ENTRIES IN PART 5:



Josh b mabe

LIBRARIAN AND FILMMAKER, CHICAGO

First, two cheats.

The best thing I saw all year was Hakob Hovnatanyan (Sergei Parajanov, 1967) which I have seen dozens of times on VHS, but the gorgeous Kino Klassika restoration is like seeing it for the first time. I hope to see it on film someday.

I was also very lucky to present “…whatever Norm Bruns decides to bring (Norm Bruns, 1980s)” at the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival. The festival was planned for March, so I had to shift the screening to the digital realm very quickly, but the Super 8 prints are lovely and I hope to be able to present them as soon as things like that happen again.

And a list of a dozen more, new and old, that I saw for the first time this year.

  1. Come Coyote (Dani & Sheilah ReStack, 2019)
  2. Water Motor (Babette Mangolte, 1978)
  3. Fannie’s Film (Fronza Woods, 1981)
  4. Cute House (Robb Boardman, 2020)
  5. In/dividu (Nicole Hewitt, 1999)
  6. The Runaway (Ritwik Ghatak, 1958)
  7. music from the edge of the allegheny plateau (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2018)
    8. My Brother, The Punk Singer (Caitlin Ryan, 2014)
  8. Something To Touch That Is Not Corruption Or Ashes Or Dust (Mike Stoltz, 2020)
  9. Standing Forward Full (Alee Peoples, 2020)
    11. I Am Somebody (Madeline Anderson, 1970)
  10. Vyv and Beat (Audrey Lam, 2018)

IOANNIS MARKIS

CINEPHILE, EDITOR of GREEK-BASED FILM BLOG PERI TAINION, MEMBER OF THE CINEMA GROUP CINEDIADROMES

The best 2019 movies I saw in 2020:

  1. Gisaengchung(Parasite, Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
  2. La trinchera Infinita(The Endless Trench, Jon Garaño, 2019)
  3. Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2020)
  4. Systemsprenger (System Crasher, Nora Fingscheidt, 2019)
  5. Yangguang Puzhao (A Sun, Chung Mong-hong, 2019)
  6. Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019)
  7. Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach, 2019)
  8. Seules les bêtes (Only the Animals, Dominik Moll, 2019)
  9. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019)
  10. A Hidden Life(Terrence Malick, 2019)
  11. Dolor y gloria (Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar, 2019)
  12. Les Misérables (Ladj Ly, 2019)
  13. Ya no estoy aquí (I’m No Longer Here, Fernando Frías de la Parrera, 2019)
  14. Nabarvené ptáče (The Painted Bird, Václav Marhoul, 2019)
  15. Captive State (Rupert Wyatt, 2019)
  16. Monos (Alejandro Landes, 2019)
  17. Yamim Noraim (Incitement, Yaron Zilberman, 2019)
  18. Tõde ja õigus (Truth and Justice, Tanel Toom, 2019)
  19. Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2019)
  20. El hoyo (The Platform, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019)

Randy Malamud

REGENTS’ PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Quite good

  1. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020)
  2. The Assistant (Kitty Green, 2019)
  3. What the Constitution Means to Me (Heidi Schreck, 2020 – filmed version of stage play)

Pretty good

  1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
  2. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)
  3. The Lovebirds (Michael Showalter, 2020)

Ok

  1. Bad Education (Cory Finley, 2020)
  2. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, 2020)
  3. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Jason Woliner, 2020)
  4. Palm Springs (Max Barbakow, 2020)

Disappointing

  1. The Trip to Greece (Michael Winterbottom, 2020)
  2. Shirley (Josephine Decker, 2020)
  3. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell, 2020)
  4. Miss Marx (Susanna Nicchiarelli, 2020)

Nordic documentaries (all seen via Reykjavik International Film Festival, 17th edition, hybrid, which was pretty good except that some of the program, including a few films I really wanted to see, wasn’t available online)

  1. Hatrið (A Song Called Hate, Anna Hildur, 2020)
  2. Húsmæðraskólinn (The School of Housewives, Stefanía Thors, 2020)
  3. Humarsúpa (Lobster Soup, Rafael Molés and Pepe Andreu, 2020)
  4. Kampen om Grønland (The Fight for Greenland, Kenneth Sorento, 2020)
  5. Aalto (Virpi Suutari, 2020)

bob manning

Cinephile and adelaine cinémathègue member
  1. The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie, 2019)
  2. Mank (David Fincher, 2020)
  3. Au Crepuscule (In the Dusk, Sharunas Bartas, 2019)
  4. Mila (Apples, Christos Nikou, 2020)
  5. The Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, 2019)
  6. Les Misérables (Ladj Ly, 2019)
  7. Motherless Brooklyn (Edward Norton, 2019)
  8. Honey Boy (Alma Har’el, 2019)
  9. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020)
  10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
  11. Calm with Horses (Nick Rowland, 2019)
  12. Let Him Go (Thomas Bezucha, 2020)

I have always liked Guy Ritchie’s movies, but I reckon his latest, The Gentlemen, is his finest and most polished. The one-liners keep coming at you like they’ve been fired from a tommy gun.

As a huge fan of the golden years of Hollywood era and Citizen Kane I loved Mank. Gary Oldman is great in lead role as Herman Mankiewicz, as is Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies. At the 2020 Adelaide Film Festival two of the finest films I saw were a quirky Greek movie, Apples, and a gripping Lithuanian post WW2 movie, In the Dusk.

In January 2020 I attended the Noir City, the 18th San Francisco Film Noir Festival at the Castro Theatre, this year an international affair with 24 movies from 11 different countries screening over the 10 days. This year programmer Eddie Muller’s guest presenter, singer and poster person was Victoria Mature, the daughter of Victor Mature. A highlight was the screening of the UK film, The Long Haul, starring Victor, on what would have been his 107th birthday. Victoria naturally sang “Happy Birthday” to her Dad with the help of the audience before the screening.

My Top 5 films at Noir 18 international:

  1. Popiol i diament (Ashes and Diamonds, Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
  2. Panique (Panic, Julien Duvivier, 1946)
  3. Razzia su la chnouuf (Razzia, Henry Decoin, 1955)
  4. Le Doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962)
  5. The Long Haul (Ken Hughes, 1957)

Ashes and Diamonds

miguel marías

FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE SPANISH FILM ARCHIVE (1986-88), AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON MANUEL MUR OTI AND LEO McCAREY

Great movies made since 2015 seen for the first time in 2020:
Buoyancy (Rodd Rathjen, 2019)
L’Île au trésor (Guillaume Brac, 2018)
Le Sel des larmes (The Salt of Tears, Philippe Garrel, 2020)
Ghawre Bairey Aaj (Home and the World, Aparna Sen, 2019)
Undine (Christian Petzold, 2020)
Happī awā (Happy Hour, Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, 2015)
Netemo Sametemo (Asako I & II, Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, 2018)
Adolescentes (Sébastien Lifshitz, 2019)
Family Romance, LLC. (Werner Herzog, 2019)
Demain et tous les autres jours (Noémie Lvovsky, 2017)
Gamak Ghar (Achal Mishra, 2019)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Pawo Choyning Dorji, 2019)
Semina il vento (Sow the Wind, Danilo Caputo, 2020)
Objector (Molly Stuart, 2019)
La France contre les robots (Jean-Marie Straub, 2020)
Paris Calligrammes (Ulrike Ottinger, 2020)
Un film dramatique (Éric Baudelaire, 2019)

Great movies made before 2015 seen for the first time in 2020:
Là-Haut, un Roi au-dessus des nuages (Above the Clouds, Pierre Schoendoerffer, 2003)
Pangarap ng Puso (Demons/Whispers of the Demon/Hope of the Heart, Mario O’Hara, 2000)
Les Films rêvés (Dreamt Films, Eric Pauwels, 2009)
La vida en rojo (Andrés Linares, 2008)
Come Next Spring (R.G. Springsteen, 1956)
Song of Surrender (Mitchell Leisen, 1949)
Adventure in Manhattan (Edward Ludwig, 1936)
Strannaia zhenshchina (A Strange Woman, Yuli Raizman, 1978)
Chastnaia zhízn (Private Life, Yuli Raizman, 1982)
Malva (Vladimir Braun, 1957)
Zhila-byla devochka (Once There Was a Girl, Viktor Eisimont, 1944)
The Unknown Man (Richard Thorpe, 1951)
Aisai Monogatari (Story of a Beloved Wife, Shindō Kaneto, 1951)
Practically Yours (Mitchell Leisen, 1944)
A Summer Storm (Robert Wise, 2000)
Lettre d’un cinéaste à sa fille (Letter From a Filmmaker to his Daughter, Eric Pauwels, 2000)
Sombra verde (Untouched, Roberto Gavaldón, 1954)
Fantasma d’amore (Dino Risi, 1981)
Mori no kajiya (The Blacksmith of the Forest, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1929; fragment)
Zwischen Gestern und Morgen (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, Harald Braun, 1947)
Last Holiday (Henry Cass, 1950)
Dialogue d’ombres (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1954-2013)
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man (Jonas Mekas, 2012)
Nice Time (Claude Goretta & Alain Tanner, 1957)
Aloma of the South Seas (Alfred Santell, 1941)
A Feather in Her Hat (Alfred Santell, 1935)
La Danseuse Orchidée (Léonce Perret, 1928)
Underground (Vincent Sherman, 1941)
Time Out (John Landis, 1983) (in Twilight Zone: The Movie)
Lackawanna Blues (George C. Wolfe, 2005)
Janie (Michael Curtiz, 1944)
Dernier Amour (Léonce Perret, 2016)
Jeunes Filles en détresse (Girls in Distress, G.W. Pabst, 1939)
Kisapmata (Blink of an Eye, Mike De Leon, 1981)
La Dernière Lettre (The Last Letter, Frederick Wiseman, 2002)
The Lady of the Dig-Out (W.S. Van Dyke II, 1918)
Their Own Desire (E. Mason Hopper, 1929)

Very good movies made since 2015 seen for the first time:
Zumiriki (Oskar Alegria, 2019)
Atlantique (Atlantics, Mati Diop, 2019)
J’accuse (An Officer and A Spy, Roman Polanski, 2019)
Alice et le Maire (Alice and the Mayor, Nicolas Pariser, 2019)
Richard Jewell (Clint Eastwood, 2019)
Contes de Juillet (July Tales, Guillaume Brac, 2017)
Ofrenda a la tormenta (Fernando González Molina, 2020)
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes, 2019)
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (Werner Herzog, 2019)
Into the Inferno (Werner Herzog, 2016)
The Zookeeper’s Wife (Niki Caro, 2017)
Journal de septembre (September Diary, Eric Pauwels, 2019)
La Deuxième Nuit (The Second Night, Eric Pauwels, 2016)
Kaze no denwa (Voices in the Wind, Nobuhiro Suwa, 2020)
A Metamorfose dos Pássaros (The Metamorphosis of Birds, Catarina Vasconcelos, 2020)
La Nuit d’avant (Pablo García Canga, 2019)
My Mexican Bretzel (Nuria Giménez, 2019)
Domangchin yeoja (The Woman Who Ran, Hong Sang-soo, 2020)
Hatsukoi (First Love, Miike Takashi, 2019)
Öndög (Wang Quanan, 2019)
Million raz pogivaet odin Cheloviek (One Man Dies a Million Times, Jessica Oreck, 2019)
The Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles, 2019)
Félicité (Alain Gomis, 2017)
Ni de lian (Your Face, Tsai Ming-liang, 2018)
Qi qiu (Balloon, Pema Tseden, 2019)
River Silence (Rogério Soares, 2019)
Charlie’s Angels (Elizabeth Banks, 2019)
La boda de Rosa (Rosa’s Wedding, Iciar Bollaín, 2020)
Guerra (War, José Oliveira and Marta Ramos, 2020)
Namo (The Alien, Nader Saeivar, co-script. Jafar Panahi, 2020)
Los silencios (The Silences, Beatriz Seigner, 2018)
Padre no hay más que uno (Santiago Segura, 2019)

Very good movies made before 2015 seen for the first time:
Topaze (Marcel Pagnol, 1936)Abandoned (Joseph M. Newman, 1949)
Bewitched (Arch Oboler, 1945)
La Femme du bout du monde (Jean Epstein, 1937)
The Outcast (William Witney, 1954)
Saadia (Albert Lewin, 1953)
Un monde sans femmes (A World Without Women, Guillaume Brac, 2011)
Dishonored Lady (Robert Stevenson, 1947)
Always Goodbye (Signey Lanfield, 1938)
A Blueprint for Murder (Andrew L. Stone, 1953)
Bedevilled (Mitchell Leisen, 1955)
That Forsyte Woman (Compton Bennett, 1949)
The Miracle (Irving Rapper, 1959)
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (Charles B. Pierce, 1976)
Grayeagle (Charles B. Pierce, 1977)
Barricade (Peter Godfrey, 1950)
Tomorrow is Forever (Irving Pichel, 1946)
David Harum (James Cruze, 1934)
Keisatsukan (Tomu Uchida, 1933)
…Enfants des courants d’air (Édouard Luntz, 1959, short)
The Winds of Autumn (Charles B. Pierce, 1976)
Suddenly It’s Spring (Mitchell Leisen, 1946)
Uchūjin Tōkyō ni arawaru (Warning from Space, Shima Kōji, 1956)
Swiss Family Robinson (Edward Ludwig, 1940)
Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (Wilhelm Dieterle, 1930)
Faithless (Harry Beaumont, 1932)
Botan-dorō (Peony Lanterns, Yamamoto Satsuo, 1968)
Ginza 24 chou (Tales of Ginza, Kawashima Yūzō, 1955)
Goodbye Again (Michael Curtiz, 1933)
You Gotta Stay Happy (H.C. Potter, 1948)
The Moon is Down (Irving Pichel, 1943)
The Bride Wore Boots (Irving Pichel, 1946)
Adventures in Silverado (Phil Karlson, 1948)
Congo Maisie (H.C. Potter, 1940)
Marcides (Mercedes, Yousry Nasrallah, 1993)
Hell’s Five Hours (Jack L. Copeland, 1958)
Diên Biên Phú (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1992)
Canyon River (Cattle King, Harmon Jones, 1956)
Dos Basuras (Kurt Land, 1958)
Smart Girls Don’t Talk (Richard L. Bare, 1948)
The Big Shakedown (John Francis Dillon, 1934)
Corvette K-225 (Richard Rosson; p.,collab. Howard Hawks, 1943)
The Invisible Woman (A.Edward Sutherland, 1940)
Rage in Heaven (W.S. Van Dyke II; collab. Robert B. Sinclair, Richard Thorpe, 1941)
I bambini e noi (Luigi Comencini, 1970//7)
The House Across the Street (Richard L. Bare, 1949)
The Doughgirls (James V. Kern, 1944)
Torch Song (Charles Walters, 1953)
The Meanest Man in the World (Sidney Lanfield, 1943)
Ballerine (Gustav Machatý, 1936)
Cole Younger, Gunfighter (R.G. Springsteen, 1958)
Via Mala (Josef von Báky, 1945)
Sky Giant (Lew Landers, 1938)
Promène toi donc tout nu (Emmanuel Mouret, 1998)
Una historia para los Modlin (A Story for the Modlins, Sergio Oksman, 2012)
Something in the Wind (Irving Pichel, 1947)
Guilty Hands (W.S. Van Dyke II; collab. Lionel Barrymore, 1931)
Atto di accusa (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1950)
Escape in the Fog (Oscar ‘Budd’ Boetticher, Jr., 1945)

Great movies that improved in new watchings:
The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
Man’s Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks, 1964)
Hondo (John V. Farrow, 1953)
Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, 1942)
Driftwood (Allan Dwan, 1947)
Good-bye, My Lady (William A. Wellman, 1956)
Le Crabe-Tambour (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1977)
The Runner Stumbles (Stanley Kramer, 1979)
Touch of Evil (preview version, 1975; not later ‘improvements’) (Orson Welles, 1958)
Yushima no Shiraume (Romance at Yushima, Kinugasa Teinosukē, 1955)
David Harum (Allan Dwan, 1915)
The Virginian (Cecil B. DeMille, 1914)
Island in the Sky (William A. Wellman, 1953)
The Little American (Cecil B. DeMille, 1917)
The Hunters (Dick Powell, 1958)
A Man Alone (Ray Milland, 1955)
Escape (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1948)

Very good movies improving:
Bluebeard’s 10 Honeymoons (W.Lee Wilder, 1960)
The Five Pennies (Melville Shavelson, 1958)
Appassionatamente (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1954)
Así como habían sido (Trío) (Andrés Linares, 1987)
San Antone (Joseph Kane, 1953)
Desire Me (uncredited: George Cukor/Jack Conway/Mervyn LeRoy/Victor Saville, 1946)
The Milky Way (Leo McCarey; w. Harold Lloyd, 1936)

The Milky Way 

jamie mendonça

THEATRICAL SALES EXECUTIVE, CURZON ARTIFICIAL EYE

Disclaimer: I was foolish enough to miss Tsai Ming-liang’s Days at BFI London Film Festival.

All streamed out, Jamie? Get over it.

In terms of choice, this year has been a great opportunity to embrace countless films; both new and old. I’ve therefore been brutal in the attempt to decipher the best of the best.

Shoutout to The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Göran Olsson, 2011), National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014), I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020), Matthias & Maxime (Xavier Dolan, 2019), Amazing Grace (Sydney Pollack, Alan Elliott, 2018) and Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross, 2020)

Boys State (Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, 2020)
Didn’t see this coming. I’ve never rooted for someone as much as I did Steven. Only complaint: why only boys? I’d like to pitch Girls State as a sequel and All State as the completion of this non-existent trilogy.

Bāb al-Ḥadīd (Cairo Station, Youssef Chahine, 1958)
A hidden gem on Netflix. What an electrifying film, mainly thanks to the captivating Hind Rostom. Would watch again in a heartbeat.

The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
A deliciously complex thrill; a good example of “where has this film been all my life”’. As an aside, shocked at my own stupidity to realise Dirk Bogarde was not in fact a northerner. I guess it’s called acting.

L’Amant d’un jour (Lover for a Day, Philippe Garrel, 2017)
Hard to believe this was a recently made film as it felt plucked straight out of the French New Wave, but make no mistake – it is contemporary, fresh and surely bold for father and daughter to collaborate like this.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
Award for the “I’m not worthy…” film of the year goes to…
Grateful that I caught this in one of my favourite places, the Cine Lumiere, including an introduction by Professor Laura Mulvey. A memorable night indeed.

For Sama (Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, 2019)
I’ll never forget this. Missed it last year and as I don’t tend to read synopses/reviews of films that I’m keen to watch, had no idea what the outcome would be. Sat there in the Bertha Dochouse…hoping…the eventual relief was like waking up from a terrible dream; not to write off the events depicted as a dream however: more a living nightmare.

Time (Garrett Bradley, 2020)
The kind of film that demands a re-watch as soon as possible/reasonable. Still processing, actually. When (if) the Time comes, a trip to the cinema would be hugely beneficial for this one I suspect. The impact would be so much greater.

Diqiu zuihou de yewan (Long Days Journey Into Night, Bi Gan, 2019)
I was slightly concerned about the much discussed final 59 minutes presented in an additional dimension; you mean we need to put on 3D glass halfway through? Well, yes, dummy, and it was pure magic. In fact: I just gave the trailer a watch to try and get back into that world momentarily; it wasn’t working until that music kicked in, and then…I’m there.

Columbus (Kogonada, 2017)
To go from smart video essays to a fine, intelligent debut feature film was just impressive. Placed me in the landscape of Paterson or Garden State; not sure why there’s something eternally seductive about someone returning to someplace.

Dick Johnson is Dead (Kirsten Johnson, 2020)
The first few seconds of the trailer, playing automatically every time I scrolled over the film on Netflix, were actually very effective; a perfect marriage of sound/image and not as presented in the final piece funnily enough. The film itself is more than ‘quirky’ – it’s quite extraordinary.

Shirley (Josephine Decker, 2020)
A beautiful film I had the pleasure of working on which had its theatrical release cut short. An apparent biopic that teases with the truth, I couldn’t help imagine the Dad from Call Me By Your Name inexplicably abandoning his family for this new, challenging life with a horror author.

Daddy Longlegs [bootleg War Cut] (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2009)
Amusingly (in retrospect) I watched a bootleg version of the film unbeknown to myself and indeed the cinema screening it, with random annoying sound effects such as gunfire throughout. Of course, I could only assume it was intentional on the night (not sure I agree with your choices here, Safdie brothers, but respect your vision nonetheless) with the internet soon clearing that up. A cautionary tale.

Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa, 2019)
Hugely relieved this master work was caught on the big screen before everything shut down. Otherworldly cinema. Honestly couldn’t watch this particular film on the TV as total concentration/immersion is required.

Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020)
Struggling to write about this one for some reason but it’s firmly on the list. Delroy Lindo’s monologue transported the film to another level.

Shakedown (Leilah Weinraub, 2018)
Egypt Blaque Knyle was not only the star of the establishment featured in this documentary but of the film itself. So charismatic and fascinating. The film offered a look into a world I had no real insight on, therefore I can only appreciate the knowledge.

Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan, 2019)
Wickedly wonderful. Always have bags of time for Mr Egoyan, and this was no exception. Now would be the obligatory part to wax lyrical about David Thewlis, but let’s leave the performance to speak for itself.

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)
Late to the game on this one. Lockdown allowed the opportunity to finally explore this groundbreaking work, which lived up to its hype and beyond.

Om det oändliga (About Endlessness, Roy Andersson, 2019)
Personal favourite. It broke my heart to work so hard on this film’s cinema release and then have it obliterated by a second lockdown. But that’s ok:

MAN 1
Isn’t it quite fantastic?

MAN 2
What?

MAN 1
Everything.

(beat)

Everything.

(beat)

Everything is fantastic.

MAN 2

Well, yes.

About Endlessness

douglas messerli

FOUNDER AND AUTHOR OF CINEMA SITES, WORLD CINEMA REVIEW AND MY QUEER CINEMA. CURRENTLY WORKING ON A TWO-VOLUME ENCYCLOPAEDIC WORK, MY QUEER CINEMA: LGBTQ FILM OPEN AND CLOSED, SPANNING 1887 TO 2020

This year I was particularly impressed by the streaming of the AFI Festival in Los Angeles, Newfest (the New York LGBT Festival) and the Documentary Festival, as well as the increased contributions of Netflix and Amazon Prime of LGBTQ works.

Here are my favourites:
Ammonite (Francis Lee, 2020)
Nomandland (Chloé Zhao, 2020)
I Carry You with Me (Te Llevo Conmigo) (Heidi Ewing, 2020)
Cowboys (Anna Kerrigan, 2020)
Sublet (Eytan Fox, 2020)
Été 85 (Summer of 85, François Ozon, 2020)
Douglas (Hannah Gadsby, 2020)
The Half of It (Alice Wu, 2020)
Lingua Franca (Isobel Sandoval, 2019; general release 2020)
Origin of the Species (Abigail Child, 2020)
Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, 2020)
La Llorona (The Weeping Woman, Jayro Bustamante, 2020)
Dylda (Beanpole, Kantemir Balagov, 2019; US release 2020)
Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2020)
Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019)
Undine (Christian Petzold, 2020)

jack mcculloch

LOCATION SOUND RECORDIST BASED IN MELBOURNE

Top Films of 2020

  1. Bait (Mark Jenkin, 2019)
  2. Kuessipan (Myriam Verreault, 2019)
  3. Mogul Mowgli(Bassam Tariq, 2020)
  4. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, 2019)
  5. The Assistant (Kitty Green, 2019)

Top Retrospective Screenings

  1. Akira(Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988) Astor Theatre, 4K DCP
  2. Wild Zero (Tetsuro Takeuchi, 1999) Cursed Signal: A Static Vision Spooktacular, Live Stream
  3. Eyes Wide Shut(Stanley Kubrick, 1999) Astor Theatre, 35mm print
  4. Salinui chueok (Memories of Murder, Bong Joon-ho, 2003) Cinema Nova, 2K DCP
  5. Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939) Melbourne Cinémathèque, 35mm print

Film Festivals in 2020
2020 was a rough year for everyone, but I am grateful for all the wonderful virtual film festivals that kept the cinephile community sane during lockdown. I especially enjoyed MIFF 68 ½, Cursed Signal: A Static Vision Spooktacular, Virtual Cinémathèque, St Kilda Film Festival and KOFFIA. Also, a shout out to my friends ‘The Cine Nerds’ for hosting regular virtual film trivia over Zoom, which was both fun and challenging and a great way to keep in touch during lockdown.

jane mills

HON. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNSW

First, some interests to declare. Four of my favourite films were screened on the big screen in the Antenna Documentary and Cinema Reborn festivals in Sydney. I’m a guest programmer for the former and was invited by the latter to introduce its season of films by the French auteur Jean-Pierre Melville. Big thanks to their respective organisers, David Rokach and Geoffrey Gardner, for their persistence. It was really good to see these films in a cinema. (To be honest – and I know this will be apostasy to many – while of course I prefer seeing films in the cinema, I don’t have a huge problem in seeing them on my computer at home. If a film engages me, I often don’t remember where I saw it or how large or small the screen was.)

Colectiv (Collective, Alexander Nanau, 2019)
At one level, this documentary is about a fire in a Bucharest night club in 2015 that led to 25 deaths and often devastating injuries for another 180 people. However, Nanau uncovers layer upon layer of corruption, blackmail, bribery and collusion as his camera seeks out the investigative journalists, whistle-blowers, politicians and victims and their families who refused to be silenced. Brilliantly exploiting the creative tensions in the documentary form between making art and making history, Nanau focuses on this event in Romania to encourage audiences to reflect upon events elsewhere in the world: the ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut and the populist support for countless Trump-related crimes spring to mind. They, too, are indicative of a global phenomenon in which, as one critic has remarked, people feel so disconnected from others that empathy has been replaced by greed and strangers are viewed as abstractions. Insisting that “when the press bows down to the authorities, the authorities will mistreat the citizens”, Colectiv points to the Murdoch press and all other time-serving media organisations around the word. Nominated for an Oscar in both International Feature and Documentary categories, it’s nothing short of brilliant.

Gunda (Viktor Kossakovsky, 2020)
No less staggering in its affective impact is Gunda. Shot in black-and-white digital, without music, voice-over, onscreen text or a single person, this observational documentary offers beautifully filmed, intimate portraits of a sow, Gunda, and her piglets, a brave one-legged chook and a herd of liberated cows who go crazy with joy. The star, however, is Gunda – “the Meryl Streep of Pigs”, as Kossakovsky insists. If this sounds like it’s a humorous, sentimental, farmyard story, forget it. Quietly and thoughtfully, this spellbinding documentary turns the camera on us to speak to our refusal to acknowledge our abuse of other creatures and, indeed, all forms of life. Gunda’s distress when separated from her piglets who are taken to market is simply heart-rending. It is an astonishing, highly political film.

Brazen Hussies (Catherine Dwyer, 2020)
Also selected by Antenna (and on general release), I hugely enjoyed and learned a lot from this lovely documentary. Dwyer uses imagination, humour, fascinating archival footage and never-dull-for-one-second talking head interviews to tell the story of the second wave of the Australian women’s liberation movement in the 1960s and ‘70s. Beautifully edited by Rosie Jones and imaginatively scored by Amanda Brown, these women were – still are – fearless and wonderful company. If you don’t want to own a pair of knickers just like those worn by Liz Reid, Gough Whitlam’s adviser and the world’s first government advisor on women’s issues, then I’m speechless.

L’Armée des ombres (Army of Shadows, Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) is an older film I encountered for the first time. Thanks to Cinema Reborn, the Sydney-based festival that screens restored classics, I was able to see six films of French auteur, Jean-Pierre Melville. Their depictions, celebrations and, in some instances, denials of silence and sound, shadow and light, thrilled and disturbed me equally. Of them all, it was impossible not to agree with Adrian Danks’ verdict that Army of Shadows is “one of the greatest cinematic testaments to the lived experience of the French Resistance.” As for Simone Signoret’s performance of a brave, mentally tortured informer: words fail me.

Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen, 1977)
Hearing of the death an old friend, the pioneering cinematographer and director Diane Tammes, I revisited some films she shot for Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen. Diane was the first female camera graduate of the UK’s National Film School and the first woman accredited by the British film industry union. A feminist, experimental film, Riddles of the Sphinx is a companion piece to Mulvey’s celebrated essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975). It amazed and inspired me back then. It still does. Diane’s camerawork is superlative.

It’s been a particularly good year for women filmmakers. In no particular order, the following are the films I most enjoyed or admired (not always the same thing). Remarkably, those marked with an asterisk are their directors’ feature film debuts.

  • The Assistant (Kitty Green, 1919)*
  • Atlantique (Atlantics, Mati Diop, 2019)*
  • The Flood (Victoria Wharfe McIntyre, 2020)*
  • Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019)
  • Mignonnes (Cuties, Maïmouna Doucouré, 2020)*
  • Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
  • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma, 2019)

David Lynch Daily Weather Report
Yes, I know this can’t be called a “movie” by any stretch of the imagination. Please indulge me. In such a grim year, I discovered David Lynch’s online daily weather forecasts. They made me laugh out loud every day. (Warning: they’re addictive.) And as Lynch (almost) says: Everyone: have a great year!

stefano miraglia

ARTIST AND CURATOR. FOUNDER OF MOVIMCAT

 2020
Baltimore (Margaret Rorison, 2020)
Sweat (Elsa Brès, 2020)
A Demonstration (Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner, 2020)
Río Turbio (Shady River, Tatiana Mazú González, 2020)
O arrais do mar (Elisa Celda, 2020)
dream less (Charlotte Clermont, 2020)
A Dança do Cipreste (The Cypress Dance, Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela, 2020)
Small Axe (Steve McQueen, 2020)
El año del descubrimiento (The Year of the Discovery, Luis López Carrasco, 2020)
Passage Secret (Secret Passage, Brieuc Schieb, 2020)
Lúa Vermella (Red Moon Tide, Lois Patiño, 2020)
Les quatre récits d’Alice (Alice’s Four Stories, Myriam Jacob-Allard, 2020)
Forensickness (Chloé Galibert-Laîné, 2020)
The Flame of the Spent Hour (Roger Deutsch, 2020)
Cinetracts ’20 (Various, 2020)
maison Lorraine (en 9 cases) (Ishrann Silgidjian, 2020)
Avant l’effondrement du Mont Blanc (Before the Collapse of Mont Blanc, Jacques Perconte, 2020)

2019 and older, encountered in 2020
the names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered (Onyeka Igwe, 2019)
Once Removed (Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 2019)
Cemetery (Carlos Casas, 2019)
special dark glass somewhere (Charlotte Clermont, 2019)
Missing Time (Morgan Quaintance, 2019)
Early Years (Morgan Quaintance, 2019)
Black Bus Stop (Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold, 2019)
I diari di Angela: Noi due cineasti. Capitolo secondo (Angela’s Diaries. Two Filmmakers. Chapter Two, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2019)
Actos de Primavera (Spring Events, Adrián García Prado, 2019)
A casa, a verdadeira e a seguinte, ainda está por fazer (The house is yet to be built, Sílvia das Fadas, 2018)
Nous sommes tous encore ici (Anne-Marie Miéville, 1997)
Lou n’a pas dit non (Anne-Marie Miéville, 1993)
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah / Black Audio Film Collective, 1986)
Bob with Books (Nancy Holt, 1971)
Utah Sequences (Nancy Holt, 1970)

Sweat

olaf möller

CINEPHILE, WRITER, TRANSLATOR AND CURATOR, COLOGNE

Olaf Möller’s Eleven Friends 2020

Team Manager Team (Films of the Year)
Mishima Yukio VS Tōdai Zenkyōtō: 50-nenme no shinjitsu (Mishima: The Last Debate, Toyoshima Keisuke, 2020)
Les Sorcières de l’Orient (The Oriental Witches, Julien Faraut, 2021)

First Team (Line-up in strictly alphabetical order)
Amants (Lovers, Nicole Garcia, 2020)
Archipel (Archipelago, Félix Dufour-Laperrière, 2021)
Equinox (Margaret Honda, 2020)
Ǧenāyate-e bī Deqat (Careless Crime, Šahrām Mokrī, 2020)
Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito, 2020)
Irradiés (Irradiated, Ban Ritthi, 2020)
Minamata Mandala (Hara Kazuo, 2020)
Nāmānuṣ Prēmēr Kathāmālā (Glossary of Non-Human Love, Āśīṣ Abikuntak, 2021)
Sutemose (In the Dusk, Šarūnas Bartas, 2019)
Tuṟamukham (Rājīv Ravi, 2021)The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) (C.W. Winter & Anders Edström)
+ “Modern Korea”-ŭi pangsong-ŭi nalt’ŭkchipp’yŏn: Chŏngsŏng-ŭl tahanŭn, kungmin-ŭi pangsong (Yŏm Jisŏn, 2020)
+ Tremors: Shrieker Island (Don Michael Paul, 2020)
+ La France contre les robots (France Against the Robots, Jean-Marie Straub, 2020)
+ We Are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other [VR] (Jacolby Satterwhite, 2020)

Substitutes
Bronx (Rogue City, Olivier Marchal, 2020) // Cat1 jan4 ngok6 deoi6 (Septet: The Story of Hong Kong, Sammo Hung4 Gam1 Bou2, Heoi2 On1 Waa4 {Ann Hui}, Taam4 Gaa1 Ming4 {Patrick Tam}, Jyun4 Wo4 Ping4, Dou6 Kei4 Fung1 {Johnnie To}, Ringo Lam4 Ling5 Dung1, Ceoi4 Hak1, 2020) // La diosa del asfalto (Asphalt Goddess, Julián Hernández, 2020) // Eiga ai no genzai (Cinephilia Now). Dai I bu: Kabe no mukōde (Part I – Secrets Within Walls) & Dai II bu: Tabi no michizure (Part II – Fellowship to Cast the Ring) & Dai III bu: Hoshi o atsumeru (Part III – Lux crawler i++) (2020; Sasaki Yūsuke) //  Fucking with Nobody (Hannaleena Hauru, 2020) // Greyhound (Aaron Schneider, 2020) // Kaze no denwa (Voices in the Wind, Suwa Nobuhiro, 2020) // Luz nos Trópicos (Light in the Tropics, Paula Gaitán, 2020) // Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu, 2020) // Ordem Moral (Moral Order; Mário Barroso, 2020) // Police (Anne Fontaine, 2020) // Siberia (Abel Ferrara, 2020) // Tachibana Ayako wa miraretai (Satō Amane, 2020)
+ Tatort: In der Familie, Teil 1 (Dominik Graf)
+ ACCA 13-ku kansatsu-ka Regards (ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. Regards, Saitō Kei’ichirō, 2020)
+ AaRON – Ultrarêve (Bianca van Damme, 2020)
+ The Four Temperaments [AR] (Marco Brambilla, 2020)

Extended Team
Alone (John Hyams, 2020) // Amor Omni (Yamakado Yōhei, 2020) // Āmrā Ēkṭā Cinema Bānābō (The Innocents, Āśrāph Śiśir, 2019/20) // Anerca, elämän hengitys (Anerca, Breath of Life, Markku & Johannes Lehmuskallio, 2020) // Andjust (Mox Mäkelä, 2020) // Dì yī lú xiāng (Love After Love, Heoi2 On1 Waa4 {Ann Hui}, 2020) // Fan Girl (Antoinette Jadaone, 2020) // al-Fāris wa l-Amīra (The Knight and the Princess, Bašīr ad-Dīk, 2019) // Gekijōban Violet Evergarden (Violet Evergarden: The Movie, Ishidate Ta’ichi, 2020) // High Ground (Stephen Maxwell Johnson, 2020) // Koyoi, kiseki ga okiru onsen de (Takehora Tetsuya, 2020) // Lahi, Hayop (Genus Pan, Lav Diaz, 2020) // Māmā hé qītiān de shíjiān (Mama, Lǐ Dōngméi, 2020) // Mei6 mou5 fau4 sing4 (The Cube Phantom, Alan Lau4 Gin6 Leon4, 2020) // Mi chiamo Francesco Totti (My Name Is Francesco Totti, Alex Infascelli, 2020) // Mon amour (David Teboul, 2020) // N.P (Lisa Spilliaert, 2020) // Namsan-ŭi pujangdŭl (The Man Standing Next, U Minho, 2020) // Nuevo orden (New Order, Michel Franco, 2020) // Rādīogrāf az yek Ḫānevādeh (Radiograph of a Family, Fīrūzeh Ḫosrovānī, 2020) // Robaman (Kawasaki Minoru, 2020) // Severnyj veter (The North Wind, Renata Litvinova, 2021) // Slučajna raskoš prozirnog vodenog rebusa (Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus, Dalibor Barić, 2020) // Sthalpurāṇ (Chronicle of Space, Akṣay Iṇḍīkar, 2020) // The World to Come (Mona Fastvold, 2020) // Xiànqí pò’àn (Caught in Time, Lau4 Hou6 Loeng4, 2021)
+ Eizōken ni wa te o dasu na! [Miniseries] (Supervising Director: Yuasa Masa’aki; Episode Directors: Fujikura Takuya, Ifuku Satoshi, Igarashi Yūki, Inoue Keisuke, Motohashi Mari, Nagaya Seishirō, Noguchi Karin, Ogawa Madoka, Oyunam, Sasaki Sumito, Tonomizu Atsuko, Yamashiro Fūga, 2020) // A Soldier’s Heart [Maxiseries, 2 Seasons] (Richard Villarosa Somes & Mervyn Brondial & Raz De La Torre, 2020)
+ Seized (Isaac Florentine, 2020) // Superman: Red Son (Sam Liu, 2020)
+ #3 Untitled (Hudson Yards) (Brady Corbet, 2020) // Heaven Shall Burn – Eradicate (Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwan, 2020)
+ Gnomes and Goblins [VR Immersive Story] (Jake Rowell & Jon Favreau, 2020) // Siltojen alta tulevaisuuden ihmiselle [VR] (Man under Bridge, Hanna Västinsalo, 2020)

Eleven Friends 2020 Medical Staff
(film/video-based/related installations, film/video art projects, films seen in exhibitions, and various other film related works in radio, literature etc.)
Rakentajat (Constructors, Mika Taanila, 2020) // Toshi tōei gekiga Horizon Blue [Projection with Live Performance] (Horizon Blue, Harada Hiroshi, 2019)

Olaf Möller’s Eleven Veterans 2020

Team Manager (Revelation of the Year)
How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones, no. 11: Practice Shots (George Marshall, 1931)
The Goldwyn Follies (George Marshall, 1938)
Star Spangled Rhythm (George Marshall; & Ralph Murphy; & Albert Edward Sutherland [& Frank Tuttle; Lewis Allen; Paul Weatherwax], 1942)
The Perils of Pauline (George Marshall, 1947)
Houdini (George Marshall, 1953)
+ Screen Directors Playhouse: The Silent Partner (George Marshall,1955)

First Team (Line-Up in strictly alphabetical order)
[Alltag im Flüchtlingslager 65 in Linz] (Everyday Life in Refugee Camp 65 in Linz, 1949)
The Amusement Park (George Andrew Romero, 1973)
La batalla del último Panzer (Battle of the Last Panzer, José Luis Merino, 1969)
The Cabin in the Cotton (Michael Curtiz, 1932)
Kamouraska (Claude Jutra, 1973/83/95)
Ljusår (Light Year, Mikael Kristersson, 2008)
Māṭī Kē Lāl (Red Ant Dream, Sañjay Kāk, 2013)
¡Mujer, tú eres la belleza! [Fragment] (Woman, You Are Beauty!, Camilo Zaccaría Soprani, 1928)
Mužiki!… (Peasants, Iskra Babič, 1981)
Nurunuru Cancan (Wet Hot Sake, Noshiyama Yōichi, 1996)
Nus masculins (François Reichenbach, 1954)
+ Gente delle Langhe: Incontro con il padre (Vittorio Cottafavi, 1974)
+ Silver (Miike Takashi, 1999)

Substitutes
The Adventurers (Lewis Gilbert, 1970) // Agent 69 Jensen i Skorpionens tegn (Agent 69 in the Sign of Scorpio, Werner Hedman, 1977) // Āmār Lenin (My Lenin, R̥tvik Ghaṭak, 1970) // L’Année des méduses (Year of the Jellyfish, Christopher Frank, 1984) // Bam̆baru Ævit (The Wasps Are Here, Dharmasēna Patirāja, 1978) // [Caran d’Ache] Es geht nicht ohne (Werner Dressler & Leo Wullimann, 1948) // El circo (Luis García Berlanga, 1950) // El esqueleto de la señora Morales (The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales, Rogelio Antonio González, 1960) // [Fête des Vignerons 1905. Spectacle] (Charles Urban Trading Company, 1905) // L’Horizon (Horizon, Jacques Rouffio, 1967) // Jugend erlebt Japan. Ein Film des Presse- und Propaganda-Amtes der Reichsjugendführung über den ersten Jugendaustausch Deutschland – Japan (Fritz Schroeter?, 1938/41) // Khả S̄ạ̀ng Khả S̄āp (Dead Man’s Voice, Burnett Lamont, 1951) // Kogai to tatakau. Niigata Minamata-byō (Watanabe Masami, 1968) // Kuroi gashū – Aru Salaryman no shōgen (The Lost Alibi, Horikawa Hiromichi, 1960) // Kuroi gashū – Aru sonan (Death on the Mountain, Sugie Toshio, 1961) // The Last Valley (James Clavell, 1971) // Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920) // Mueda, Memória e Massacre (Mueda, Memory and Massacre, Ruy Guerra, 1979) // Roman Scandals (Frank Tuttle; & Busby Berkeley; & Ralph Ceder, 1933) // Rund um die Welt in 2 Stunden (Latium-Film, 1912?) // Šatranǧ-e Bād (Chess of the Wind, Moḥamad Reḍā Aslānī, 1976) // Shànghǎi shèhuì dǎng’àn (On the Society File of Shanghai, Wáng Jújīn, 1981) // Shichihenge tanuki goten (Ōsone Tatsuo, 1954) // The Tigers – Sekai wa bokura o matteiru (The Tigers: The World Is Waiting for Us, Wada Yoshinori, 1968) // Waterwalker (Bill Mason, 1984) // Zoku yoidore hakase (Akira Inoue, 1966)
+ Aniara (Arne Arnbom, 1960) // D’Artagnan amoureux [Miniseries] (Yannick Andréi, 1977) // D’Artagnan i tri mušketera [Miniseries] (D’Artagnan and Three Musketeers, Georgij Jungvalʹd-Hilʹkevič, 1978) // In freier Landschaft [Miniseries] (Michael Kehlmann, 1977) // Kaksi vuotta Suomessa (Two Years in Finland, Angelina Vázquez, 1975) // KL Gangster: Underworld [Season 1] (Faisal Ishak, 2018) // The Lathe of Heaven (Fred Barzyk & David Loxton, 1980) // Die literarische Filmerzählung: Skizze eines Unglücks (Hilde Bechert, 1984) // Les Rois maudits [Miniseries] (Claude Barma, 1971) // Der Tod des Sokrates (Walter Rilla, 1967) // Yuthana und Siripon: Mönch auf Zeit (Hans Berthel, 1963)
+ Mukōbuchi-kō Rate ura mājan retsuden [OV Series] (Kataoka Shūji, 2007-19) // Poison Ivy II: Lily (Anne Goursaud, 1996) // Puppet Master II (Dave Allen, 1990) // Umibe no on’na – Shiosai ni uzuku kashin (Ezura Taka’aki, 2008)

Eleven Veterans 2020 Medical Staff
(film/video-based/related installations, film/video art projects, films/videos seen in exhibitions, and other creations and happenings such as these)
“Once Upon a Time in America” [revue theatre production] (Koike Shūichirō) //
“partikel” [interactive sound text installation] (2019; Jörg Piringer)

Amants

Andy motz

filmmaker, writer, programmer

Like many this year I had some extra time on my hands. I often used this time to delve into cinema’s obscured filmmakers or gems I’ve overlooked. The ones that stood out to me the most were the films that explored authentic human connection in an alienating or distraught era. This probably reflects my own experience of 2020 where human connection seemed more important yet more difficult than ever.

Whether it be rural 1930s Japan or an imagined future, these films are just as unflinching in their portrayal of unjust and isolated societies as they are in their depiction of love and kindness. They also happen to be examples of cinema at its best. There is no doubt I will be revisiting these films in years to come.

Black Panthers (Agnès Varda, 1968)
This recently restored Agnès Varda documentary about the Black Panthers in Oakland circa 1968 captures both the necessity and, yes, joy of activism. This short film is especially notable because it celebrates the often-demonised group not retroactively, but in that time. It unfortunately is still relevant as America begins to re-examine its actual history and black Americans continue to live under the daily threat of police brutality.

Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese, 1999)
How is Casino, Gangs of New York or Cape Fear more well-known than this Scorsese film from the 90s? It is Scorsese, Schrader and Schoonmaker at the top of their game crafting a hypnotic and compassionate tale of care amid chaos.

Happī Awā (Happy Hour, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2015)
Happy Hour is a five-hour epic about female friendship. It gives equal weight to the daily minutiae and the dramatic shifts showing how one does not happen without the other.

Joy of Life (Jenni Olson, 2005) & The Royal Road (Jenni Olson 2015)
The Criterion Channel released both of filmmaker Jenni Olson’s experimental documentaries this year. They are both personal biographies about connection and societal histories about injustices that lull the viewer into a quiet state of reflection. The viewers’ understanding of the world and of cinema is challenged by Olson’s profound series of films.

Arigatō-san (Mr. Thank You, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1936) & Anma to onna (The Masseurs and a Woman, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1938)
One of the most exciting film discoveries I made this year the films of Hiroshi Shimizu. These two films move between multiple genres with ease, create compelling characters, and stylistically stand out among other films in the 1930s. They felt like the precursor to Italian neo-realism that I never knew about.

Aruitemo aruitemo (Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-eda 2008)
Yes this is about a family gathering to commemorate the tragic death of a son/brother, but it is also about pushing through grief towards life. It rivals Ozu in its masterful juggling of multiple generations in a family, giving everyone an arc and personality.

Ta’m-e gīlās… (Taste of Cherry, Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
Another one where the less you know the better. This Kiarostami masterpiece pushes the possibilities of narrative filmmaking to its limit. Taste of Cherry centres (both literally and figuratively) on a self-destructive man who, much to his frustration, finds only kindness in his varying interactions with strangers on the outskirts of Tehran.

Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries, Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
Not only is Wild Strawberries one of Ingmar Bergman’s more cautiously hopeful films, it’s also one of his best. Perhaps this is why I watched this film about an elderly man reflecting on his life during the nuclear age twice this year. By the end one is overwhelmed by our ability as humans to start afresh no matter our age or era.

Bis ans Ende der Welt (Until the End of the World, Wim Wenders, 1991)
In Until the End of the World there is a scene where a woman must have a cellular device in front of her to function. This was made in 1990. The recovered and re-restored sci-fi Wim Wenders film that was shot in every continent is a prophetic road trip movie we didn’t know we needed.

marcel müller

film consultant and program curator, swiss films

Öndog (Wang Quan’an, 2019)
Kiz Kardesler (A Tale of Three Sisters, Emin Alper, 2019)
Corpus Christi (Jan Komasa, 2019)
Litigante (Franco Lolli, 2019)
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes, 2019)
Systemsprenger (System Crasher, Nora Fingscheidt, 2019)
Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello, 2019)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
Schwesterlein (My Little Sister, Véronique Reymond and Stéphanie Chuat, 2020)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino, 2019)
Canción sin nombre (Song Without a Name, Melina León, 2019)
Queen & Slim (Melina Matsoukas, 2019)
Iniciales SG (Initials SG, Rania Attieh, 2019)
Om det oändliga (About Endlessness, Roy Andersson, 2019)
La Gomera (The Whistlers, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2019)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020)
Hillbilly Elegy (Ron Howard, 2020)
Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2020)
El hoyo (The Platform, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019)
The Occupant (Hogar, Àlex and Diego Portal, 2019)

About The Author

Related Posts