Film Dictionary: 2005

December 12, 2005

Top 10 Films of 2005

1. "Historias del desencanto" (Alejandro Valle, Felipe Gómez, Mexico)

2. "The Wayward Cloud" (Tsai Ming-Liang, Taiwan)

3. "Melissa P" (Luca Guadagnino, Italy)

4. "Sin City" (Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, USA)

5. ''Lord Of War'' (Andrew Niccol, USA)

6. "Breakfast On Pluto" (Neil Jordan, Ireland)

7. "Delwende" (S. Pierre Yameogo, Burkina Faso)

8. "Where The Truth Lies" (Atom Egoyan, Canada)

9. "Play" (Alicia Scherson, Chile)

10. "Broken Flowers" (Jim Jarmusch, USA)

Other great films:

2 Girls (Turkey)

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

5X2 (France)

8MM 2

Abducted By Daleks (UK)

All About Anna (Denmark)

L'Audition (Canada)
Batman Begins

Battle in Heaven (Mexico)
Bride And Prejudice (India)

Brokeback Mountain
The Brothers Grimm

Capote
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
Chicken Little

The Constant Gardener
Corpse Bride

Crash

C.R.A.Z.Y. (Canada)
The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (UK)

Dear Wendy (Denmark)

Domino

Douches froides (France)

L'Enfant (Belgium)
Les États nordiques (Canada)
Familia (Canada)

Flower And Snake 2 (Japan)

God Save The King (Sweden)

Das Goebbels Experiment (Germany)

Good Night And Good Luck
The Great Raid

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

Havoc

A History Of Violence

Horloge biologique (Canada)

House of Sand (Brazil)

Hwal (South Korea)

In Her Shoes
It's All Gone Pete Tong

Jestem (Poland)

Jimmywork (Canada)

King Kong

Lie With Me (Canada)

Main Hoon Na (India)
Manners Of Dying (Canada)
La Marche de l'Empereur (France)
Mary Shelley
Match Point

Mrs Henderson Presents (UK)

Munich

Mysterious Skin

La Neuvaine (Canada)
La Nuit noire, 17 octobre 1961 (France)

Peindre ou faire l'amour (France)

Perhaps Love (Hong Kong)

Petit Pow! Pow! Noël (Canada)

Pitbull (Poland)

Les Poupées russes (France)

Pour un seul de mes deux yeux (Israel)
Robots

Romance And Cigarettes

Sangre (Mexico)

Seven Swords (Hong Kong)
Sex And Philosophy (Tajikistan)

Shopgirl

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith

The Sun (Japan)

These Girls (Canada)

Three Times (Taiwan)

Transamerica

Tsotsi (South Africa)

The Upside Of Anger

La Vie avec mon père (Canada)

Short Top 3:

1. "Six Shooter" (Martin McDonagh, Ireland)

2. "Le Baiser" (Stefan Le Lay, France)

3. "Une Chapelle blanche" (Simon Lavoie, Canada)

Other great shorts:

L'Air de rien (Canada)

A mains nues (France)
Les Jouets (Canada)
La Méthode Morin (Canada)

Traumata

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Don't Cha" (Paul Hunter, The Pussycat Dolls)

2. "Speed Of Sound" (Mark Romanek, Coldplay)

3. "Believe" (Nic and Dom, The Chemical Brothers)

November 11, 2005

The Wayward Cloud (2005) *****

Historias del desencanto (2005) *****

This is one of the most intoxicating movies of all times. Co-directed by animation filmmaker Alejandro Valle and interactive artist Felipe Gomez, "Historias del Desencanto" ("Stories of Disenchantment") is a visual and erotic masterpiece from Mexico, full of magnificent nudity and spectacular musical numbers. The opening scene presents an incredible vision of hell, described by a reviewer, Jon Waterman as "an amazingly brilliant homage to early cinema mixed with the pre-requisite modernity of computer graphics. It contained stunning shots and interesting angles and intelligent compositions that showed off some intricate production design". The story is surrealistic in the extreme. Exploring a warehouse that's been left unlocked, beautiful Ximena (Ximena Ayala) and her wannabe filmmaker boyfriend Diego (Mario Oliver) spy upon Ainda (Fabiana Perzabal) while she is undressing, but then they freak out when she sprouts wings. Nonetheless they accept an invitation to her art exhibition. Eventually they all end up in bed together, in an ecstasy-fueled orgy of sensuality and desire. The naked winged harpy keeps leading the two innocent victims down a decadent path of drug abuse and sexual experimentation, and as they all keep losing their clothes more and more, the film becomes increasingly like a wet dream of a drunk and perverted genius. Stylistically, the film is somewhere between Jodorowsky, Gilliam, Lynch, Jeunet and Caro, but it creates a fantasy universe that is absolutely unique. And incredibly sexy. The trailer is available here (read the captions).

October 10, 2005

Broken Flowers (2005) ****

Directed by Jim Jarmusch, ''Broken Flowers'' isn't at all an erotic film, but its most memorable and funniest scene is a brief nude appearance of the young Alexis Dziena (photo) in all of her full-frontal glory. Within the context of the film, this scene is a guaranteed laugh-out-loud comic moment that cannot really be explained to someone who hasn't seen the whole movie. Suffice to say that for once, eroticism and comedy are working hand-in-hand here (it also inspires the film's best line, ''that was quite an outfit you weren't wearing earlier''). Alexis Dziena plays a character named Lolita, whose mother (Sharon Stone) is one of Bill Murray's ex-girlfriends whom he is visiting during the film (others are played by Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Frances Conroy and Julie Delpy). Like usually in Jim Jarmusch film, the plot advances slowly, but the characters are so rich and complex that we don't mind at all. And as David Edelstein writes in a Slate review, ''Broken Flowers is Jarmusch's most conventionally entertaining film, but it's still visually rigorous, swimming in pregnant silences, and un-filled-in in a way that's tantalizing. The movie is a haunted meditation on solipsism that's full of extraneous life, that hints at a world elsewhere. Jarmusch and Murray have transcended their limitations. They've made a deadpan movie that quivers with feeling.''

Play (2005) ****

Every once in a while, there comes a little movie so unpretentious and sweet one cannot help but to love and to admire it. This cute little gem from Chile, directed by Alicia Scherson, is like a beautiful jazz composition - it follows various characters (including beautiful Viviana Herrera), let us know them intimately, but never allows a well-structured plot to spoil the improvisational feel of the movie. In other words, "Play" is one of those "artsy foreign films" that might bore those viewers who are used to heavily-plotted and ultra-dramatized Hollywood spectacles, but it will enchant those cinephiles who enjoy de-dramatized and intimate dramas about human eccentricities. As a reviewer wrote, "the film's purposively non-exhaustive narrative creates a more subtle but deeper link between the characters and us in our enjoyable role as partial spectators".

Where The Truth Lies (2005) ****

Directed by Atom Egoyan (''Exotica'', ''Ararat'', ''The Sweet Hereafter''), this erotic drama about a mysterious murder of a sexy chambermaid was one of best films of 2005. ''Where The Truth Lies'' tells the story of a young writer (Alison Lohman) determined to solve that mystery which deeply affected the lives and careers of showbiz team Vince Collins and Lanny Morris (Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon, perfectly imitating Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). Though set mostly in sun-drenched Hollywood and Florida, this is a noir in the darkest sense.

Lord Of War (2005) ****

Sin City (2005) ****

An ultra-slick orgy of violence, non-stop action, deadpan humour and sophisticated eroticism, "Sin City" was a collaborative effort of Frank Miller (the author of the graphic novels), Robert Rodriguez ("Desperado") and Quentin Tarantino. Visually, it's quite stunning, and described by Slate's David Edelstein as "a study in luminous black and white, with sudden and breathtaking splashes of crimson, chartreuse, and a particularly nauseating mustard (...) One car-ride sequence, directed by Rodriguez's pal Quentin Tarantino, is a little jewel of camera movement, lighting, and design. The raindrops are white - it's a painterly deluge". The most erotic scene occurs early in the film, when Carla Gugino gets out of bed when her roommate (Mickey Rourke) comes back in the middle of the night. They have a very interesting relationship - she is his parole officer and a lesbian, but she still parades in front of him topless, wearing only a thong.

A History Of Violence (2005) ****

C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) ****

Breakfast On Pluto (2005) ****

L'Audition (2005) ****

Delwende (2005) ****

A feminist drama from Burkina Faso.

Battle In Heaven (2005) ****

September 9, 2005

Havoc (2005) ***

Hwal (2005) ***

Memorable South Korean movie set on a boat. Perverse and mesmerizing.

Transamerica (2005) ***

Felicity Huffman gives a performance of her career in this tremendously entertaining road movie about Bree, a trans woman who drives from New York to Los Angeles with her newfound son, Toby. Skilfully directed by Duncan Tucker, ''Transamerica'' is a witty and entertaining comedy, full of great dead-pan dialogues. As Roger Ebert has observed, ''there is a quiet strain of humour throughout "Transamerica," but this is not so much a comedy as an observation about human nature. The movie works because Felicity Huffman brings great empathy and tact to her performance. This is not a person who wants to make a big point about anything. She is persistently and patiently herself. If she had been wilder, more extroverted, the movie might fly off the rails. It is precisely because she is so conventionally sincere that the movie gathers power in deep places while maintaining a relative surface calm. And she manages to maintain her composure even when she finally meets her parents, and especially her unbelievably obnoxious mother (Fionnula Flanagan), who answers for herself the enigma of pre- or post-op by grabbing Bree's crotch. And she looks and acts as if she once courted her husband in exactly the same way.

Mysterious Skin (2005) ***

King Kong (2005) ***

Crash (2005) ***

Romance And Cigarettes (2005) ***

Munich (2005) ***

Steven Spielberg's ''Munich'' provoked quite a storm of controversy when it was released. The film was accused of excessively humanizing the Palestinian terrorists who organized the massacre of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics. A Mossad hit squad is ordered (by Golda Meir herself) to find those terrorists and to kill them in retaliation. As the film progresses, the team leader (played by Eric Bana) becomes progressively disillusioned with his mission and eventually leaves not only Mossad, but even Israel, and moves to the United States. The last, very controversial, shot of the film shows the World Trade Centre, clearly suggesting that all those killing have only lead to more terrorist attacks, including 9/11. The defeatist tone of the film is compounded by the fact that Spielberg doesn’t offer any alternative solutions. His point seems to be that while the retaliation was totally useless, there was nothing else that the Israelis could have done anyway. Quite a depressing message. Overall, this is one of Spielberg’s weakest films, but it's never boring. Just a minor work of a major filmmaker.

Film Dictionary