The 2005 Mini-List

[swo17]

ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 2005

VOTE THROUGH JULY 31

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles

[therewillbeblus]

Can you please add

Loft (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Red Eye (Wes Craven)
Where the Truth Lies (Atom Egoyan)

[swo17]

I actually have Loft as 2006 and Pulse as 2001 (where it made our top 10). Otherwise added

[yoshimori]

Excellent year for Asian cinema, which, sadly, except for the biggest titles, feels under-appreciated in these lists. In 2005 there's Hong Sang-soo's best film, A Tale of Cinema; Im Sang-soo's best film, The President's Last Bang; the crazy Tsai Ming-liang watermelon movie; and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's fabulous jungle musical short, "Worldly Desires", all currently on the list.

Not yet on the list are two 2005 Kobayashi Masahiro movies - indeed, it seems none of his films are on the list now. Bashing is short, simple film about the mistreatment of a kidnapped aid worker upon her eventual return to Japan. But Flic is a slow-paced, complex detective story that at times is so bizarre, so bizarrely funny, it pretty much demands you immediate rewatch it to confirm you weren't hallucinating the first time.

Sono Sion's Noriko's Dinner Table - a top-fiver for sure - is on the list, but the same year Sono made what for me, today at least, is the best movie of 2005, Yume no naka e [Into a Dream]. Erratically handheld, roughly edited, outrageous, no budget filmmaking à la Bad Film. Aliens, STDs, a deadpan Japanese production of "Streetcar", and somehow, a tearjerker! Good luck.

Other Asian films of note not on the list: Sabu's Dead Run [Shisso], Chen Kaige's wacky The Promise; and Stanley Kwan's Everlasting Regret (the most William Chang-y (best?) of Kwan's films, not least because Chang designed and edited it).

Non-Asian titles to add: Robinson Devor's delightfully sui generis Police Beat is 2005. And I'd recommend Jim Jennings experimental "Made in Chinatown" if the youtube version you'd likely find were not of such execrable quality.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THESE MATTERS!!!

[swo17]

Not yet on the list are two 2005 Kobayashi Masahiro movies - indeed, it seems none of his films are on the list now

Feel free to suggest additions beyond his films from this year

[denti alligator]

Thanks, yoshimori. Can you make recs for 2004, too? [Edit: never mind. Looks like you did!]

[swo17]

I've added all those suggestions plus Kobayashi's Haru's Journey for good measure

[Aunt Peg]

Could The Ax (Costa-Gavras) be added.

[swo17]

Done

[yoshimori]

Not yet on the list are two 2005 Kobayashi Masahiro movies - indeed, it seems none of his films are on the list now

Feel free to suggest additions beyond his films from this year

Kobayashi Masahiro was an independent filmmaker who was a bit of a Cannes darling at the turn of the millennium and the half decade afterwards, after which he became a fixture at other European tests (Locarno, Rotterdam, etc). For me, Flic (2005) was the film the made me seek out all previous and subsequent work, none of which, sadly, repeated that success. The best of the rest, for me, are Amazing Story (2003, Kobayashi's entry in the "Perfect Education" pinku series, which includes entries by Wakamatsu, Adachi, Fukasaku Kenta, et al), Rebirth (2007), and Where Are You? (2009) - but none of them are as interesting as the two 2005 films.

[swo17]

Not yet on the list are two 2005 Kobayashi Masahiro movies - indeed, it seems none of his films are on the list now

Feel free to suggest additions beyond his films from this year

Kobayashi Masahiro was an independent filmmaker who was a bit of a Cannes darling at the turn of the millennium and the half decade afterwards, after which he became a fixture at other European tests (Locarno, Rotterdam, etc). For me, Flic (2005) was the film the made me seek out all previous and subsequent work, none of which, sadly, repeated that success. The best of the rest, for me, are Amazing Story (2003, Kobayashi's entry in the "Perfect Education" pinku series, which includes entries by Wakamatsu, Adachi, Fukasaku Kenta, et al), Rebirth (2007), and Where Are You? (2009) - but none of them are as interesting as the two 2005 films.

Sorry, I somehow missed this post initially, but I've now added all of these films

[John Cope]

Please add Oliveira's Espelho Mágico (aka: Magic Mirror).

[swo17]

Added. Are there any other Oliveiras you'd like added from other years?

[John Cope]

Added. Are there any other Oliveiras you'd like added from other years?

Well, so far so good I think. I suppose there may be a risk of overlooking certain titles like Christopher Coumbus, the Enigma ('07) or, more likely, some of the shorts (e.g. Painéis de São Vicente de Fora - Visão Poética ('10); O Conquistador Conquistado ('12); O Velho do Restelo ('14); Um Século de Energia ('15)). I do think that The Fifth Empire probably should be on the '04 list but I don't want to make an issue of that.

[swo17]

Thanks. Most of those were already there but I've added what wasn't. I put Fifth Empire in 2005 because all I see are a couple of uneventful 2004 festival screenings (no award nominations) before opening wide in 2005. Do you have any other information?

[denti alligator]

Shorts and experimental recommendations?

[therewillbeblus]

Shorts and experimental recommendations?

I love Jodie Mack's A Joy

[yoshimori]

Shorts and experimental recommendations?

Re shorts: You probably know Ruben Östlund's ""Scen nr: 6882 ur mitt liv" ["Autobiographical Scene Number 6882"] and Don Hertzfeldt's "The Meaning of Life" and Apichatpong's "Worldly Desire" (which is kinda long for a short, but the pay-off is pretty fun). If not ...

[swo17]

Shorts and experimental recommendations?

Besides what others have mentioned:

The Red and the Blue Gods (Ben Russell)
'The Twenty-One Lives of Billy the Kid (Ben Russell)
Outerborough (Bill Morrison) (BFI set)
Rubber Johnny (Chris Cunningham)
Elements (Dariusz Kowalski)
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise (Ken Jacobs)
Mirror Mechanics (Siegfried A. Fruhauf) (Index Exposed DVD)

And while I'm posting artists' own Vimeo links, here's the aforementioned A Joy

[cantinflas]

Check out Takeshi Murata's Monster Movie