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1. There Will Be Blood
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Zodiac
4. Ratatouille
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
6. Michael Clayton
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
8. I'm Not There
9. Once
10. Margot at the Wedding

Runners Up: Death Proof, Eastern Promises, The Bourne Ultimatum, Gone Baby Gone, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, My Kid Could Paint That, Atonement, The King of Kong, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Black Book

in vague order, including some stuff still unreleased:

I'm Not There
Four Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Syndromes and a Century
Regular Lovers
Jellyfish
Away from Her
Day Night Day Night
Zoo
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Turning out to be a great year for movies...

1. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. I’m Not There (Todd Haynes)
3. Syndromes and A Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
5. Zodiac (David Fincher)
6. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sydney Lumet)
7. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)
8. Bug (William Friedkin)
9. Flandres (Bruno Dumont)
10. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)


Honorable Mention:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik), Away from Her (Sarah Polley), The Boss of It All (Lars Von Trier), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), Fay Grim (Hal Hartley), Knocked Up (Judd Apatow) / Superbad (Greg Motolla), The Wayward Cloud / I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming Liang), We Own the Night (James Gray), Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola)


Best Short Subject:

The Key to Reserva (Martin Scorsese), Hotel Chevalier (Wes Anderson)


Best of TV:

Extras Christmas Special*, Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 6, The Sopranos: Season 6, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 3, South Park: Season 11, The Sarah Silverman Program: Season 2

Keeping better track of this was one of my New Year's resolutions -- now's as good a time as any. I'm playing by Chicago release dates.

1. The Boss Of It All (Lars Von Trier)
2. I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-Liang)
3. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
4. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
5. Once (John Carney)
6. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
7. Flandres (Bruno Dumont)
8. Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (Tom Tykwer)
9. No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
10. Juno (Jason Reitman)

Notable omissions ('cause I saw 'em in '06): The Host, Syndromes And A Century

-Toilet Dcuk

Ratatouille
INLAND EMPIRE
El Cielo Dividido / Broken Sky
Zodiac
Volver
Hot Fuzz
Children of Men

1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Burton)
2. Eastern Promises (Cronenberg)
3. Zodiac (Fincher)
4. Hot Fuzz (Wright)
5. Sicko (Moore)
6. Sunshine (Boyle)
7. 3:10 to Yuma (Mangold)
8. American Gangster (Scott)
9. Stardust (Vaughn)
10. The Bourne Ultimatum (Greengrass)

Anticipating for this year:
Cassandra's Dream (Allen)
There will be Blood (P.T. Anderson)
The Darjeeling Limited (W. Anderson)
No Country for Old Men (Coens)
Youth without Youth (F.F. Coppola)
The Mist (Darabont)
Goya's Ghosts (Forman)
Bug (Friedkin)
I'm not there (Haynes)
The Brothers Bloom (Johnson)
The Brave One (Jordan)
I am Legend (Lawrence)
Lust, Caution (A. Lee)
Before the Devil Knows you're Dead (Lumet)
Doomsday (Marshall)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Newell)
Dali & I: The Surreal Story (Niccol)
Charlie Wilson's War (Nichols)
I'm a Cyborg, but that's Okay (Park)
Across the Universe (Taymor)
Black Book (Verhoeven)
The Boss of it all (Von Trier)
My Blueberry Nights (Wong)
Beowulf (Zemeckis)

BEST:
No Country For Old Men
Grindhouse (mostly for Death Proof and trailers)
Children of Men (no thanks to being inundated by trailers/ads)
Paranoid Park
I Just Didn't Do It
Eastern Promises
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Knocked Up
Once
The Girl Cut In Two
Control
The Bourne Ultimatum
Go Go Tales
Soo
The Boss Of It All
Black Snake Moan

BEST 2006 MOVIE I SKIPPED CUZ I WRONGLY LISTENED TO FILM SNOBS:
Little Children

BEST THAT ARE A COUPLE YEARS OLD:
Linda Linda Linda
Adam's Apples

WORST:
Factory Girl
Music & Lyrics
Scott Walker: 30th Century Man (fascinating subject, crap movie)
The Darjeeling Limited
VIFF audience regulars

1. Into Great Silence
1. Zidane
3. Belle toujours
4. Southland Tales
5. Perfume
6. The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael
7. Syndromes and a Century
8. Alexander Revisited
9. INLAND EMPIRE
10. Grindhouse (especially the truly great Death Proof whether Tarantino knew what he had or not)

Best of the rest: Michael Clayton, 10 Items or Less, Smiley Face, The Walker, Klimt, Regular Lovers, Paranoid Park, Gone Baby Gone, Hot Fuzz, Flandres, Control, Zodiac, Sleuth, There Will Be Blood, Coeurs, No Country for Old Men, I'm Not There, Infamous, The History Boys, Paprika, Old Joy, 28 Weeks Later, The Mad

Underwhelming: Juno, Ratatouille, Cassandra's Dream, My Blueberry Nights

Better than expected: I Am Legend, Transformers, Spider-Man 3

Awful: The Golden Compass, The Reaping, Zoo, Bug, Fay Grim

Discoveries of the year: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Some Call It Loving, Under the Sun of Satan, Mikey and Nicky, Kasaba/Clouds of May

1. Away From Her (Polley)
2. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
3. No Country For Old Men (Coen Brothers)
4. Zodiac (Fincher)
5. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. Michael Clayton (Gilroy)
7. Sunshine (Boyle)
8. Into The Wild (Penn)
9. Bourne Ultimatum (Greengrass)
10. 3:10 To Yuma (Mangold)

Top Ten List So Far

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. Zodiac
3. No Country for Old Men
4. There Will Be Blood
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
6. Juno
7. Sweeny Todd
8. Eastern Promises
9. Michael Clayton
10. Bourne Ultimatum

Runners up that didn't make the list that are just as good as the top ten- Superbad, The Host, 28 Weeks Latter, Black Book, 3:10 to Yuma, The Hoax, Regin Over Me, Sicko. Away from Her, The lives of Others, The Darjeeling Limited, The Lookout, Ratatouille, I'm Not There, American Gangster, Grindhouse, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, Once, 12:08 East of Bucharest, Knocked Up

Great Popcorn films or I'd watch it again to pass the time-
300, 1408, Hot Fuzz, Hairspray, Live Free or Die Hard, Simpsons Movie, Oceans 13, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Kingdom

You couldn't pay me to watch this shit again or I want 2 hours of my life back
Black Snake Moan, Norbit, Spider-Man 3, Ghost Rider, Disturbia, Hannnibal Rising, The Number 23, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Stardust, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

+
Police Beat (Devor)
Killer of Sheep (Burnett)
Superbad (Mottola)
Little Children (Field)
United 93 (Greengrass)


-
I Think I Love My Wife (Rock)
Because I Said So: the IMAX Experience (Lehmann)
Year of the Dog (White)
Grindhouse (Rodriguez/Tarantino/Roth/Wright/Zombie)

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. Still Life
3. Bamako
4. Alexandra
5. Opera Jawa
6. A Short Film About the Indio Nacional, or The Prolonged Sorrow of the Filipinos
7. Honor of the Knights
8. Flight of the Red Balloon
9. Black Book
10. Nue proprieté

And these weren't bad, either: Day Night Day Night; Daratt; Paraguayan Hammock; I Don't Want to Sleep Alone; Meokgo and the Stickfighter; Half Moon; Crazy Stone; The Simpsons Movie; Sicko.

1) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2) No Country for Old Men
3) Superbad
4) 3:10 to Yuma
5) The Lives of Others
6) The Orphanage
7) Zodiac
8) Hot Fuzz
9) Margot at the Wedding
10) Bug

Christian Mungiu - 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days
Darren Aronofsky - The Fountain
David Fincher - Zodiac
David Cronenberg - Eastern Promises
David Lynch - INLAND EMPIRE
Denis Dercourt - The Page Turner
Greg Mottola - Superbad
Lars Von Trier - The Boss Of It All
Paul Verhoeven - Black Book
Stephen Kijak - Scott Walker: 30th Century Man


Biggest disappointment: My Blueberry Nights

1. Zodiac
2. Death Proof
3. Inland Empire
4. Black Book
5. Sunshine
6. First Snow
7.
8.
9.
10.

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. Inland Empire
3. The Host
4. Zodiac
5. Still Life
6. Iraq in Fragments
7. The Boss of It All
8. This space for rent
9.
10.

1. California Dreamin' (Cristian Nemescu)
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
3. In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín)
4. Quiet City (Aaron Katz)
5. The Band's Visit (Eran Kolirin)
6. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
7. Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas)
8. Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-Dong)
9. Ploy (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang)
10. The Man from London (Béla Tarr)

From UK screenings/theatrical release dates:

1. Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul)
2. I'm Not There (Haynes)
3. A Prairie Home Companion (Altman)
4. Useless (Jia)
5. Lights in the Dusk (Kaurismaki)
6. Don't Touch the Axe (Rivette)
7. Secret Sunshine (Lee)
8. Exiled (To)
9. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai)
10. Alexandra (Sokurov)

Honourable mentions: Couers (Resnais), The Mourning Forest (Kawase), Zodiac (Fincher), Silent Light (Reygadas), The Witnesses (Techine), Brand Upon the Brain! (Maddin), INLAND EMPIRE (Lynch), Iklimler (Ceylan), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik), Paranoid Park (Van Sant), Eastern Promises (Cronenberg), Yella (Petzold).

Thus Far (includes films I have seen theatrically in 2007 only)

1. Silent Light
2. Paranoid Park
3. Zødiac
4. Sunshine
5. Secret Sunshine
6. The Lives Of Others
7. In The Shadow Of The Moon
8. Tekkon Kinkreet
9. Rescue Dawn
10. Grindhouse


Runners-Up: The Bourne Ultimatum, 28 Weeks Later, The Last Winter, Knocked Up, Superbad, Black Book, The Man From London, Eastern Promises

I saw 30 films from 2007. Going by dates of first exhibition...

Masterpieces:
1. Ne Touchez Pas la Hache (Jacques Rivette)
2. The Silence Before Bach (Pere Portabella)

Possibly masterpieces:
3. Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (Hou Hsiao Hsien)
4. Disengagement (Amos Gitai)
5. Les Amours d'Astree et de Celadon (Eric Rohmer)
6. Beyond the Years (Im Kwon-Taek) a.k.a Thousand-Year Crane
7. Four Women (Adoor Gopalakrishnan)

Less likely a masterpiece:
8. Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-Dong)

Surprisingly great:
9. Southland Tales (Richard Kelly)
10. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)

Form with some content:
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Useless (Jia Zhang-Ke)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
It's a Free World... (Ken Loach)
The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson)
Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Fados (Carlos Saura)

Morally reprehensible drivel:
Grindhouse (Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez)

1. Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez)
2. Transformers (Michael Bay)
3. Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright)
4. Black Snake Moan (Craig Brewer)

Things I hope to see: The Darjeeling Limited, There Will Be Blood, Paranoid Park, I'm Not There, No Country For Old Men, Southland Tales, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Everything Will Be OK, John Rambo, Be Kind Rewind, Juno, Sweeney Todd, Stuck, Great World of Sound, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Lars and the Real Girl,

Things I might have reason to see: I'm a Cyborg But That's OK, Youth Without Youth, Mr. Lonely, Margot At the Wedding, Black Book, Secret Sunshine, Boarding Gate, The Walker, Sicko, Rocket Science, Stardust, Hairspray, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Once, A Mighty Heart, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Savages, Broken English, Into the Wild,

Things I've seen:
Planet Terror (3)
Transformers
Hot Fuzz (2)
Black Snake Moan
Superbad
Rescue Dawn
Bug
Shoot 'Em Up
The Kingdom
Hot Rod
The Lookout
Eastern Promises
Disturbia
28 Weeks Later
Smokin' Aces
Sunshine
The Bourne Ultimatum
3:10 To Yuma
Blades of Glory
The Simpsons Movie
Live Free Or Die Hard
Ratatouille
Knocked Up
Ocean's 13
Waitress
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Zodiac
300
Spiderman 3
Death Proof
Mr. Brooks

Top Ten

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
2. Brand Upon the Brain
3. Juno
4. The Paper Will Be Blue
5. The Lives of Others
6. Sicko
7. 2 Days In Paris
8. Persepolis
9. California Dreamin’
10. This is England

Hon Mention:
11. I'm Not There

.............................................
Disliked:
1. Red Road
2. Sunshine
3. Hot Fuzz
4. Rescue Dawn (Herzog)

an mfunk inspired revision

1. I'm Not There
2. The Darjeeling Limited
3. Atonement
4. Bug
5. There Will Be Blood
6. Juno
7. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
8. Margot at the Wedding
9. Once
10. Youth Without Youth (a disaster, but a very strange and pretty one)

Other films seen:

1408
2 Days in Paris
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Charlie Wilson's War
Control
Death Proof
Factory Girl
Gone Baby Gone
Grindhouse
In the Land of Women
La vie en rose
The Lives of Others
The Lookout
Lust, Caution
No Country for Old Men
Regular Lovers
The Savages
Spider-Man 3
Superbad
Sweeney Todd...
The Walker
Zodiac

01. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
02. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
03. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
04. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton)
05. Zodiac (David Fincher)
06. Control (Anton Corbijn)
07. Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach)
08. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
09. Smiley Face (Gregg Araki)
10. No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros.)

Now that I've seen a lot more than ten great films this year, here's my pick:

You, the Living (Roy Andersson) – As bleak and beautiful as ever, but also regularly, convulsively hilarious. Andersson's one of the few filmmakers whose every composition looks like it should be hung on a gallery wall, and this is his best work yet in his mature style (it's hard to draw comparisons with his other, wildly different masterpiece A Swedish Love Story).

Forever (Heddy Honigmann) – Honigmann's a strong contender for the greatest modern documentarist, and this deceptively simple idea (talking to visitors to Pere Lachaise cemetery) turns into a profound meditation on her key themes: the personal disruption wrought by geopolitical events, cultural dislocation, and the importance of music in everyday lives. Honigmann deals with that last topic better than anybody, and she's also one of the most expert interviewers on the planet: the film is full of revelations.

Private Property (Joachim Lafosse) – Brilliant, gruelling family drama, very much in the Pialat tradition and featuring Isabelle Huppert at the top of her form and Jeremie Renier's best work yet.

Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – As mysterious as ever, relaxed, beautiful and eerie.

Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke) – It would be a photo-finish with The World and Platform, but this could be his best film yet.

Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant) – Sublimely lyrical, this may be my favourite of Van Sant's recent run of “doomed youthâ€