - Se souvenir des belles choses
Best Supporting Actress (Meilleure actrice dans un second rôle): Karin Viard - Embrassez qui vous voudrez (Summer Things)
Most Promising Actor (Meilleur espoir masculin): Jean-Paul Rouve - Monsieur Batignole
Most Promising Actress (Meilleur espoir féminin): Cécile De France - L'auberge espagnole
Best Screenplay (Meilleur scénario): Costa-Gavras, Jean-Claude Grumberg - Amen.
Best Cinematography (Meilleure photographie): Pawel Edelman - The Pianist
Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger): Bowling for Columbine [d. Michael Moore]
Best European Union Film (Meilleur film de l'Union Européenne): Hable con ella (Talk to Her) [d. Pedro Almódovar]
Best First Film (Meilleur premier film): Se souvenir des belles choses [d. Zabou Breitman]
Honorary Césars: Bernadette Lafont, Spike Lee, Meryl Streep


Razzies

Worst Film: Swept Away [d. Guy Ritchie]
Worst Director: Guy Ritchie - Swept Away
Worst Actor: Roberto Benigni, Breckin Meyer - Pinocchio
Worst Actress: (tie) Britney Spears - Crossroads; Madonna - Swept Away
Worst Supporting Actor: Hayden Cristensen - Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Worst Supporting Actress: Madonna - Die Another Day
Worst Screenplay: George Lucas, Jonathan Hales - Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Worst Remake/Sequel: Swept Away

The Decade List: Dans ma peau (2002)

Dans ma peau [In My Skin] - dir. Marina de Van

After five years of collaborating with François Ozon as both co-writer and actress, Marina de Van unveiled her directorial debut in 2002 with her metaphysical horror film In My Skin. With an ode to David Cronenberg, de Van examines the final frontier of horror films, the body and its dangerous levels of elasticity. After suffering a fall at a party, Esther (de Van) discovers a fascination with her body and its threshold for not simply pain, but sustainability. What follows is expectedly grotesque and ghastly.

The parables to Esther's fascination are abundant, some surprising and others effective despite the foreseeable correlations to the subject matter. The initial flesh wound doesn't introduce itself as a physical manifestation of Esther's lifestyle as a moderately successful businesswoman in a nominally happy relationship with Vincent (Laurent Lucas), but it becomes her obsession, something that seems initially impulsive but also weirdly natural. Esther's self-mutilation evolves into a search for feeling, something of a substitute for the falseness of the people around her and even herself.

While de Van is pointedly critical of the business world Esther places herself in, its treatment of women and even the carnivorous eating habits of these people, In My Skin isn't simply leftist propaganda masking as psychodrama. Both de Van and Esther approach this fascination with that oh-so-Cronenberg clinical eye. While she never avoids the shock aspects of In My Skin, particularly in the film's nauseatingly effective sound design, the suggestions and ramifications of Esther's "disorder" cut deeper than any of her literal knives.

With: Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker, Thibault de Montalembert
Screenplay: Marina de Van
Cinematography: Pierre Barougier
Music: Esbjorn Svensson
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 27 September 2002 (San Sebastián Film Festival)
US Premiere: 7 November 2003 (New York City)

The Decade List: Hable con ella (2002)

Hable con ella [Talk to Her] - dir. Pedro Almodóvar

After Pedro Almodóvar won the Best Foreign Oscar for All About My Mother in 2000, there was no turning back. Few contemporary directors have molded a mid-career upsurge as impressive as he has, and Talk to Her is the best of these offerings. Stepping away from his usual obsessions (women on the verge of something-or-other), Almodóvar focuses Talk to Her on two men, Marco (Darío Grandinetti), a handsome journalist, and Benigno (Javier Cámara), a lonely nurse, both of whom are caring for their comatose lovers.

In so many of his films, Almodóvar finds beauty and depth in absurdity. For the director, absurdity isn't merely the peculiar situations he places his characters in, but the way he syphons the palpable emotions from his narrative. I'm forever impressed and even surprised at the ways in which Almodóvar gets to me. Unlike, say, Amèlie, Talk to Her never shields the fact that one of its main characters is up to some creepy business, but it's clear that Benigno isn't aware that what he's doing is wrong and that makes Talk to Her even more tragic.

Benigno is one of the most intriguing characters in Almodóvar's universe. For one, he's a male, which would typically place him beneath all the wonderful women the director and his actresses have created. He's a sympathetic sociopath with misdirected emotions and a strange passion, with a lot in common with Antonio Banderas' character in Law of Desire. Sheltered from the world by an overbearing mother, he has no sense of how the world functions or how to relate to other humans. One of his coworkers suggests that he's gay, and while his affections are toward a comatose female (Leonor Watling), this doesn't make him a heterosexual by any means. He's noticeably attracted to Marco but stands uncommonly faithful to Alicia (likely because she doesn't really have any say in this matter). All of his interests are derived from those around him, and without the demands of his mother, who dies before the film begins, he has no real sense of how to function in his world.

Talk to Her is such a painfully beautiful film that I struggle to verbalize both my intellectual and emotional feelings toward it. Even more than All About My Mother and Volver (though not by a whole lot), its closing moments leave me with swirling exhilaration, as the dancers shuffle onto the stage. Forgive my loss of words, but if any film I've written about so far deserves to be merely absorbed without hesitation, it's definitely Talk to Her.

With: Darío Grandinetti, Javier Cámara, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, Rosario Flores, Mariola Fuentes, Elena Anaya, Lola Dueñas, Fele Martínez, Paz Vega
Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar
Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Country of Origin: Spain
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Premiere: 15 March 2002 (Spain)
US Premiere: 30 April 2002 (Telluride Film Festival)

Awards: Best Original Screenplay (Academy Awards); Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Not in the English Language (BAFTAs); Best Actor, Audience Award - Javier Cámara, Best Director, Audience Award (European Film Awards); Best Foreign Language Film (Golden Globes); Best Original Score (Goya Awards, Spain)

The Decade List: Morvern Callar (2002)

Morvern Callar - dir. Lynne Ramsay

Approaching a novel deemed "unfilmable" by both the literary and cinematic community can be the greatest challenge for a filmmaker, a make-or-break endeavor that's worked for some (Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange) and failed for twice as many (Alan Rudolph's Breakfast of Champions, Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). Alan Warner's 1995 novel Morvern Callar, a first-person narrative about a young woman who finds the body of her boyfriend, who committed suicide, in their apartment around Christmas time, was one of those novels, and how Lynne Ramsay, successfully living up to her promise after Ratcatcher, visualized such a difficult work into a film as dazzling as this amazes me to this day.

In expert fashion, Ramsay operates with a complex narrative voice, a different breed of the novel's "first person." The film is entirely singular and dependent on the titular Morvern, played perfectly by Samantha Morton. While the film relies solely on her, it's not a window to her interior consciousness. Before killing himself, Morvern's boyfriend leaves her with an array of Christmas gifts, the most significant one a cassette player and accompanying mixtape which provides the auditory clue to the film's relationship to its protagonist. Shifting seamlessly from the diegetic sounds from her headphones to the encompassing swirl of music which takes over the film, Ramsay utilizes a tactic that feels either prudent or thoughtless when used by lesser filmmakers. And yet, it provides the film's rhythm, one of visual and phonic poetry, as well as defining the film's placement to its character.

Ramsay never feels the inclination to explain or defend Morvern's actions throughout the course of the film. With ethically questionable decisions like disposing of her boyfriend's body and sending his novel to a publisher's office with her name on it, Morvern views her world the same way Ramsay views her, seeking an unjudgmental beauty in humble surroundings. Ramsay's search is altogether more successful than Morvern's, as the money in her boyfriend's bank account allows her to escape to Spain with her best friend Lanna (Kathleen McDermott), who reveals before the trip that she fucked her boyfriend behind Morvern's back. It's never clear whether Morvern is in a state of emotional paralysis, akin to Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman, or if this it her ticket out.

Though plot is significantly less important that mood, Ramsay raises a number of questions about interpretation and gender. When the novel Morvern's boyfriend wrote is met with enthusiasm from the publishers, the term "distinctive female voice" (possibly) suggests a covert motive from the representatives. Is that the book's selling point, and to what level does that change what her boyfriend has written? Warner's novel is written from the point of view of a woman by a man. Ramsay's film is a woman's interpretation of a man writing as the voice of a woman. Does our perception of the film, or the novel, hang on these perspectives? Answering (or trying to) these questions would certainly disrupt the film, so Ramsay simply acknowledges their hovering presence and continues on the journey.

Shot by Alwin H. Kuchler, who also shot Ratcatcher and Ramsay's short Gasman, I can think of few films I'd want continuously projected on my wall more than Morvern Callar. The images are consistently breathtaking, something that could never be truly conveyed through the stills I've chosen as its beauty is only enhanced by the movement of both the camera and the subjects. Like the audio track, Kuchler's camera weaves the interior and exterior together meticulously. The cinematography, sound design, performances and narrative voice all assemble marvelously, making Morvern Callar a bold, enigmatic and seminal work of one of the most promising voices in contemporary cinema.

With: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Raife Patrick Burchell, Ruby Milton, James Wilson, Dolly Wells
Screenplay: Liana Dognini, Lynne Ramsay, based on the novel by Alan Warner
Cinematography: Alwin H. Kuchler
Country of Origin: UK
US Distributor: Palm Pictures

Premiere: May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 16 October 2002 (Chicago International Film Festival)

Awards: Prix de la jeunesse (Cannes Film Festival); Best Actress - Kathleen McDermott (Scottish BAFTAs); Best Actress - Samantha Morton, Best Technical Achievement - Alwin H. Kuchler (British Independent Film Awards)

The Decade List: Some Honorable Mentions for 2002

There's less than 10 days left in May, and I have at least eighteen more films I want to cover for 2002, which apparently was a pretty outstanding year for world cinema. Here are a few I won't get a chance to rewatch (unless you enthusiastically suggest that I should), and I've thrown together some babbling about a few of them. Forgive the rushed nature of this (and probably a few of the seventeen that I'm going to try to get to as soon as possible). They are in no particular order, though the annotated ones are at the top.

Ma vraie vie à Rouen [My Life on Ice] - dir. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

Like a fictionalized Tarnation, Ma vraie vie à Rouen examines the perils of growing up and sexual maturation via the digital revolution. Comprised of teenage Étienne's (Jimmy Tavares) video footage during one summer, Ducastel and Martineau (Jeanne et le garçcon formidable) evade some of Tarnation's faults (most of them involving director/subject Jonathan Caouette's self-obliviousness), and though Ma vraie vie à Rouen is a less compelling watch than Tarnation, it's smart and un-exploitive.

With: Jimmy Tavares, Ariane Ascaride, Jonathan Zaccaï, Hélène Surgère, Lucas Bonnifait
Screenplay: Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau
Cinematography: Pierre Milon, Matthieu Poirot-Delpech
Music: Philippe Miller
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 5 August 2002 (Locarno Film Festival)
US Premiere: 14 June 2002 (New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)

25th Hour - dir. Spike Lee

As far as Spike Lee, Hired Director, films go, 25th Hour is quite good. It doesn't exactly right the wrongs of Bamboozled, but 25th Hour's power comes at the exact same time placement where Bamboozled descends into ludicrousness. It's hard not to notice the similarities between Anna Paquin's characters in this and the later Squid and the Whale, two strange acts of miscasting which turn her into a desirable teenage sexpot. The Squid and the Whale is probably the better of the two, in terms of Paquin perversion, if only because it re-teams the actress with Jeff Daniels, who previously played her father in the family-friendly Fly Away Home.

With: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin
Screenplay: David Benioff, based on his novel
Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
Music: Terence Blanchard
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Touchstone

Premiere: 16 December 2002 (New York City)

The Good Girl - dir. Miguel Arteta

Effectively low-key, The Good Girl, director Arteta and writer White's follow-up to the dark-and-quirky Chuck & Buck, retained the discomfort and "edginess" of their first collaboration. Jennifer Aniston, as an unhappily married convenient store employee, is probably as good as she'll ever be. Like Anna Paquin, Jake Gyllenhaal does a repeat character and situation here, as a doofus teenager who starts an affair with an older married woman, as he did in Nicole Holofcener's blasé Lovely & Amazing from the previous year. While it's hard to choose Aniston over Catherine Keener, Aniston's attempt to rid herself of her increasingly irritating younger man is precisely what makes The Good Girl better than your average Hollywood actor-does-a-Sundance-flick..

With: Jennifer Aniston, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mike White, Zooey Deschanel, John Carroll Lynch, Deborah Rush
Screenplay: Mike White
Cinematography: Enrique Chediak
Music: Tony Maxwell, James O'Brien, Mark Orton, Joey Waronker
Country of Origin: USA/Germany/Netherlands
US Distributor: Fox Searchlight

Premiere: 12 January 2002 (Sundance)

Awards: Best Screenplay (Independent Spirit Awards)

Choses secrètes [Secret Things] - dir. Jean-Claude Brisseau

It's hard to nail Jean-Claude Brisseau's Secret Things down. It's at once pulpy erotica, social comedy, gender commentary and a supernatural horror/fantasy. While I'm still unsure what to make of the film, it's certainly engaging and successful on a few of those levels. After imprisonment, which was directly related to the casting sessions for this particular film, Brisseau made a follow-up, entitled The Exterminating Angels [Les anges exterminateurs], which (like Catherine Breillat's Sex Is Comedy is to Fat Girl) looked at the filmmaking process of Secret Things.

With: Coralie Revel, Sabrina Seyvecou, Roger Miremont, Fabrice Deville, Blandine Bury, Olivier Soler
Screenplay: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Cinematography: Wilfrid Sempé
Music: Julien Civange
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: First Run Features

Premiere: 16 October 2002 (France)
US Premiere: 9 April 2003 (Philadelphia International Film Festival)

Awards: French Cineaste of the Year - 2003 (Cannes)

May - dir. Lucky McKee

I've never been able to put my finger on why it is I always think I like the film May. It certainly has a lot on its side: a central character in the vain of Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion and Sissy Spacek in Carrie, plenty of dismemberment, a hilarious performance from Anna Faris as a salivating-at-the-mouth lesbian. If memory serves me correctly, May isn't entirely successful in its funny/tragic Dario Argento-inspired tale, but I seem to remember it quite fondly. Correct me if I'm wrong.

With: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval, Nichole Hiltz, Kevin Gage
Screenplay: Lucky McKee
Cinematography: Steve Yedlin
Music: Jaye Barnes Luckett
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Lions Gate Films

Premiere: 13 January 2002 (Sundance)

Blissfully Yours - dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

With: Kanokporn Tongaram, Min Oo, Jenjira Jansuda
Screenplay: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Country of Origin: Thailand/France
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 17 May 2002 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 8 November 2002 (AFI Film Festival)

Awards: Un Certain Regard Award (Cannes)

Infernal Affairs - d. Andrew Lau, Alan Mak

With: Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Kelly Chen, Sammi Cheng, Edison Chen, Shawn Yue
Screenplay: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Cinematography: Andrew Lau, Lai Yiu Fai
Music: Chan Kwong Wing
Country of Origin: Hong Kong
US Distributor: Miramax Films

Premiere: 12 December 2002 (Hong Kong)
US Premiere: 24 September 2004

Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor - Tony Leung, Best Supporting Actor - Anthony Wong, Best Screenplay, Best Editing - Danny Pang, Curran Pang, Best Original Song - Ronald Ng, Lin Xi, "Infernal Affairs" (Hong Kong Film Awards)

The Quiet American - dir. Phillip Noyce

With: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Rade Serbedzija, Tzi Ma
Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, Robert Schenakkan, based on the novel by Graham Greene
Cinematography: Christopher Doyle
Music: Craig Armstrong
Country of Origin: Australia/UK/USA/Germany/France
US Distributor: Miramax Films

Premiere: 9 September 2002 (Tornoto International Film Festival)
US Premiere: 22 November 2002

Madame Satã - dir. Karim Ainouz

With: Lázaro Ramos, Marcelia Cartaxo, Flavio Bauraqui, Fellipe Marques, Renata Sorrah, Emiliano Queiroz, Giovana Barbosa, Ricardo Blat
Screenplay: Karim Ainouz, Marcelo Gomes, Sérgio Machado, Mauricio Zacharias
Cinematography: Walter Carvalho
Music: Sacha Amback, Marcos Suzano
Country of Origin: Brazil/France
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 19 May 2002 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 17 January 2003 (Sundance)

Bord de mer [Seaside] - dir. Julie Lopes-Curval

With: Jonathan Zaccaï, Bulle Ogier, Ludmila Mikaël, Hélène Fillères, Patrick Lizana, Liliana Rovère
Screenplay: François Favrat, Julie Lopes-Curval
Cinematography: Stephan Massis
Music: Christophe Chevalier, Nicolas Gerber
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: First Run Features

Premiere: May 2002 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 6 October 2002 (Chicago International Film Festival)

Awards: Camera d'Or (Cannes)

Cremaster 3 - dir. Matthew Barney

With: Matthew Barney, Richard Serra, Aimee Mullins, Paul Brady, Terry Gillespie
Screenplay: Matthew Barney
Cinematography: Peter Strietmann
Music: Jonathan Bepler
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Palm Pictures

Premiere: 15 May 2002