Top 10 Films of 1997

1. ''L.A. Confidential'' (Curtis Hanson, USA)

2. "My Best Friend's Wedding" (P.J. Hogan, USA)

3. ''Boogie Nights'' (Paul Thomas Anderson, USA)

4. ''The Sweet Hereafter'' (Atom Egoyan, Canada)

5. ''Starship Troopers'' (Paul Verhoeven, USA)

6. ''Titanic'' (James Cameron, USA)

7. ''La Femme défendue'' (Philippe Harel, France)

8. ''The Dress'' (Alex van Warmerdam, Holland)

9. ''Le Bossu'' (Philippe de Broca, France)

10. ''Jackie Brown'' (Quentin Tarantino, USA)

Other great films:

12 Storeys (Singapore)
L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze (France)
Absolute Power
Air Force One

Alien Resurrection

Anastasia

Artemisia (Italy)

As Good As It Gets

Black Angel (Japan)

Blood And Wine

The Boxer (Ireland)

Career Girls (UK)

Cats Don't Dance
Chasing Amy
Copland

Cosmos (Canada)

Deconstructing Harry

The Devil's Advocate

Double Team

East Side Story (Germany)

Eve's Bayou

Face/Off

The Fifth Element
Four Days In September (Brazil)

A Friend Of The Deceased (Ukraine)
Full Alert (Hong Kong)

The Full Monty (UK)
Genealogies d'un crime (France)
Good Will Hunting
Green Fish (South Korea)
Grosse Pointe Blank
Happy Together (Hong Kong)
Hard Eight
The Harmonists (Germany)
Hercules

House (Lithuania)

The House Of Yes
In The Company Of Men
In The Presence Of A Clown (Sweden)
Intruder (Hong Kong)

Kama Sutra (India)
Karmina (Canada)

Kissed (Canada)

Lawn Dogs

Little Sister (Holland)

Lost Highway

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
The Man Who Knew Too Little

Maslin Beach (Australia)

Men In Black
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
The Mirror (Iran)

Nil By Mouth (UK)

Nocne graffiti (Poland)

La Nuit du deluge (Canada) 
The Odd One Dies (Hong Kong)

Pajarico (Spain)

Perfect Blue (Japan)

The Pillow Book (UK)

La Plante humaine (Canada)

Pokoj saren (Poland)

Princess Mononoke (Japan)

Private Parts
Les Randonneurs (France)

The River (Taiwan)
Romy And Michele's High School Reunion

Sara (Poland)

Scream 2
Selena
She's So Lovely

Strictly Spanking (Canada)

Suburbia

Tender Flesh

The Thief (Russia)

Tu as crie Let Me Go (Canada)

Twin Town
Ulee's Gold

Unagi (Japan)

Venus Descending

Wag The Dog
Waiting For Guffman
Who The Hell Is Juliette? (Mexico)

The Wings Of The Dove

Short Top 3:

1. "Doodlebug" (Christopher Nolan, USA)

2. "Signing Off" (Robert Sarkies, New Zealand)

3. "Adios mama" (Ariel Gordon, Mexico)

Other great shorts:

Amazon
Let The Punishment Fit The Child

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Virtual Insanity" (Jonathan Glazer, Jamiroquai)

2. "Da Funk" (Spike Jonze, Daft Punk)

3. "Everybody" (Joseph Kahn, Backstreet Boys)

Other great music videos:

Barbie Girl
Mo' Money Mo' Problems
The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Walkin' On The Sun

Top Commercial:

"Toys" (Mark Gustafson, Nissan)

TV Top 3:

1. "The Kingdom 2" (Lars von Trier, Denmark)

2. "Ellen: The Puppy Episode" (Gil Junger, ABC)

3. "Oz: Season 1" (Tom Fontana, HBO)

Other great TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Kabina cieni (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Prezent od sw Mikolaja (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Skok w Nowy Rok (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Wczasy od Polski (Poland)

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "Rusalka" (Alexander Petrov, Russia)

2. "La Vieille dame et les pigeons" (Sylvain Chomet, France)

3. "Geri's Game" (John Lasseter, Pixar)

Other great cartoons:

Death And The Mother (UK)
Duel (Czech Republic)
Locked (India)
Noiseman Sound Insect (Japan)
Redux Riding Hood
Trade (India)
When The Dust Settles (Canada)

Weak films of 1997:

187
Actrices (Spain)
Addicted To Love
After Divorce (China)
Afterglow (Canada)
L'Age des possibles (France)
Air Bud
Un Air si pur (France)
Aldous Huxley The Gravity Of Light
All Over Me
Ambiguous Report About The End Of The World (Czech Republic)
An American Werewolf In Paris

Amistad
Anaconda
Angel Baby (Australia)
Anna Oz
The Apostle
Armageddon (Hong Kong)
The Assignment (Canada)
Austin Powers International Man Of Mystery
Bag Of Rice (Iran)
The Bandit (Turkey)
Bang
Batman And Robin
La Belle verte (France)
The Best Man (Italy)
A Better Place
The Big Fight (Japan)
Booty Call
Box Of Moonlight
Les Boys (Canada)
Breakdown
The Brother (Russia)
La Buena vida (Spain)
Burnt Eden (Canada)
Bye Bye (France)
Celestial Clockwork (Venezuela)
Chamane (Russia)
Chantal Ackerman par Chantal Ackerman (Belgium)
Le Chien du jardinier (Spain)
Chinese Box
A Chinese Midnight Express (Hong Kong)
City Of Industry
Clandestins (Canada)
Clockwatchers
The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati (Canada)
Le Coeur est mon temoin (Canada)
Comme des rois (France)
La Comtesse de Baton Rouge (Canada)
Con Air
La Conciergerie (Canada)
Confessions Of A Rabid Dog
Conspiracy Theory
Les Conspirateurs du plaisir (Czech Republic)
Contact
A Couch In New York
Le Cousin (France)
Critical Care
Cure (Japan)
Dante's Peak
The Daytrippers
De l'autre cote du coeur (Canada)
Les Demons du Jesus (France)
Despabilate amor (Argentina)
Destiny (Egypt)
Devil's Own
Didier (France)
The Dinner
The Disappearance Of Finbar (Ireland)
Dobermann (France)
Donnie Brasco
Eau douce (France)
The Edge
Eisenstein In Mexico
Enchanted
The End Of Violence (Germany)
Un Ete a la Goulette (Tunesia)
Excess Baggage
Expectations
Fairy Tale: A True Story (UK)
Fantome avec chauffeur (France)
Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control
Fetishes
Fierce Creatures
Fire Down Below
Floating Life (Australia)
Flubber
Fools Rush In
For Richer Or Poorer
Four Little Girls
Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Fresh Blood: A Consideration Of Belonging
The Game
Gang Related
Gattaca
The Gazelle (Iran)
George Of The Jungle
GI Jane
Going All The Way
Good Burger
Gray's Anatomy
Gridlock'd
Guantanamera (Cuba)
Gummo
A Gun For Jennifer
Gypsy Magic (Macedonia)
Habit
Hana-Bi (Japan)
The Hanging Garden (Canada)
The Headhunter's Sister
Hercule et Sherlock (France)
Historie milosne (Poland)
Home Alone 3
Homere, la derniere odyssee (Italy)
Hoodlum
Hot Sauce (Canada)
The Ice Storm
I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Married A Strange Person
In And Out
In The Name Of Innocence (Germany)
Inventing The Abbotts
Island On Bird Street
Le Jaguar (France)
The James Gang (UK)
Jazz '34
Junk Mail (Norway)
K (France)
Karakter (Holland)
Kichiku (Japan)
Kiler (Poland)
Kiss Or Kill (Australia)
Kiss The Girls
Kull The Conqueror
Kundun
The Last Bus Home (Ireland)
Lawyer Lawyer (Hong Kong)
Leave It To Beaver
Leila (Israel)
Let There Be Light (Turkey)
Liar Liar
A Life And Two Trails (Venezuela)
A Life Less Ordinary
Lifeline (Hong Kong)
Lost Paradise (Japan)
Love And Other Catastrophes (Australia)
Love Jones
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Mad City
Made In Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
Majin (Japan)
Marcello Mastroianni, je me souviens (Italy)
Marius et Jeannette (France)
La Marquise (France)
Marthe (France)
Masterminds
The Matchmaker
Mathusalem 2 (Canada)
Ma vie en rose (Belgium)
Memories (Japan)
Metro
Mimic
A Moment Of Innocence (Iran)
Money Talk
Mortal Kombat Annihilation
Most Wanted
Mother And Son (Russia)
MouseHunt
Movie Days (Iceland)
Mr Magoo
Mr Nice Guy
Mrs Brown
Mr Vincent
Murder At 1600
My Secret Cache (Japan)
Nenette et Boni (France)
Nettoyage a sec (France)
Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam (France)
Night Falls On Manhattan
Nothing To Lose
Nous sommes tous encore ici (France)
The Ogre (Germany)
Once Upon A Time In China And America (Hong Kong)
On connait la chanson (France)
One Night Stand
The Opium War (China)
Oscar And Lucinda (Australia)
Ossos (Portugal)
Out To Sea
Paljas (South Africa)
Les Palmes de M.Schutz (France)
Panic (Canada)
Paradise Lost
Paradise Road
Passage a l'acte (France)
Le Passage des hommes libres (France)
The Peacemaker
The Perfumer (Canada)
Phoenix
Picture Perfect
Der Platz (Germany)
Playing God
Port Djema (France)
Portraits chinois (France)
The Postman
Postman Blues (China)
The Rainmaker
Red Corner
Rien ne va plus (France)
Robinson In Space (UK)
Rocket Man
Romaine (France)
Sept en attente (France)
Le Septieme ciel (France)
Seven Years In Tibet
Le Siege de l'ame (Canada)
A Simple Wish
Sinon oui (France)
Skin Deep
A Smile Like Yours
Smilla's Sense Of Snow
Soleil (France)
Some Birds Can't Fly (Yugoslavia)
Sonatine (Japan)
Soul Food
Spawn
Speed 2: Cruise Control 
Sprung
Squeeze

Star Maps
Steel
Still Breathing
The Street (Canada)
Sunday
Suzaku (Japan)
Switchback
Synthetic Pleasures
Szczesliwego Nowego Jorku (Poland)
The Taste Of Cherries (Iran)
A Taxi To L.A. (Canada)
Temps des miracles (Croatia)
Le Temps qu'il fait (Canada)
Tenue correcte exigee (France)
Territorio Commanche (Spain)
A Thousand Acres
'Til There Was You
Tokyo Lullaby (Japan)
To Love (Japan)
Tomorrow Never Dies
Too Many Ways To Be Number One (Hong Kong)
Trial And Error
Trois vies et une seule mort (France)
Trop tard (Romania)
TwentyFourSeven (UK)
The Typewriter The Rifle And The Movie Camera
The Unfish (Austria)
The Van (UK)
Vegas Vacation
La Vengeance de la femme en noir (Canada)
La Verite si je mens (France)

La Vie de Jésus (France)
Volcano
Voleurs de cinema (Italy)
Waco The Rules Of Engagement
Walk In
Warriors Of Virtue
Washington Square
Wedding Bell Blues
Western (France)
Whisper (Czech Republic)
Wild America
Winter Guest (UK)
Wishmaster

The Witman Boys
Wound Of Light (Spain)
Zero Effect

Weak shorts:

Breezeway
Chainsmoker (Germany)

Des Majorettes dans l'espace (France)
Trajectoire oblique (Belgium)

Weak cartoons:

Famous Fred (UK)

Weak TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Gdyby nie raj (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Wesolo jak nigdy (Poland)

Top Musical of 1997

"Selena" (Gregory Nava, Warner)

L.A. Confidential (1997) *****

An exhilarating police drama about three LAPD cops (Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey) who begin to suspect that there is something very rotten inside their ranks. Directed by Curtis Hanson, and based on a novel by James Ellroy, ''L.A. Confidential'' is set circa 1953, its style is pure film noir, but its themes are very contemporary. Everything is awash in deep cynicism, but the incredibly complex, superbly constructed script allows for a multitude of interpretations. There is something truly fascinating about the main characters. Their positive traits, such as loyalty, friendship and honesty are often presented in a negative light, while such vices as vanity, ambition and sadism often reveal virtuous sides of their personalities. For instance, Crowe is a brutal thug, but his victims are usually wife-beating scumbags. He's loyal, but to the wrong people. Ambitious Pearce betrays his colleagues, but he's completely honest. At first, they hate each other's guts. But in the film's most memorable scene, they switch (without missing a beat) from enemies to partners after realizing they've both been betrayed. And they accomplish that while beating the crap out of each other. This is one of the best films of the 1990’s. The acting is superlative. Kim Basinger won a well-deserved Oscar, but David Strathairn, playing her ultra-cool pimp, is even better. The way he dismisses Pearce and Spacey by saying "Oh, we all want something", is priceless.

La Femme défendue (1997) ****

French director Philippe Harel described his extraordinarily original movie as ''a story of adultery filmed with a subjective camera, with only a single protagonist and without any secondary plot''. The camera takes the first-person point of view of a married man (whom we only see briefly in mirrors) as he meets, flirts with, seduces and falls in love with a beautiful young woman (superbly played by Isabelle Carre). Since the the narrative is entirely focused on their affair, and the viewer identifies with the male protagonist, the woman is in fact flirting, seducing and falling in love with the viewers. Most of the film consists of loving close-ups of her beautiful face, sometimes smiling, sometimes laughing, but always looking directly at the camera and allowing us to see in her expressive eyes every nuance of her thoughts and desires. ''La Femme défendue'' is a voyeur's dream come true - it offers a unique opportunity to observe a beautiful, shy, impressionable and hesitant young girl as she reveals the secrets of her heart. The result is an intensely erotic and intimate film, a truly memorable gem. Although originally made for French television, it was selected as an official competition entry at the Cannes Film Festival and then theatrically released to great critical acclaim. Adultery might seem like a tired old subject (especially in French cinema), but here its banality is transcended by the subtlety of the script, the quality of the mise-en-scène, and, above all, the luminous, star-making performance by Isabelle Carre.

Titanic (1997) ****

Starship Troopers (1997) ****

The Sweet Hereafter (1997) ****

Boogie Nights (1997) ****

Nil By Mouth (1997) ****

The Dress (1997) ****

Le Bossu (1997) ****

Jackie Brown (1997) ****

The Mirror (1997) ****

A brechtian film from Iran. An young actress refuses to play in a film.

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) ****

This is the film where Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz fight over Dermot Mulroney. Director P.J.Hogan, best known for his ultra-cynical Australian comedy "Muriel's Wedding" (1995), does an excellent job of combining sweetness with meaness, sunny optimism with bitchy sarcasm and sentimentality with ruthlessness. Best of all is Rupert Everett, a gay knight in shining armour riding to the rescue of a damsel-in-distress, while charming crowds with Burt Bacharach songs and sharp one-liners ("I don't send you men anymore", he tells Julia Roberts, "you don't have the faintest idea what to do with them"). Songs include:

"Wishin' And Hopin'" ***
"I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" **
"I Say A Little Prayer" ***

12 Storeys (1997) ***

A clever critique of Singapore's way of life, presented as a slice-of-life drama about tenants in an apartment building.

Four Days In September (1997) ***

Brazilian radicals kidnap a US ambassador.

Lawn Dogs (1997) ***

Lost Highway (1997) ***

Private Parts (1997) ***

The Wings Of The Dove (1997) ***

Alien Resurrection (1997) ***

Blood And Wine (1997) ***

Double Team (1997) ***

Eve's Bayou (1997) ***

Suburbia (1997) ***

As Good As It Gets (1997) ***

The Devil's Advocate (1997) ***

The Fifth Element (1997) ***

East Side Story (1997) ***

Fascinating documentary about musical films made behind the Iron Curtain. From Grigori Alexandrov's Stalin-era gems like "Jolly Fellows" (1934) and "Volga Volga" (1938), to Ivan Pyryev's mind-bogglingly campy "Cossacks Of The Kuban" (1950), to Andrei Calarasu's Romanian curiosity "Vacation on the Black Sea" (1962), to Gottfried Kolditz's East German masterpieces like "Midnight Review" (1962) and "Geliebte Weisse Maus" (1964), the film covers the entire spectrum of the genre, from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Tu as crie Let Me Go (1997) ***

Excellent documentary about drug addiction.

Ulee's Gold (1997) ***

Peter Fonda gives the greatest performance of his career in this thoughful and touching film set in the Florida Panhandle.

Wag The Dog (1997) ***

Ruthless satire about a womanizing president trying to divert the attention from himself by fabricating a phony war.

Waiting For Guffman (1997) ***

Sardonic look at a barnyard vaudeville act in Blaine, Missouri.

Green Fish (1997) ***

A stylish, beautifully filmed Korean gangster pic.

The Harmonists (1997) ***

German musical set in the 1930's.

Deconstructing Harry (1997) ***

She's So Lovely (1997) ***

Sean Penn gives the performance of his career in this terrific film written by John Cassavetes and directed by his son, Nick.

Selena (1997) ***

Musical biopic starring Jennifer Lopez as Selena, a great Tejano singer, who died tragically at the age of 23. Songs include:

"I Will Survive" *
"Last Dance" *
"On The Radio" *
"Como La Flor" ***
"Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" **
"I Could Fall In Love" **
"Dreaming Of You" **