The first five are in order of preference, everything after that is random,
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino) 1994
Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen) 1996
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz) 1995
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese) 1990
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch) 1995
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze) 1999
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola) 1991
Dark City (Alex Proyas) 1998
Three Kings (David O. Russell) 1999
La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette) 1991
The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont) 1994
All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar) 1999
Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh) 1996
Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise) 1991
Seven (David Fincher) 1995
Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski) 1993
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson) 1999
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater) 1995
The Hairdresser's Husband (Patrice Leconte) 1990
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki) 1997
Fight Club (David Fincher) 1999
Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski) 1994
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle) 1996
Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay) 1999
Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson) 1997
Special Jury Prize:
Leolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon) 1992
Honorable Mention:
Election (Alexander Payne) 1999
Disclaimer: I've yet to see the Dardenne Brothers' "Rosetta" and "La Promesse," and the ending of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" still bothers me.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Hugo (Martin Scorsese) 2011
The first half of Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" is a very effective depiction of a young orphan boy named Hugo living in a Paris train station, and it has been identified as "Dickensian" by critics for no better reason then its inclusion of orphans with English accents who are treated terribly by adults. The best moments are the point of view shots as Hugo observes the passengers and workers from the station's clocks, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window." Also well done is the main theme of his search for a purpose in life, though he assumes it will be related to his job of running the station's clocks and fixing the automaton his Father found in a museum before his death.
When the focus switches to the preservation of George Méliès' films and early film history, "Hugo" has an unnecessary dependence on expository dialogue. Although we are shown footage from classic silent films and recreations of Méliès work, there is a voice over narration that feels like it belongs in a PBS program. In particular, when Hugo and Isabelle read a book on the beginnings of film and Méliès explains how his film career began and flourished, the narration could have been cut altogether, leaving the images alone with the film's score. If there was a need for explanation, it could have been short and concise, such as when Méliès points to World War I as the eventual decline of his films' popularity, the only line needed was, "And then the Great War began," and that's it. While the script's dependence on the source novel, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick may be to blame, Scorsese did manage to avoid heavy narration in a scene when Hugo is having a nightmare of a train going off the tracks and crashing through the station's front entrance. While the book explains that this really happened, Scorsese allows the scene to be on its own with no added dialogue, with the final shot resembling the photograph of the actual train crash. It's scenes like this that make you wonder why Scorsese didn't follow this model throughout the film, and how it could have benefited from more "show" and less "tell."
When the focus switches to the preservation of George Méliès' films and early film history, "Hugo" has an unnecessary dependence on expository dialogue. Although we are shown footage from classic silent films and recreations of Méliès work, there is a voice over narration that feels like it belongs in a PBS program. In particular, when Hugo and Isabelle read a book on the beginnings of film and Méliès explains how his film career began and flourished, the narration could have been cut altogether, leaving the images alone with the film's score. If there was a need for explanation, it could have been short and concise, such as when Méliès points to World War I as the eventual decline of his films' popularity, the only line needed was, "And then the Great War began," and that's it. While the script's dependence on the source novel, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick may be to blame, Scorsese did manage to avoid heavy narration in a scene when Hugo is having a nightmare of a train going off the tracks and crashing through the station's front entrance. While the book explains that this really happened, Scorsese allows the scene to be on its own with no added dialogue, with the final shot resembling the photograph of the actual train crash. It's scenes like this that make you wonder why Scorsese didn't follow this model throughout the film, and how it could have benefited from more "show" and less "tell."
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