I put together a list of the films I saw for the first time, that had most impressed me during the year, as I have been doing for an inordinate amount of time. It came out -
LES MISERABLES (2013), THE GREAT GATSBY 3D (2013, Fitzgerald’s characters swimming in 3D decoration - first film of Baz Luhrmann I’ve liked since Strictly Ballroom), THE LAST STAND (Jee-woon Kim and Schwarzenegger in destructive mood) BLISS (Glück: Dorris Dörrie handling Alba Rowacher, both repeat offenders on my lists), DJANGO UNCHAINED, ZERO DARK THIRTY, Der GEHEIME KURIER (The Secret Courier / Le Rouge et le Noir: Righelli1928, with Ivan Mozjoukine and Lil Dagover, who could ask for anything more?), SILVER LININGS
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| Mozjoukine |
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| Gravity |
I’m surprised at the heavy presence of Multiplex movies, which seemed to have been falling away. Is this the result of Quality? Accessibility? Personal taste? Dollars spent? The breakdown is - Multiplex 12, Fringe Cinemas 7, TV (SBS) 5, Festivals 4, DVD 3 and assorted (in-flight, enthusiast events, private shows) 3, with (included in our total for the first time) Streaming One. One non fiction movie, two silents, one short. The numbers don’t come out because some movies figure under two headings.
Just as I was doing this, the British Film Institute lobbed theirs onto the computer - The Act
of Killing, Gravity, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, La grande bellezza, Frances Ha, A
Touch of Sin, Upstream Color, The Selfish Giant, Norte, the End of History, Stranger by
the Lake - a close match with it’s members' list - The Act of Killing, Gravity, Blue Is the
Warmest Colour, The Great Beauty, Frances Ha, Upstream Color, Stranger by the Lake,
The Selfish Giant, A Touch of Sin, Norte, the End of History. How's that for conforming?
Not only is there minimal overlap with mine but I’ve only managed to see a couple of those,
though that will equalize over a few years. The Great Beauty got my nomination for the
year’s most pretentious bomb but I did enjoy watching the star of Blue is the
Warmest Colour chew gum through her South Bank interview.
Intriguingly, the Sydney Film Fesitval, the local custodian of establishment taste, only
managed to run three of the British picks.
Make a similar comparison with eg. Time Magazine’s 10. The Hobbit: The Desolation
of Smaug, 12 Years a Slave, The Act of Killing, Frozen, Fast & Furious 6, The
Grandmaster (Wong ka-wai), Her (Jonze), American Hustle, La grande bellezza,
Gravity. Intriguingly, while most of these have yet to surface here, seven of their ten
worst have hit the complexes.
So what does it all prove or even suggest? Any one here has to work much harder to see
what is admired, let alone what’s good. The Australian experience of cinema is drifting
away from the European and (as always) the yanks are better at getting their stuff out
... and everyone loves Gravity.
Just as I was doing this, the British Film Institute lobbed theirs onto the computer - The Act
of Killing, Gravity, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, La grande bellezza, Frances Ha, A
Touch of Sin, Upstream Color, The Selfish Giant, Norte, the End of History, Stranger by
the Lake - a close match with it’s members' list - The Act of Killing, Gravity, Blue Is the
Warmest Colour, The Great Beauty, Frances Ha, Upstream Color, Stranger by the Lake,
The Selfish Giant, A Touch of Sin, Norte, the End of History. How's that for conforming?
Not only is there minimal overlap with mine but I’ve only managed to see a couple of those,
though that will equalize over a few years. The Great Beauty got my nomination for the
year’s most pretentious bomb but I did enjoy watching the star of Blue is the
Warmest Colour chew gum through her South Bank interview.
Intriguingly, the Sydney Film Fesitval, the local custodian of establishment taste, only
managed to run three of the British picks.
Make a similar comparison with eg. Time Magazine’s 10. The Hobbit: The Desolation
of Smaug, 12 Years a Slave, The Act of Killing, Frozen, Fast & Furious 6, The
Grandmaster (Wong ka-wai), Her (Jonze), American Hustle, La grande bellezza,
Gravity. Intriguingly, while most of these have yet to surface here, seven of their ten
worst have hit the complexes.
So what does it all prove or even suggest? Any one here has to work much harder to see
what is admired, let alone what’s good. The Australian experience of cinema is drifting
away from the European and (as always) the yanks are better at getting their stuff out
... and everyone loves Gravity.
