101 Films for 2006.

[RNL]

Some of these I know have already been given releases in other countries, and I know I won't get to see some of the others until 2007 at the earliest, but drawing from all remaining 2005 productions still wanting UK releases, and all titles scheduled for release in 2006, this is my list of 101 films I want to see.


1001 Nights Mike Nichols

A modern update of the Scherezade story set in Los Angeles, where an unfaithful wife of a mobster must talk her way to safety after being captured by his henchmen.

14.99 Euros Jan Kounen

Famous advertiser Octave Parango, going crazy about the consumer society, reveals what is behind the scenes and organizes his suicide.

A Good Year Ridley Scott

An Englishman inherits a vineyard in Provence. Upon arriving at his new property, he meets an American woman who claims that the land is hers.

A Prairie Home Companion Robert Altman

A look at what goes on backstage during the last broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show, where singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty, a country music siren, and a host of others hold court.

A Scanner Darkly Richard Linklater

A Scanner Darkly is set in suburban Orange County, California in the future. It imagines a paranoid world in which it seems two of every 10 Americans has been hired by the government to spy on the other 8 -- in the name of national security and drug enforcement. When one reluctant government recruit is ordered to start spying on his friends, he is launched on a journey into the absurd, where outsourced government contractors largely define the social construct, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode, and where not even his girlfriend can be trusted. The film highlights the inconsistencies and ironic consequences of the war on drugs.

Alice Marcus Nispel

Years after her first experience in Wonderland, Alice, now a disturbed young woman mourning the death of her parents, returns to the land of talking animals and the wicked Queen of Hearts.

Angel-A Luc Besson

NO SYNOPSIS. Luc Besson's first film in 7 years.

Apocalypto Mel Gibson

An action/adventure film set 600 years ago, prior to the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America, where a man goes on a perilous journey to save his idyllic world.

Arthur and the Minimoys Luc Besson

Ten-year-old Arthur, in a bid to save his grandfather's house from being demolished, goes looking for some much-fabled hidden treasure in the land of the Minimoys, a tiny people living in harmony with nature.

Astronaut Farmer, The Michael & Mark Polish

An astronaut is forced to retire from NASA so he can save his family farm. But he can't give up his dream of space travel and looks to build his own rocket in his barn, despite the government's attempts to stop him.

Autumn Remembrance Zhang Yimou

The ill-fated romance between an imperial bodyguard and a prince takes the lovers on a dangerous journey where royal family secrets are revealed.

Art School Confidential Terry Zwigoff

Convinced that art school will put him on the path to fame, Jerome must come to terms with his anemic talent, as he watches the girl of his dreams fall in love with another student. Then, strangely, he's arrested as a suspected murderer -- only to discover that crime might actually pay.

Babel Alejandro González Iñárritu

Three stories set in Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico and Japan. The story begins with a tragedy striking a married couple on vacation.

Barbe bleue Bluebeard Catherine Breillat

NO SYNOPSIS

Black Dahlia, The Brian De Palma

The Black Dahlia is set in 1940s Los Angeles. Two cops, Bucky Bleichert and his partner, Lee Blanchard, investigate the death of Elizabeth Short, a young woman found brutally murdered. Bucky soon realizes that his girlfriend had ties to the deceased, and soon after that, he begins uncovering corruption and conspiracy within the police department.

Brand Upon the Brain!, The Guy Maddin

NO SYNOPSIS

Breakfast on Pluto Neil Jordan

As foster kid Patrick "Kitten" Brady grows up, he leaves behind his small-town life in Ireland for London, where he's reborn as a transvestite cabaret singer in the 1960s and 70s.

Brokeback Mountain Ang Lee

A raw, powerful story of two young men, a Wyoming ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 sheepherding in the harsh, high grasslands of contemporary Wyoming and form an unorthodox yet life-long bond--by turns ecstatic, bitter and conflicted.

Bubble Steven Soderbergh

Residents of a small town in Ohio puzzle out the details of a murder which took place at the local toy factory.

Caché Hidden Michael Haneke

Georges, who hosts a TV literary review, receives packages containing videos of himself with his family -- shot secretly from the street -- and alarming drawings whose meaning is obscure. He has no idea who may be sending them. Gradually, the footage on the tapes becomes more personal, suggesting that the sender has known Georges for some time. Georges feels a sense of menace hanging over him and his family but, as no direct threat has been made, the police refuse to help...

Caótica Ana Chaotic Ana Julio Medem

Ana, a young painter, has come from Ibiza, where she lived with her hippy father. Together with her
best friend Linda, she starts a new life in a hide-out for young artists in Madrid.

Capote Bennett Miller

During his research for his book In Cold Blood, an account of the murder of a Kansas family, the writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers.

Cars John Lasseter

Cars is the saga of Lightning McQueen, a hot-shot animated stock-car voiced by actor Owen Wilson. En route to a big race, the cocky McQueen gets waylaid in Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family.

Children of Men, The Alfonso Cuarón

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which man can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of mankind.

Chinjulhan geomjasshi Sympathy for Lady Vengeance Chan-wook Park

Lee Geum-Ja, at the age of 19, goes to prison for the murder and abduction of a child on behalf of her accomplice Mr. Baek, only to find out that she is betrayed. While in prison, she carefully prepares for her revenge by winning the hearts of her fellow inmates with her kindness, thus earning herself the nickname 'kind Ms. Geum-Ja'. Upon her release from prison after 13 years, she finally sets out to seek revenge on Baek, with the help of her former prison mates.

Clerks 2 Kevin Smith

The sequel picks up 10 years later. "It's about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it's time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex," Smith said during an interview at his Hollywood office. "It's: What happened to these dudes?"

Cowboys for Christ Robin Hardy

Hardy and star Christopher Lee have been developing a follow-up to their 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man that will revisit the theme of paganism in modern Scotland. The story follows two young American evangelists, who discover the Border ridings are more than just a quaint tourist attraction.

Da Vinci Code, The Ron Howard

A murder in the Louvre and clues in Da Vinci paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years -- which could shake the foundations of Christianity.

Departed, The Martin Scorsese

Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Boston State Police department and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy's identities.

Don't Come Knocking Wim Wenders

Howard Spence has seen better days. Once a big Western movie star, he now drowns his disgust for his selfish and failed life with alcohol, drugs and young women. If he were to die now, nobody would shed a tear over him, that's the sad truth. Until one day Howard learns that he might have a child somewhere out there. The very idea seems like a ray of hope that his life wasn't all in vain. So he sets out to find that young man or woman. He discovers an entire life that he has missed...

Drawing Restraint 9 Matthew Barney

Shot in Nagasaki Bay on board a Japanese whaling ship, its core idea is the relationship between self-imposed resistance and creativity, a theme it symbolically tracks through the construction and transformation of a vast sculpture of liquid vaseline, called "The Field", which is molded, poured, bisected and reformed on the deck of the ship over the course of the film. Barriers hold form in place, and when they are removed, the film tracks the descent of form into states of sensual surrender and formal atrophy; this shift in the physical state of the sculpture is symbolically mirrored through the narrative of The Guests, two occidental visitors to the ship played in the film by Matthew Barney and Björk, who we first see taken on board, groomed, bathed and dressed in mammal fur costumes based upon traditional Shinto marriage costumes. They take part in a tea ceremony in which, in the film's only moment of spoken dialogue, they are informed about the history of the vessel, and then, as an increasingly powerful lightning storm breaks out overhead, the tatami mat room they occupy floods with liquid vaseline, a fluid which we sense has emanated from The Field sculpture itself. In a harrowing liebestod which is the climax and centerpiece of the film, the Guests, locked in an embrace and breathing through blowhole-like orifices on the back of their necks, take out flensing knives and cut away each other's feet and thighs. The remains of their lower body are revealed to contain traces of whale tails at an early stage of development, suggesting rebirth, physical transformation, and the possibility of new forms. Having reached a state of maximum disintegration, the sculpture of The Field is then reorganized and the ship emerges from the storm, sailing through a field of icebergs towards the open southern ocean. In the last shot, two whales can be seen swimming behind the ship, headed for Antarctica.

Enfant, L' The Child Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

Bruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.

Fast Food Nation Richard Linklater

An ensemble piece examining the health risks involved in the fast food industry and its environmental and social consequences as well.

Flags of Our Fathers Clint Eastwood

The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in WWII.

Flandres Bruno Dumont

NO SYNOPSIS

Flight 93 Paul Greengrass

A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.

Fountain, The Darren Aronofsky

Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

Goat David Gordon Green

A young man struggles to recover from a brutal attack which occurred while he was pledging a fraternity.

Gold Peter Greenaway

One of the Tulse Luper DVDs. There are three layers to the project, like transparent skins of an onion, lying one on top of the other, each one showing through the other. 1) Luper’s Story: The background and incidents and events of Luper’s imprisonment in the Bolzano cafe for eleven weeks, from May to August 1945, where he writes the Gold Bar stories, and invents a fictitious life for Harpsch. The day by day events of this Luper imprisonment can be related to an exact calendar of dates, days, weather reports - and maybe a day-by-day textual and visual account of the events of the post-war world. 2) Harpsch’s Story: The story of Harpsch’s life, invented by Luper, most pertinently an account of Harpsch’s robbery of the gold bars and subsequent journey to Bolzano. 3) The 92 Gold Stories: The 92 stories (plus 9 others) that tell of gold appropriated by supporters of European Fascism from the Third Reich’s victims, mainly Jews.

Good German, The Steven Soderbergh

In post-war Berlin to find his former mistress, an American journalist is lured into a murder mystery.

Good Night and Good Luck. George Clooney

In the early 1950's, the threat of Communism created an air of paranoia in the United States and exploiting those fears was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. However, CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly decided to take a stand and challenge McCarthy and expose him for the fear monger he was. However, their actions took a great personal toll on both men, but they stood by their convictions and helped to bring down one of the most controversial senators in American history.

Grindhouse Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino

Two 60 minute horror movies written by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez put together as a "double-bill" feature. Fake movie trailers will play before each film.

Grizzly Man Werner Herzog

A docudrama that centers on amateur grizzly bear expert Timothy Treadwell. He periodically journeyed to Alaska to study and live with the bears. He was killed, along with his his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, by a rogue bear in October 2003. The films explores their compassionate lives as they found solace among these endangered animals.

Hail Caesar Joel & Ethan Coen

A 1920s theatre troupe stages a production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar".

Haze Shinya Tsukamoto

A man wakes up to find himself locked in a tiny, cramped concrete room, in which he can barely move. Why is he there and where did he come from? All we know is that he has a terrible stomach injury and is slowly bleeding to death. He begins to explore the narrow confines of his prison and crawls around the maze-like room, only to see a horrible vision of hell waiting for him at each end of the room. Finally he gives up on the struggle and collapses in exhaustion. Then he begins to remember images from his past. Clinging to these images he creeps forward with the last ounces of his strength and meets a woman in a place that stinks of rotting corpses. The man and the woman both try to recall where they came from, but their memories are so uncertain that they are not even sure they want to return. The man is ready to give up but the woman insists on going forward. Neither of them can imagine the incredible end to the journey.

Head Games David O. Russell

A sarcastic radio call-in show host starts taking on the qualities of his neurotic patrons.

High Rise Vincenzo Natali

An adaptation of J. G. Ballard's cult novel by the director of Cube. The story tracks the disintegration of a newly-built high rise apartment building from the pinnacle of modern convenience to a twisted and perverse enclosed world of primitive survival.

Hills Have Eyes, The Alexandre Aja

A suburban American Family is being stalked by a group of psychotic people who lives in the desert, far away from the civilization. A remake of Wes Craven's 1977 film by the director of Switchblade Romance.

Hostel Eli Roth

Three backpackers head to a Slovakian city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.

Hwal The Bow Ki-duk Kim

On a fishing boat at sea, a 60-year old man has been raising a girl since she was a baby. It is agreed that they will get married on her 17th birthday, and she is 16 now. They live a quiet and secluded life, renting the boat to day fishermen and practicing strange divination rites. Their life changes when a teenage student comes aboard...

Idiocracy Mike Judge

Private Joe Bowers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program, set 1,000 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

Inland Empire David Lynch

Shot in digital video, Lynch's new project, shot without a script, concerns a woman in trouble and a film within a film, with the title referring to the bleak residential area on the edge of the desert near L.A. -- the antithesis of the tony locale of his last movie Mulholland Drive.

Inside Man Spike Lee

A cop has to talk down a bank robber after the criminal's perfect heist spirals into a hostage situation.

Jarhead Sam Mendes

Based on former Marine Anthony Swofford's best-selling 2003 book about his pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia and about his experiences fighting in Kuwait.

Kilomètre zéro Zero Kilometres Hiner Saleem

Iraq, 1988. Young husband and father Ako is forced to join Saddam Hussein's army. The unwilling soldier dreams of fleeing the country, but his wife Selma refuses to leave while her old bedridden father is still alive. Ako is sent away to the frontline of the Iran-Iraq War, where he experiences not only the reality of war, but also abuse due to his Kurdish background. The desperate man considers drastic measures for a fast ticket home. Ako thinks it's his lucky day when he receives orders to escort the return of a fellow soldier's corpse to his family. But his driver turns out to be an anti-Kurd Arab. With flag-wrapped coffin in tow, the mismatched duo prepares for an unexpected voyage across the majestic Iraqi landscape. Ako won't miss his chance to trick the driver into heading north toward the Kurdistan region...

Lady in the Water M. Night Shyamalan

Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.

Manderlay Lars von Trier

The second installment in Lars von Trier's "USA -- Land of Opportunities" trilogy. Dafoe will play the father of Grace, the central character played by Nicole Kidman in the series' first film, Dogville, and played by Bryce Dallas Howard in Manderlay. The film, shot entirely on a stage, is set in the American South during the 1930s and explores the repression of blacks.

Marie-Antoinette Sofia Coppola

Based on Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette, a naïve 14-year-old Austrian and queen of France. At a young age, she was arranged to marry Louis XVI and was very unprepared for the woes of politics. She continued to be ridiculed by France and was decapitated during the French Revolution.

[RNL]

Miami Vice Michael Mann

Vice detectives James Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs take on the Florida drug world.

Mister Lonely Harmony Korine

Korine's first film in 7 years. 60s icon Anita Pallenberg is to play the Queen of England, Denis Lavant will portray Charlie Chaplin, Samantha Morton is Marilyn Monroe and Diego Luna will play a Michael Jackson impersonator. "I am trying to do things I haven't done before. It's my most ambitious film. I really want to push myself visually," Korine told Screen International. The $9.5 million production is due to shoot in the north of Scotland, France and French Guyana. The plotline is outlandish, even by Korine's standards. This is a yarn about a young American lost in Paris, eking out a living as a Michael Jackson lookalike. By co-incidence, he meets Marilyn Monroe. He follows her to a commune in Scotland, joining her husband Charlie Chaplin and her daughter Shirley Temple. Fellow residents include The Pope, The Queen of England, Madonna and James Dean. The drama is also partly set In a Brazilian forest where a community of missionary nuns bring aid to the local leper collony.

Monster House Gil Kenan

Three teens discover that their neighbor's house is really a living, breathing, scary monster.

Munich Steven Spielberg

In the tragic aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics, a Mossad agent tracks Palestinian terrorists who assassinated Israeli athletes.

Nacho Libre Jared Hess

Jack Black stars as Ignacio (friends call him Nacho), a Mexican priest who moonlights as a lucha libre wrestler to raise money for his orphanage in this comedy from the creators of Napoleon Dynamite and the writer and star of The School of Rock.

New World, The Terrence Malick

A Terrence Malick-scripted drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.

Nightwatching Peter Greenaway

In 1642, at the height of his fame and wealth, Rembrandt, very reluctantly, is persuaded by his dying wife Saskia, to take on the commission of a large group portrait of the Amsterdam Militia, which will much later become known as The Nightwatch. Rembrandt meets, considers and informally “interviews” its 37 potential participants who all have lives to investigate and interconnected stories to tell - greed, pride, infidelity, arrogance, treachery, gluttony - making a portrait of Amsterdam society at the centre of the Dutch Golden Age. Grand gestures and rich exhibitionist costumes hide congratulatory self-righteousness. The sitters variously disdain, humour, insult, praise, cheat, enjoy, drink with, bribe and ignore the painter. Using the knowledge gleaned from the participants, Rembrandt manufactures a painting that is challenging, ironical, witty and prophetic, and contains many allusions to the sitters by gesture, action, position and symbol, hinting at many dramas the sitters might not want revealed in a consciously religious community, dramas that might be construed as certainly sinful, probably criminal. The painting is both an accusation and a critique, and is also variously influenced by the circumstances of Rembrandt’s domestic life as he paints it. Rembrandt’s wife dies. The buoyant good times are over. The day-light is over. With the death of his wife, the nightwatching has begun. Miserable and lonely, he buries his wife. He stops painting. Often drunk, he is prepared to be seduced by the servant Geertje, who has been employed to look after his sickly infant son. Their relationship becomes deeply carnal and abusive and destructive. When this relationship sours because of her stealing, nagging and scolding and his self-disgust, he turns his attentions to a second servant, Hendrickje, and is encouraged to start painting again. He falls in love with Hendrickje. The Militia painting is finished. It becomes the subject of praise, derision and heated debate, causing jealousy, treachery, infidelity and finally murder. As a consequence, to avoiding being tainted with criminality, many of the unhappy sitters arrange circumstances behind the scenes to bring about Rembrandt’s social discomfort and financial ruin through blackmail and financial chicanery. Rembrandt’s reluctance to take on the commission has proven to have been highly prophetic.

Paris, je t'aime Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Emmanuel Benbihy, Christoffer Boe, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Raphaël Nadjari, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer & Gus Van Sant

Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers will bring their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Each director has been given five minutes of freedom, and we, as producers, carry the responsibility of weaving a single narrative unit out of those twenty moments. The 20 films will not appear in the order of the arrondissements, from one to twenty, but rather, in a pertinent narrative order, initially unknown to the audience. They will be fused together by transitional interstitial sequences, and also via the introduction and epilogue sequences of the feature film. Each transition will begin with the last shot of the previous film and will end with the first shot of the following film, and will have a threefold function: 1) The first is to extend the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, 2) The second is to prepare the audience for the surprise of the next segment, and 3) The third is to provide a general, comfortable and cohesive atmosphere to the feature film. The delightful and brief interludes of these transitions will enable the viewer to slide from one world to the next, featuring a recurring and unexpected character. This mysterious character is a witness to the Parisian life and helps create a continuous narration. It appears both in and in-between the films. In addition to the information these transitions will provide about the city and its people, their tone will be intentionally light often referring to famous scenes easily attributed to the history of Paris cinema. Similar specifications will be followed by the composer who will supervise the musical fusion between the films and the transitions as he creates the musical score of Paris, je t'aime. Considering the common theme of Paris and Love, the fusion between the films and the transitions, the fast pace of a fluid and complete storytelling, Paris, je t'aime will not be just another "anthology" picture. It will be a unique collective feature film that will constitute a two-hour cinematographic spectacle whose original structure will make for a dramatically different experience for its global audience.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Tom Tykwer

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with no smell, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent.

Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, The Stephen & Timothy Quay

A dark fairytale about a demonic doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with designs on transforming her into a mechanical nightingale.

Prestige, The Christopher Nolan

Based on Christopher Priest's 1996 novel, Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London who battle each other for trade secrets. The rivalry is so intense that it turns them into murderers.

Psychopath John Carpenter

Lured into the effort to stop a serial killer, an ex-CIA operative begins to question his own sanity.

Puffball Nicolas Roeg

An architect moves into a rundown cottage in the English countryside, planning to restore it as a sort of project. Her neighbours are a mysterious family of 6 (grandmother, mother, father and three daughters). The mother, Mabs, is deperately trying to get pregnant again, as she wants a boy. When Liffey, the architect, finds herself pregnant (her boyfriend is busy with business in NY, but impregnates her before he leaves), the next door family, jealous, resorts to witchcraft to get even and take that baby away from Liffey. Nicolas Roeg's comeback film.

Qi jian Seven Swords Tsui Hark

In the early 1600's, the Manchurians have taken over sovereignty of China and established the Ching Dynasty. While many nationalist revolts still brew within the martial artists' community, the newly set-up government immediately imposes a Martial Arts Ban, forbidding the practice of martial arts altogether in order to gain control and order. Wind Fire, a surrendered military official from the previous dynasty, sees this as an opportunity to make a fortune for himself by helping to execute the new law. Greedy, cruel, and immoral, Wind Fire ravages the North-western China, and his next goal is to attack the final frontier, Martial Village. Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner from the previous dynasty, feels the need to put a stop to this brutality and sets out to save Bowei Fortress. He brings Wu Yuanyin and Han Zhiban from the village with him to Mount Heaven to seek help from Master Shadow-Glow, a hermit who is a master of swords and leads a group of disciples of great swordsmanship. Master Shadow-Glow agrees to help, and orders four of his best disciples to go. Together with Chu Zhaonan, Yang Yunchong, Mulong, and Xin Longzi, the Seven Swords is formed and their heroic journey begins. As they lead the entire village to the road of a safer place, they begin to encounter mysterious confusion. Food and water is poisoned, and trails of escape are marked with signs leading the enemy to them. They soon realize that there is an undercover spy, and the Seven Swords must identify him/her before Wind Fire's army gets to them. Between this narrow gap of life and death, the situation is further complicated by the blossoms of love.

Qian li zou dan ji Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles Zhang Yimou

A Japanese father and his ailing son travel to China's Yunnan Province to learn opera.

Qing hong Shanghai Dreams Wang Xiaoshuai

In the 1960s, encouraged by the government, a large number of families leave Chinese cities to settle in the poorer regions of the country, in order to develop local industry. The film's main character is a 19 year-old girl who lives in the Guizhou province, where her parents have settled. That's where she has grown up, where her friends are and where she first experiences love. But her father believes that their future lies in Shanghai. How can they all keep on living together when they don't share the same dreams?

Rescue Dawn Werner Herzog

This film tells the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. Dengler, to be played by Christian Bale, organized a death-defying escape for a small band of POWs.

Science of Sleep, The Michel Gondry

Based on Gondry's own script, this is about a man who learns how to manipulate his dreams and subsequently ends up trapped within them.

Scoop Woody Allen

An American student (Scarlett Johansson) in London begins an affair with an aristocrat.

Sílení Lunacy Jan Svankmajer

Young Jean Berlot’s mother has died in the lunatic asylum at Charenton. On his way home from the funeral he spends a night at a roadside inn. There he has a vivid dream – the same dream he always has in times of stress, in which two hospital orderlies in white coats try to force him into a straitjacket. After a violent struggle, Berlot always wakes up to find that the room has been completely demolished. Another guest at the inn, the Marquis de Sade, witnesses the nightmare and its results. He pays for the damage and invites Berlot to his castle. On the way he hears Berlot’s story: When his father died, his mother, who was much younger, went mad with grief. Since then Jean, who takes after her, has been haunted by the idea that he too will end up in an asylum.

Sin City 2 Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller

It was another dark night in Basin City when lovers Dwight and Ava Lord were reunited. But in Sin City, a reunion is never good news, and Ava has plans for Dwight...

Slither James Gunn

A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.

Southland Tales Richard Kelly

Southland Tales is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Boxer Santaros is an action star who's stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now, an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and David Clark, a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.

Stay Marc Forster

This movie focuses on the attempts of an Ivy League Professor to prevent one of his students from committing suicide.

Superman Returns Bryan Singer

Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in this epic action-adventure, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world's most beloved superheroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.

Syriana Stephen Gaghan

A politically-charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved and affected by it.

Takeshis' Takeshi Kitano

Beat Takeshi lives the busy and sometimes surreal life of a showbiz celebrity. One day he meets his blond lookalike named Kitano, a shy convenience store cashier, who, still an unknown actor, is waiting for his big break. After their paths cross, Kitano seems to begin hallucinating about becoming Beat.

Temps qui reste, Le Time to Leave / The Time That Remains François Ozon

A successful fashion photographer is diagnosed with untreatable cancer.

Tideland Terry Gilliam

After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is taken from the big city to a rural farmhouse by her father. As she tries to settle into a new life in a house her father had purchased for his now-deceased mother, Jeliza-Rose's attempts to deal with what's happened result in increasingly odd behavior, as she begins to communicate mainly with her bodiless Barbie doll heads and Dell, a neighborhood woman who always wears a beekeeper's veil.

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story Michael Winterbottom

Director Michael Winterbottom attempts to shoot the adaptation of Laurence Sterne's essentially unfilmable novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

V for Vendetta James McTeigue

In a story where Germany won a future World War and Great Britain is now a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as "V" conducts guerrilla warfare against the government. When he rescues a normal young woman, she joins his struggle against the forces of oppression...

Laitakaupungin valot Lights in the Dusk Aki Kaurismäki

The third film in Kaurismäki's 'Unemployment Trilogy', after Drifting Clouds (1996) and The Man Without a Past (2002); it deals with loneliness in the suburbs of Helsinki.

Visiting, The Oliver Hirschbiegel

As a Washington psychiatrist unearths the origin of an alien epidemic, she also discovers her son might be the only way it can be stopped. Invasion of the Body Snatchers remade for the second time by the director of Downfall.

Where the Wild Things Are Spike Jonze

An adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story, where Max, a mischievous little boy, creates his own world - a forest inhabited by fabulous wild creatures who crown Max as their ruler.

Wicker Man, The Neil LaBute

A sheriff investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a small island discovers there's a larger mystery to solve among the island's secretive, neo-pagan community.

World Trade Center Oliver Stone

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, hope is still alive. Refusing to bow down to terrorism, rescuers and family of the victims press forward. Their mission of rescue and recovery is driven by the faith that under each piece of rubble, a co-worker, a friend a family member may be found. This is the true story of John McLoughlin and William J. Jimeno, the last two survivors extracted from Ground Zero and the rescuers who never gave up. It's a story of the true heroes of that fateful time in the history of the United States when buildings would fall and heroes would rise, literally from the ashes to inspire the entire human race.

X-Men 3 Brett Ratner

When a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn between the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, and the Brotherhood, a band of powerful mutants organized under Xavier's former ally, Magneto.

Yôkai daisensô The Big Spook War / Hobgoblins and the Great Wall Takashi Miike

A young boy with a troubled home life becomes "chosen," and he stumbles into the middle of a great spirit war, where he meets a group of friendly spirits who become his companions through his journey. Now he must fight to protect his friends and free the world of the spirits from oppression. The creatures and ghosts are taken directly from Japanese folklore and range from the cute and silly to the disturbing.

Youth Without Youth Francis Ford Coppola

A pre-WWII drama where a life-changing incident turns a professor into a fugitive. Coppola's first film in 9 years.

Zapakh kamnya Andrei Zvyagintsev

NO SYNOPSIS. Second feature from the director of The Return.

Zodiac David Fincher

Based on the Robert Graysmith book of the same name, Zodiac is about the notorious serial killer who haunted San Francisco during the 1970's. Leaving a series of puzzling clues and letters on the trail, he was never officially caught while leaving several victims in his wake. A killer without a known identity, this is the story of what is now the notorious legend that to this day, remains one of San Francisco's most infamous unsolved crimes.

Zui hao de shi guang Three Times Hou Hsiao-hsien

Three stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005. Two actors play the two main characters in each story.

Zwartboek Blackbook Paul Verhoeven

Set during the end of WWII, Zwartboek is the story of a German Jewish girl who narrowly survives the war in Holland. She joins the resistance to find out who betrayed her family after all of them were killed in an attempt to reach the liberated south.

Films I have not included are those that I don't believe will be 2006 productions. Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, Brad Anderson's The Crazies. Béla Tarr will probably not finish The Man from London by next year, and Jodorowsky will probably never make Abelcain.

[Vercetti]

I was surprised to see Perfume up there. I remember that novel for the Nirvana song inspired by it, "Scentless Apprentice."

As for Manderlay, is this whole America trilogy the story of this one woman? I've been interested in seeing Dogville for a while, although I've waited for the price to come down.

Apocalypto sounds interesting, but I'm wondering if Mel Gibson is now making these historical films just to use dead languages? I have a slightly positive hope for it.

Miami Vice, while an action packed teaser, looks very promising. I have a feeling it won't beat Collateral, but will still turn out good. It'll probably make more money than Mann's previous films.

The Da Vinci Code looks bad. It seems like an obvious attempt from Howard to make money off a best-seller. Hell, the whole fuss about the book itself got annoying, especially since this whole "conspiracy" was due to a French guy's LSD trip. Speaking of Howard, I might watch Cinderella Man today.

Zodiac looks promising. I'm hoping Fincher turns in a good thriller, rather than the disappointing Panic Room.

World Trade Center sounds like a bad idea. Hell, the name itself sounds too cliche. It's not even that I think it's too soon, although it probably is. It just isn't a film that can tell us much. I think we pretty much remember everything about the day. The most it'll do is be a cliche tribute-drama or a poor thriller in the wrong place. It's the type of thing I'd expect of Michael Bay.

I'll post about more later.

[RNL]

vercetti said:

As for Manderlay, is this whole America trilogy the story of this one woman?

Yeah, it's the first of von Trier's trilogies to have an actual narrative link. I think he wants Kidman to return to the role of Grace for Wasington (2007/8).

[Capo]

Lynch's Inland Empire is the main attraction for me. I really can't wait for that.

Among others: Miami Vice, The Departed, anything Herzog touches, and, hopefully, I'll be a Greenaway fan by the time his films hit the screen--though I wouldn't really expect any of them to be shown at a cinema near me. Soderbergh, von Trier, Clooney, the Coens and Spielberg will also be getting my money. As for most interesting feature? Gondry's Science of Sleep sounds highly intriguing. I heard massive things about Haneke's Hidden a while back.

Mick

[Vercetti]

Did Collateral come near you Capo? I recall your first viewing was a bootleg.

[Capo]

Oh yeah; I get most films, actually, just Greenaway is a rarity in mainstream cinemas, and I'm slowly becoming disillusioned my local arthouse cinema.

I missed Collateral in the cinema, that's why I picked it up on pirate.

[Driver]

Are they remaking The Wicker Man?

[RNL]

Yeah, Neil LaBute is remaking it with Nicolas Cage as the investigator, and Robin Hardy is making a sort of sequel to it, with Christopher Lee reprising his role.

[Driver]

Oh god. I think it should be a law that cult favourites should never be remade. Even if they have Christopher Lee in it again.

Having said that, I'll still go & see it

[Michael]

Where's The Good Shepherd?

[RNL]

The Good Shepherd Robert De Niro

The history of over 40 years in the CIA, told through the eyes of James Wilson (Matt Damon), one of its founding officers.

Yeah, that sounds good. Keep adding more, everyone.

[jrod]

Its nice to see Scarlett pairing with Woody again. I look forward to both Match Point and Scoop. Her Lost in Translation performance was very promising, and I think she will be great in Allen's films.

[Capo]

She's about the only redeeming feature to be found in Match Point, but seems as if she walked onto the wong set; lost in translation, in London.

[jrod]

thats too bad that the movie isnt all that great, but Im glad she performed well. Oh well, hopefully Scoop is good

[Omar]

Add:

Brick Rian Johnson

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

One of my teachers informed me of this awhile ago, and to be honest, I thought it sounded silly. However, I just watched the trailer on the "Broken Flowers" DVD, and the film looks INCREDIBLE! Probably one of the best trailers I've ever seen. Hopefully the film can live up to it.

[Vercetti]

www.apple.com/trailers/universal/flight93/

Flight 93 teaser. Doesn't impress me.

[Vercetti]

omar said:

Add:

Brick Rian Johnson

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

One of my teachers informed me of this awhile ago, and to be honest, I thought it sounded silly. However, I just watched the trailer on the "Broken Flowers" DVD, and the film looks INCREDIBLE! Probably one of the best trailers I've ever seen. Hopefully the film can live up to it.

I just saw it, and I have mixed feelings. I think this can either be an amazing film or misfire. But it's undoubtedly interesting. It looks like the Chinatown or Film-Noir for the teenage world. As a matter of fact, it looks like an actual Film-Noir world masked with the teenage world.

[Omar]

vercetti said:

As a matter of fact, it looks like an actual Film-Noir world masked with the teenage world.

That was exactly my reaction. It is now my number one film to see in 2006.
Plus, recognize Lukas from "Last Days"?

[Vercetti]

Yeah, I noticed that right away, though it took me a second look since he lacked the big glasses.