RNL
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2007
Dec 7, 2007 23:22:49 GMT
Post by RNL on Dec 7, 2007 23:22:49 GMT
It's close enough to the end of the year and I finally have a respectable list.
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RNL
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2007
Dec 7, 2007 23:23:04 GMT
Post by RNL on Dec 7, 2007 23:23:04 GMT
_1. Zodiac Fincher _2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Dominik _3. You, the Living Andersson _4. No Country for Old Men Coen Bros. _5. There Will Be Blood Anderson _6. Don't Touch the Axe Rivette _7. Hot Fuzz Wright _8. I'm Not There Haynes _9. The Orphanage Bayona 10. Silent Light Reygadas
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Omar
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2007
Dec 7, 2007 23:32:08 GMT
Post by Omar on Dec 7, 2007 23:32:08 GMT
1. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes) 2. Zodiac (David Fincher) 3. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen) 4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik) 5. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet) 6. Control (Anton Corbijin) 7. Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillepsie) 8. Superbad (Greg Mottola) 9. Se, jie [Lust Caution] (Ang Lee) 10. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
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Capo
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2007
Dec 21, 2007 23:57:53 GMT
Post by Capo on Dec 21, 2007 23:57:53 GMT
_1. There Will Be Blood (Anderson) _2. Zodiac (Fincher) _3. You, the Living (Andersson) _4. No Country for Old Men (Coens) _5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik) _6. Michael Clayton (Gilroy) _7. I'm Not There (Haynes) _8. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Mungiu) _9. Silent Light (Reygadas) 10. Lust, Caution (Lee)
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2007
Dec 22, 2007 0:04:28 GMT
Post by bobbyreed on Dec 22, 2007 0:04:28 GMT
1. I'm Not There 2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 3. Profit motive and the whispering wind 4. Helvetica 5. There Will Be Blood 6. The Man from London 7. Zodiac 8. You, the Living 9. No Country for Old Men 10. The Tracey Fragments
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Capo
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2007
Dec 29, 2007 22:52:29 GMT
Post by Capo on Dec 29, 2007 22:52:29 GMT
Sight & Sound's Top Ten, as voted for by their 2007 contributors (assembled from their individual top fives): _1 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu) _2 Inland Empire (David Lynch) _3 Zodiac (David Fincher) =4 I’m Not There (Todd Haynes) =4 The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) _6 Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas) =7 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik) =7 Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) =7 No Country for Old Men (Ethan and Joel Coen) =7 Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg) I always enjoy reading Nick James's opening editorials; succinct and precise, topical and insightful, he strikes, as editor, a fine and witty balance between objective fairness and personal opinion. His most recent entry is most appropriate to this thread, so I thought I'd type it out here. Forgive any typos, I'm writing rather fast because I need the toilet and can't be arsed to get up and go. "The happiest marriage of novel to film-makers in years..." Thus begins a paragraph-long rave quotation constructed by publicists from what I wrote about the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men as part of our Cannes coverage. The said paragraph, expertly put together from chunks of the feature 'Blood money', was shown to me ostensibly as part of the film's campaign for awards; I approved it in a brief haze, perhaps of mild vanity.
What I did not anticipate was that the paragraph would appear as the only quotation text on an ad for the film in the New York Times magazine on 9 November. But I'm not complaining, even though such barbering of a text does subtly change its meaning. Since the quote was attributed to Sight & Sound, it acts as powerful publicity for the magazine, and I'd be a liar if I didn't admit to enjoying having my writing, however bowlderised, reach a constituency with whom Sight & Sound registers mostly in echoes.
So what's the beef? Partly the embarrassment that haunts reviewers when they worry they may have been immoderately enthusiastic. However self-deluding it might be for critics to believe they are helping to set standards, there is an ethos among the best that they should be hard to please, especially around films with substantial marketing campaigns. To 'go soft', to become part of the chorus of cheerleaders who are always ready to supply a positive citation, is anathema. And while I'm not saying that No Country for Old Men doesn't deserve my praise, my abashment is more acute because the quote appeared in the pre-Christmas period when we pundits look to decide on our films of the year (in case anyone asks).
Sight & Sound conducts an annual poll of our contributors, asking for their top five films seen in the last 12 months. The list, together with the critics' comments, is posted on our website at www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound. From this we draw up an overall top ten, which you can see below. My dilemma is simply this: having raved so hard about No Country for Old Men after seeing it at Cannes, I'm not now even sure if it makes my top five.
And what if it doesn't? In my defence are factors that make the 'best of' decisions more subjective than usual this time. Looking back over 2007, Sight & Sound has been cheerleading a lot, probably more than we should. In particular we've donned our metaphorical pompoms to argue that this has been the best year for American cinema in perhaps a decade. Inland Empire, The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, The Assassination of Jesse James..., Zodiac, No Country for Old Men, Paranoid Park, I'm Not There, Redacted, In the Valley of the Elah and There Will Be Blood add up to a mightily impressive CV from our point of view.
But, as Charles Gant explains on page 9, many of these good films did not find a large US audience - though the hollow slickness of American Gangster did. It is this negative commercial backdrop that makes us feel we have to be overtly supportive of films of quality: film culture is largely market-driven and the market at present is very tough for 'prestige' cinema.
All of the above films were on my long list, which ran to a total of 53. And my highlights from the rest of the world include Into Great Silence, Lady Chatterley, The Singer, Syndromes and a Century, Yella, Silent Light, 4 Months..., The Unpolished, This Is England, Control, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Alexandra, Une vieille maitresse, Import/Export, Water Lilies and Lust, Caution. All demonstrate the high standard cinema achieved in 2007.
There's no question that No Country for Old Men is one of my favourites, yet six months after writing about it so encouragingly I need to see it again to make sure I'm not basking in the glow of quiescence. If you're interested in which way I jump, you'll have to check the website. In the meantime, I fear for 2008's films - not just because the market will be tougher but because the critics may be tougher too.
I must confess, I hadn't heard of their #1 until today. I've read synopses and reviews, though, and I'm not ecstatic about seeing it; the inclusion of The Lives of Others doesn't convince, either - though Inland Empire's high place provides more hopeful balance. You can download a .pdf file of the entire voting list of all votes here.
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2007
Dec 30, 2007 21:57:23 GMT
Post by marsill on Dec 30, 2007 21:57:23 GMT
My Sucky Top 10 Films of 2007:
01. Zodiac 02. No Country For Old Men 03. Knocked Up 04. Eastern Promises 05. 3:10 To Yuma 06. The Simpsons Movie 07. Gone, Baby Gone 08. Into the Wild 09. In The Valley of Elah 10. Assassination of Jesse James By That Coward Robert Ford
--But have a strong feeling if was able to see I'm Not There, it would have taken the top spot.
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RNL
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2007
Dec 30, 2007 22:51:58 GMT
Post by RNL on Dec 30, 2007 22:51:58 GMT
I must confess, I hadn't heard of their #1 until today. It won the Palme d'Or, for Heaven's sake. Pay attention. ;D That pdf doc is a good read, thanks.
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2007
Dec 30, 2007 23:02:33 GMT
Post by Michael on Dec 30, 2007 23:02:33 GMT
That's it. I'm the only human being on this planet who hated Zodiac.
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Kino
Published writer
Posts: 1,200
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2007
Jan 19, 2008 6:44:40 GMT
Post by Kino on Jan 19, 2008 6:44:40 GMT
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik) 2. There Will Be Blood (Anderson) 3. Zodiac (Fincher) 4. Up the Yangtze (Chan) 5. Chop Shop (Bahrani) 6. Wonderful Town (Assarat) 7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Mungiu) 8. No Country For Old Men (Coen bros.) 9. Shotgun Stories (Nichols) 10. No End in Sight (Ferguson)
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Omar
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2007
Jan 19, 2008 19:57:27 GMT
Post by Omar on Jan 19, 2008 19:57:27 GMT
updated list:
1. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson) 2. Zodiac (David Fincher) 3. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen) 4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik) 5. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes) 6. Shotgun Stories (Jeff Nichols) 7. Control (Anton Corbijin) 8. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet) 9. Funny Games U.S. (Michael Haneke) 10. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Best of the rest: Lust, Caution (Ang Lee) Superbad (Greg Mottola)
So, 2007 might be the best year for cinema in a long time, yeah.
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Capo
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2007
Jan 26, 2008 18:10:04 GMT
Post by Capo on Jan 26, 2008 18:10:04 GMT
wetdog, would it be wretched of me to highlight the inconsistency in your ratings for the Coens and Dominik (the director threads give the former 9/10, the latter 8/10)?
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RNL
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2007
Jan 27, 2008 19:45:24 GMT
Post by RNL on Jan 27, 2008 19:45:24 GMT
You wretch. Fixed.
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RNL
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2007
Feb 12, 2008 16:17:06 GMT
Post by RNL on Feb 12, 2008 16:17:06 GMT
Capo, Cloverfield is '08.
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Capo
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2007
Feb 12, 2008 16:25:22 GMT
Post by Capo on Feb 12, 2008 16:25:22 GMT
Cheers, me darlin'. You seen it yet?
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RNL
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2007
Feb 12, 2008 16:27:42 GMT
Post by RNL on Feb 12, 2008 16:27:42 GMT
Yeah, I liked it.
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Jenson71
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2007
Feb 13, 2008 6:36:38 GMT
Post by Jenson71 on Feb 13, 2008 6:36:38 GMT
1. Zodiac 2. There Will Be Blood 3. Michael Clayton 4. The Darjeeling Limited 5. No Country for Old Men 6. Juno 7. Breach 8. Bella 9. Atonement 10. Mr. Brooks
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Capo
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2007
Feb 21, 2008 0:20:11 GMT
Post by Capo on Feb 21, 2008 0:20:11 GMT
I'd like to think last year could be the start of a growing renaissance of "epic American cinema", full of brooding men, ambiguous plots and fascinating images, like those found in much of the 70s.
I'll be very much (and pleasantly) surprised if any films penetrate my top five now.
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Pherdy
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2007
Mar 5, 2008 13:27:01 GMT
Post by Pherdy on Mar 5, 2008 13:27:01 GMT
1. There Will Be Blood 2. No Country for Old Men 3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 4. Le Scaphandre et le Papillon 5. Juno 6. American Gangster 7. The Darjeeling Limited 8. Lars and the Real Girl 9. Michael Clayton 10. Zodiac
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2007
Mar 5, 2008 17:08:24 GMT
Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2008 17:08:24 GMT
what a tough year. apart from the first few, most other films were of equal quality in my opinion. very hard to choose. out of the films I saw so far, this my top 10: 1. There Will Be Blood 2. No Country for Old Men 3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 4. Juno 5. American Gangster 6. Away from her 7. The Kite Runner 8. The Bourne Ultimatum 9. Zodiac 10. 3:10 to Yuma But these last five are interchangeable with Hot Fuzz, 300, Ratatouille, Sweeney Todd, In the Valley of Elah, Michael Clayton, The Golden Compass, Gone baby Gone, Superbad, Knocked Up, Stardust, Death at a Funeral Can you give a brief proview of Michael Clayton? Since I liked it a lot, I was wondering why it wouldn't make it to your top ten of the year, though 3:10 to Yuma (which I rate rather low) could make it.
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