Millennium Mambo 4: The Onion A.V. Club's 20 Performances of the Decade

Few will dispute that Daniel Day-Lewis' turn in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is the performance of the decade; even if you can think of a better one, could you really be upset to find him at the top of such a poll? The Onion A.V. Club polled their staff and came up with 19 more:

01. Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood, 2007
02. Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar, Brokeback Mountain, 2005
03. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil McCormick, Mysterious Skin, 2004
04. Samantha Morton as Morvern Callar, Morvern Callar, 2002
05. Billy Bob Thornton as Ed Crane, The Man Who Wasn't There, 2001
06. Peter Sarsgaard as Charles Lane, Shattered Glass, 2003
07. Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, American Psycho, 2000
08. Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar, American Splendor, 2003
09. Julianne Moore as Cathy Whitaker, Far from Heaven, 2002
10. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men, 2007
11. Mickey Rourke as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, The Wrestler, 2008
12. Jeff Daniels as Bernard Berkman, The Squid and the Whale, 2005
13. Naomi Watts as Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn, Mulholland Drive, 2001
14. Anamaria Marinca as Otilia, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile], 2007
15. Björk as Selma Jezkova, Dancer in the Dark, 2000
16. Laura Linney as Samantha “Sammy” Prescott, You Can Count on Me, 2000
17. Edward Norton as Monty Brogan, 25th Hour, 2002
18. Denzel Washington as Alonzo, Training Day, 2001
19. Mark Ruffalo as Terry Prescott, You Can Count On Me, 2000
20. Anne Hathaway as Kym, Rachel Getting Married, 2008

Of the 20, 3 won Oscars for their performances, 5 were nominated but didn't win, 7 are female, 1 is in a non-English language role, 12 are Americans and, as is the case for most decade lists so far, 0 are from the year 2009.

Millennium Mambo, Part 3

More on the Best of the Decade list round-up from Mike D'Angelo and the Skandies, which was actually posted earlier this month (and which I thought I had already mentioned, but... I guess not) and from Glenn Kenny. D'Angelo and the Skandies listed 20 films and 20 performances, with Lars von Trier's Dogville and Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood topping the respective lists. First, the films:

01. Dogville, 2003, d. Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/UK/France/Germany/Norway/Finland/Netherlands, Lionsgate
02. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004, d. Michel Gondry, USA, Focus Features
03. In the Mood for Love, 2000, d. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong/China/France, USA Films/Criterion
04. Mulholland Drive, 2001, d. David Lynch, USA/France, Universal Studios
05. There Will Be Blood, 2007, d. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, Paramount Vantage/Miramax
06. The New World, 2005, d. Terrence Malick, USA/UK, New Line
07. Memento, 2000, d. Christopher Nolan, USA, Newmarket Films
08. 25th Hour, 2002, d. Spike Lee, USA, Touchstone
09. Yi yi: A One and Two, 2000, d. Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan, Fox Lorber/Criterion
10. No Country for Old Men, 2007, d. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, USA, Paramount Vantage/Miramax
11. Before Sunset, 2004, d. Richard Linklater, USA, Warner Independent
12. Silent Light [Stellet licht], 2007, d. Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany, Palisades Tartan
13. Kill Bill, Volume 1, 2003, d. Quentin Tarantino, USA, Miramax
14. Werckmeister Harmonies [Werckmeister harmóniák], 2000, d. Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, Hungary/Italy/Germany/France, Facets
15. Irréversible, 2002, d. Gaspar Noé, France, Lionsgate
16. Zodiac, 2007, d. David Fincher, USA, Paramount
17. Ghost World, 2001, d. Terry Zwigoff, USA/UK/Germany, United Artists
18. The Man Who Wasn't There, 2001, d. Joel Coen, USA/UK, USA Films
19. Trouble Every Day, 2001, d. Claire Denis, France/Germany/Japan, Lot 47 Films
20. Gerry, 2002, d. Gus Van Sant, USA, Miramax

And the performances...

01. Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
02. Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
03. Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive
04. Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
05. Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher [La pianiste]
06. Summer Phoenix, Esther Kahn
07. Björk, Dancer in the Dark
08. Laura Dern, Inland Empire
09. Mathieu Amalric, Kings and Queen [Rois et reine]
10. Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
11. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
12. Christian Bale, American Psycho
13. Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn't There
14. Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
15. Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me
16. Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
17. Q'orianka Kilcher, The New World
18. Julianne Moore, Far from Heaven
19. Peter Sarsgaard, Shattered Glass
20. Aurélien Recoing, Time Out [L'emploi du temps]

I don't have much to say about either list, aside from... Summer Phoenix? Really? Above Björk? Well, not just above Björk, but on the list altogether. I remember her lead performance in Arnaud Desplechin's English-language Esther Kahn to lack quite a bit. I'm still planning on revisiting that one before the year ends, so I'll let you know then. And I've complained enough about Ghost World; unless it starts showing up a lot more often, I'm keeping mum.

Glenn Kenny's list covers his "Seventy Greatest Films of the Decade," in alphabetical order from A.I. to Zodiac. Of the nice surprises on the list: Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl, Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience (which I don't think was a bit of personal bias, despite the fact that he played one of Sasha Grey's johns), Azazel Jacobs' The GoodTimesKid, Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman, Brad Bird's The Incredibles, Clint Eastwood's Invictus (which he can't talk about yet... but this inclusion isn't stirring any interest in me as Gran Torino is also on his list), Lynne Ramsay's Morvern Callar, Jacques Rivette's The Duchess of Langeais, Hong Sang-soo's Night and Day, Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours and Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. I spotted a few other Best of the Decade lists floating around, but most of them were deplorable, so I'm not going to waste posting/linking to them.

I also meant to thank Eric over at IonCinema for first directing me toward the TIFF list I posted yesterday, and please do check out out Blake Williams' blog, who also included TIFF's picks for the 1990s, which was topped with Víctor Erice's The Dream of Life [El sol del membrillo], still without a DVD release in the US, and included my favorite first-time viewing of a not-2000-era film in 2009, Olivier Assayas' L'eau froide. Thanks guys. Now, on to some writing of my own...

Results of indieWIRE's 2008 Critics Poll

Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon was named the best film in indieWIRE's Critics Poll; Hou also was named best director. Though both of those wins were certainly welcome and exciting, most of the other winners went to predictable choices: Mickey Rourke, Heath Ledger, Charlie Kaufman, Man on Wire and Ballast. Look deeper though and you'll find a lot of wonderful picks, like Asia Argento for Boarding Gate, The Last Mistress and Mother of Tears. Here's the full list.

LA Film Critics Awards

In a surprise move, the LA Film Critics Association named WALL·E the best film of 2008, with The Dark Knight as its runner-up. The rest of the awards went to Danny Boyle, Sean Penn, Sally Hawkins (!), Heath Ledger, Penélope Cruz (!!), Mike Leigh, Still Life, Man on Wire and Waltz with Bashir (though I don't quite understand why it won Best Animation when their best film was animated... alas...). The full list is here, which includes their runner-ups.

Avant que je...

Aside from the fact that I'm already sick and motherfucking tired of hearing about people's orgasms while watching the new Batman movie (I'm thoroughly convinced that most people can't really separate Heath Ledger's performance from the film itself, which isn't all that good without him), I really have had nothing noteworthy to say in the past few weeks, and I apologize. This blog has fallen by the wayside of my own existential crisis, and even my film viewing has taken the hit. I would say, "Inspire me to get back into it," but I don't think that'd work. I also wish I could tell you that Jacques Nolot's Avant que j'oublie was worth your time, but simply beginning and ending your film well don't add up to a good movie, even if you are trying your hardest to make a Claire Denis film. I could make a list of all the DVDs sitting next to me that I should be watching instead of listening to music online, but just looking at them is daunting enough.

On a brighter note, for those few remaining Peter Greenaway fans, the Sundance Channel will be airing all three parts of The Tulse Luper Suitcases on Saturday the 26th, beginning at 11 pm CT. They will also be airing Tony Gatlif's Transylvania, with Asia Argento, on Wednesday the 30th at 1:45 P.M. CT. None of these four films are available on DVD in the US (the second and third parts of Tulse Luper totally unavailable on DVD), so jump at your chance.

Through a Lens Darkly

Mary - dir. Abel Ferrara - 2005 - Italy/USA/France

I've often joked that Abel Ferrara, like Sam Fuller before him, isn't so much "an American filmmaker" as he is the French's idea of "an American filmmaker." He's pulpy and seedy, particularly when addressing issues of philosophy, spirituality and religion. It's only now dawned on me that more than just that, he's the French's idea of an American Ingmar Bergman. As peculiar as that seems, Ferrara's torrid relationship with Christianity appears to have eluded my thoughts until he tackled the issue head-on in Mary. In Mary, Ferrara places Forest Whitaker in the Harvey Keitel role, a total cod whose bad behavior karmicly releases the ultimate test of faith as he's haunted by the performance of Marie Palesi (Juliette Binoche) as Mary Magdalene in yet another Jesus flick. Now, Ted Younger (Whitaker) is no stranger to Jesus and faith; he hosts a popular television program examining the origins of the Christian messiah. However, when his job becomes more important than his relationship with his pregnant wife (Heather Graham) and suspicion is raised about his extramarital affair with actress Gretchen (Marion Cotillard), he seeks understanding from the elusive Marie in his path of redemption.

Like most of Ferrara's work, Mary is deeply flawed. It's a filthy orgy of controversial ideas, none of which come to a simultaneous climax, or even a coherent climax at all. In researching other people's thoughts of Mary, I discovered that the film's crossover appeal (as in an appeal to anyone outside of Ferrara's small fanbase) is pretty much null, almost entirely attributed to the film's shaky stance on faith in chaos. However, to the Ferrara admirer, Mary works beautifully into his oeuvre, a fascinating mess of frustration and admiration.

Where Ferrara succeeds in Mary is in his character placement. Marie, played phenomenally by Binoche, is undoubtedly the most fascinating individual in the film and most of her fascination comes from the fact that you come to a realization that Ferrara doesn't understand her in the least. After taking on the role of Mary Magdalene, Marie spirals into a moral and spirital abyss, unable to shake her own performance, which (according to Whitaker) is shattering. Part of the blame can be placed upon the film's writer/director/star Matthew Modine, a deplorable megalomaniac whose delusions run much deeper than simply casting himself as Jesus. According to Cotillard, it's Modine's self-importance and incompetence as a director which keeps Binoche from returning from Jerusalem. Binoche's personal crisis shrouds the film without becoming its central focus. Outside of Lili Taylor's Kathleen in The Addiction, she's the only Ferrara woman I can think of that doesn't fit into his dual idea of women, the simple Madonna/whore complex seen in its fullest between Béatrice Dalle and Claudia Schiffer in The Blackout. It's perhaps in Binoche's obsession with Mary Magdalene, a whore according to certain gospels, Jesus' number one disciple according to others, that her Marie breaks the mold of your typical Ferrara woman in becoming something entirely separate, something he clearly doesn't understand. In keeping Marie in the background while still placing her as the driving force of Mary, Ferrara turns her into a haunting figure as enigmatic and impenetrable as the mysteries of Jesus himself.

There's a chilling relevance to Binoche's Marie, escalated by the recent death of Heath Ledger. As far as most reports go, his death may have been caused by the inability to shake his last role, that of the Joker in Batman. To those unfamiliar with the method of acting, both Marie's conversion and Ledger's death haunt to the bone, a possession of which those outside of the field could never fully grasp. I understand it even less than Ferrara seems to, and it's in this ignorance, or more specificially the impossibility of empathy, that Binoche's performance, reminiscent of Liv Ullmann's Elisabet in Persona, becomes so breathtaking... and scary. There comes a point where Whitaker's tribulations reek of familiarity in the context of Ferrara, but it's Binoche's looming presence that holds the film to where it needs to be. Like Ullmann's disastrous effect on Bibi Andersson, Binoche drives Mary into its frenzy.

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.