Here is my list for the best movies of last year. Most of the titles are more than a year old, but they have only been released in the country in which I have seen them this year. Please, mind the gaps. If you haven't seen these films... what are you waiting for?
2. Still Life (Jia Zhan Ke)
3. L’heure d’été (Olivier Assayas)
4. Santiago (Joao Moreira Salles)
5. Un conte de Noël (Arnaud Desplechin)
6. Les chansons d’amour (Christophe Honoré)
7. Silent light (Carlos Reygadas)
8. The banishment (Andrei Zvyangintsev)
9. Auf der anderen Seite (Fatih Akin)
10. Encounters at the end of the world (Werner Herzog)
Still haven’t seen Wall-E, Entre les murs, among others. I know I haven’t included any English language film… maybe next year if only The Road is half as good as the book (which I doubt).
Best actor: Mathieu Amalric in La question humaine (Nicolas Klotz)
Best actress: Kristin Scott Thomas in Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (Philippe Claudel) (even though she was too intense in the beginning) and Juliette Binoche in Flight of the red balloon
Best supporting actor: Mathieu Amalric in Un conte de Noël
Best supporting actress: Anne Consigny in Un conte de Noël and Penélpe Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen)
Worst Movie: Indiana 4 (Steven Spielberg)
Worst Movie that I did not even have to watch to know it was bad: Australia (Baz Lurhmann)
Most over-hyped Movie: Milk (Gus Van Sant), Gomorra (Matteo Garrone), Rachel getting married (Jonathan Demme)
Worst piece of Euro Art-trash: The duchess of Langeais (Éric Rohmer) and La fille coupée en deux (Claude Chabrol)
Most boring movie: Burn after reading (Cohen bros.)
Most pleasant surprise: Ne le dis à personne (Guillaume Canet)
Most unpleasant surprise: the last two Sundance winner: Sangre de mi sangre (Christopher Zalla) and Frozen river (Courtney Hunt)
Luckily in 2009, Almodóvar, Von Trier and Haneke will be back; at least, they will be fun to watch...
Luckily in 2009, Almodóvar, Von Trier and Haneke will be back; at least, they will be fun to watch...
