Films of 2015.

 Below are the films which I saw for the first time in 2015 which most impressed me. Each year I think that the crop is getting thinner and each year I end up chopping off a dozen titles that I feel really should get get in, on the don't be greedy principle. Don't ask me what need it all serves.

Cooper: American Sniper

BOYHOOD - now there's determination, INSIDE OUT (Pete Docter) which was playing on every second seat back when I looked round the plane. To the Last Man (Victor Fleming 1923) amazing that something so accomplished could vanish for the best part of a century. LOIN des HOMMES/ Far from Men (David Oelhoffen), RELATOS SALVAJES (Wild Tales Damián Szifrón), RICKI & THE FlASH (Demme), Koi no hana saku Izu no odoriko (The Dancing Girl of Izu Gosho 1933) on U-Tube with sub titles. Potop/ The Deluge (1965) Extended but still incomplete, FOXCATCHER  (Bennett Miller),The DESCENDANTS (Alexander Payne), Les misérables (Henri Fescourt 1925), BRIDGE of SPIES,

Dancing Girl of Izu

DIPLOMATIE (Diplomacy Schlöndorff), PHOENIX (Christian Petzold) Resurrectio (Blasetti 1930) first Italian talkie , In the HEART of the SEA great in 3D,  WOMEN HE’S UNDRESSED (Gillian Armstrong's Orry Kelly doc.)  KISHIBI NO TABI (Journey to the Shore Kiyoshi Kurosawa) LISTEN TO ME MARLON (Stevan Riley) Le TOUT NOUVEAU TESTAMENT (The Brand New Testament  Jaco Van Dormael), where Benoît Poelvoorde strikes again, Mr. Holmes (Condon) Musarañas (Shrew's Nest Roel & Andrés for De Iglasea) American Sniper (Eastwood),  Prologue (Richard Williams short), The 50 Year Argument (Scorsese & Tedeschi documentary on the NY Review of Books), Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor), Tigers (Danis Tanovic), Alles inklusive (The Whole Shebang -  Doris Dörrie),  Kiga kaikyô  (Straits of Hunger Uchida 1965).

That's 21 in theatres, including one off events, four on broadcast TV, one on You Tube and two on DVD.

I compared this with the Sight and Sound poll which netted 288 titles. Even given that they have better access than someone in Australia, there is remarkably little relation. Their people of course see different films and like different films and some of the difference will be ironed out as the material finally gets to me. A few of mine were on their last year's list and a few of theirs, surprisingly, on mine. Both lists include in re-issues.

Still I find it curious that twenty of the films I've singled out don't figure in their three hundred.

B.P.