Anyone can come up with Top Ten lists and now that the 2000's are closing down--how do you measure a decade of moviegoing? Follow the crowd? Chart your own path or follow your Cinematic heart?YES--I think the last one will do.
The following are the movies of the decade (genre does not matter) which left an impression on me that I will never be able to forget:
The Twilight Samurai----a novel painted on a screen
3-Iron---the quirkiness of magic and love and believing it all.
The Barbarian Invasions---harsh, real, brutal, peaceful.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence---one of the sweetest movies ever disguised as science fiction.
Borat---have never laughed harder.
Time Out---a man's movie like no other.
The Best of Youth---a novel painted on the screen for 6 hours and leaves you desiring more. Without a doubt, the best of the decade and quite possibly the best complete movie I have ever seen.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind---goofy, labyrinthine, painful, heartbreaking.
United 93---never have I ever been frozen to my seat afterward.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly---a journey one wishes never to make but glad we witnessed it.
Amélie---a gift to all the romantic fools out there.
Apocalypto---visually rich and teeming with life and action. One of the very best.
Y Tu Mama También---a runner-up for the top spot. Utterly heartbreaking. Left me speechless--and still does.
The Squid and the Whale---emotionally violent but necessary for those without cookie-cutter lives.
High Fidelity---strips away our uniqueness and originality, but in a comforting way.
Grizzly Man---nature further proving its indifference to all things
A History of Violence---an unraveled life continued the new language of cinema
There Will be Blood---the new language of cinema taken to a higher level
No Country For Old Men---perfecting what they have been perfecting for decades
Sideways---funny, ugly, truthful, romantic, deceitful and number 3 on my decade list
The Pianist---an unforgettable experience
The Fog of War---maddening, infuriating, frightful and agonizingly real
The Class---this is the new world order blending with the new language of cinema
Rachel Getting Married---takes the new world order, blends it with the new language of cinema and focuses it on a single American family and its tributaries. Filled with pain and hurt but overabundant with joy and happiness.
Loin Du 16ème---One of the shorts in Paris Je'taime. Sad and unforgettable--all in less than 5 minutes.
Ebert's reflection:
All of these films are on this list for the same reason: The direct emotional impact they made on me. They have many other qualities, of course. But these evoked the emotion of Elevation.
Elevation is, scientists say, an actual emotion, not a woo-woo theory. I believe that, because some films over the years have evoked from me a physical as well as an intellectual or emotional response.
In choosing the list, I decided to bypass films that may have qualified for their historical, artistic, popular or "objective" importance.
No lists have deep significance, but even less lists composed to satisfy an imaginary jury of fellow critics.
My jury resides within. I know how I feel.
No comments:
Post a Comment