the year in films

Anthony Lane gives his round-up appraisal of cinema in 2005. Thoughtful and snarky, as always, with a couple of great one-liners (including one that recalls his hysterical evisceration of the latest Star Wars film, a review so funny and mean that I assigned it to all my teenage writing students last summer and had them read it aloud for maximum effect). Lane bemoans the lack of excitement he feels about most recent American films:

As for complete films, the one that struck me most forcefully was a German-Turkish production, “Head On.” The year before that, my favorite was Russian (“The Return”). In 2003, it was Swedish (“Lilya 4-Ever”). In 2002, it was Mexican (“Y Tu Mamá También”). In 2001, it was Swedish again (“Together”). In 1999, it was French (“The Dreamlife of Angels”). This is not as I would wish. America is a formidable machine for moviemaking, with all the fuel it needs, but the kinds of story that it now chooses to tell of itself, and the appetite for such nourishment—the taste for mass public shows, that is, rather than unhypnotic home entertainment, which you can snap out of when you need a beer—may be shrinking beyond recall. The last year in which our wits and our senses alike could feed on homegrown products, thanks to such disparate dramas as “Gladiator” and “Wonder Boys,” was 2000; before that, there were delights from Richard Linklater, with “Dazed and Confused” and “Before Sunrise”; from Wes Anderson, with “Rushmore”; from Bryan Singer, with “The Usual Suspects”; and from Curtis Hanson, with “L.A. Confidential.” All of the above were amused, grown-up entertainments made by men who weren’t trying too hard.

I agree on several counts--most of the recent movies that have really impressed me haven't been American, and most of the American movies I love aren't from recent years. As I wrote in one of the very first entries in this blog, Gegen die Wand/Head On (also known as Duvara Karşı) is probably the best film I've seen in the last couple of years, and Lane's heartfelt review of it was quite a contrast to his frequent sarcasm. It's a little miracle of a movie for all the reasons he mentions and more--the soundtrack is a delight, Sibel Kekilli is just spellbinding, and there's a lovely scene involving the cooking of Turkish stuffed peppers, which made the friends I first watched it with laugh, as I'd cooked the same thing for them not long before. Also the İstanbul parts are filmed in familiar streets; the greengrocer 'round the corner who sold me apples all summer one year appears in the corner of a few brief frames. I bought a bootleg of the DVD before I left Turkey, one without English subtitles (though it has Turkish ones, for the German dialogue). I watch it in bits and pieces now and again, on the excuse that it's improving my Turkish, but really just because it's so good.

Other films that have impressed me this year: My Summer of Love, Crash, Brokeback Mountain, the Edukators, Turtles Can Fly, Kinsey, 2046, Carnages, Downfall. Films I haven't seen yet but really want to: Harry Potter, Syriana, Paradise Now, Good Luck & Good Night, Rize, Munich (which I think will probably annoy me on political/historical grounds to the extent it will be hard to enjoy it qua movie), The Constant Gardener, Mysterious Skin.