Best Films of 2011

[x359594]

In no particular order:

1. The Housemaid, Im Sang-soo

2. Melancholia, Lars von Trier

3. A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg

4. Film Socialisme, Jean-Luc Godard

5. Hugo, Martin Scosese

6. Drive,
Nicolas Winding Refn

7. The Kid With a Bike, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

8. Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen

9. The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodavar

10. The Tree of Life, Terence Malick

[Pirate Utopian]

Drive, Hobo With a Shotgun. The rest I've seen was either bad or simply okay.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The Godard one is a 2010 film.

[Elsa]

definitely Faust by Alexander Sokurov and Tambien la lluvia (Even the rain) by Iciar Bollain.
But I also liked The Dangerous Method, Margin Call, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Midnight in Paris, Jane Eyre, La Piel que Habito and some other films that I don't remember. I'm not sure about Melancholia, it wouldn't be so good without Wagner's music

[x359594]

The Godard one is a 2010 film.

Not released in North America until 2011, but very likely released in the UK in 2010.

[Agent Ducky]

I watched part of Tree of Life.... is there a point to that movie? Because it was some of the trippiest shit I've seen. And maybe I'm just not deep enough to understand it because honestly what I watched played like a beautifully-shot Discovery Channel documentary about the creation of the world with the narration off.... with some weird dramatic stuff at the beginning...... ? I heard the screenplay was really amazing but that movie.. I don't understand at all.

[x359594]

definitely Faust by Alexander Sokurov and Tambien la lluvia (Even the rain) by Iciar Bollain...

I've heard good things about these two but I haven't seen them yet.

[Sputnik_1]

I quite liked Fincher's "The girl with a dragon tattoo".

[Elsa]

I've heard good things about these two but I haven't seen them yet.

Faust is a glorious film but very depressing (much more than Melancholia) and not so easy to watch (I wouldn't recommend watching it not in the cinema), also it helps if you know Goethe's Faust
Even the Rain on the other hand is captivating, anticapitalist and has another great role of Gael Garcia Bernal ;)

[Agathor]

I hear Film Socialisme is pretentious crap.

[X5N]

I've only seen two films from last year, Hanna and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Hanna is my favorite. It was an action film with a female main character who was not sexualized at all. Though I'm not sure if it was for any reason other than the girl who played Hanna was sixteen or seventeen at the time of filming. But I suppose they could have gotten an older actor and sexualized her character if they wanted.

[x359594]

I hear Film Socialisme is pretentious crap.

Jean-Luc Godard is probably the world's greatest living director. Certainly he's the greatest living leftist director, and Film Socialisme is an extraordinary movie from an 80 year old filmmaker; in fact, it would be extraordinary from a 20 year old director (even more so.)

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Jean-Luc Godard is probably the world's greatest living director. Certainly he's the greatest living leftist director, and Film Socialisme is an extraordinary movie from an 80 year old filmmaker; in fact, it would be extraordinary from a 20 year old director (even more so.)

You know, I always felt that I was 'supposed' to like Godard yet... dunno, that bit in Week End with the ten minute traffic jam pissed me the hell off (even if the rest of the film was good) and I've never really liked him that much ever since. *shrug*

[Zukunftsmusik]

3. A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg

What? I mean, it did not suck at all, probably it was worth the money for the ticket, but... no. 3? It's green screen all the way, Mortensen was overdoing Freud, and Knightley did what she does best - being annoying. apart from that - it was okay.



5. Hugo, Martin Scosese

What film is this?



6. Drive, [LEFT]Nicolas Winding Refn

So wanna see this!



8. Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen

This was even better than A Dangerous Method, in my opinion.

And where's The Secret World of Arietty?!

[Philosopher Jay]

Thanks for reminding me of the traffic jam sequence in Godard's "Weekend." It is, I think, one of the great scenes in cinema history. It is a wonderful metaphor for the frustrations of modern bourgeois existence.

[x359594]

What? I mean, it [A Dangerous Method] did not suck at all, probably it was worth the money for the ticket, but... no. 3?

I wasn't ranking my choices, just putting them down as they came to me.

[x359594]

Thanks for reminding me of the traffic jam sequence in Godard's "Weekend." It is, I think, one of the great scenes in cinema history. It is a wonderful metaphor for the frustrations of modern bourgeois existence.

That is its intent, and it's a virtuoso piece of film making.

[Zukunftsmusik]

I wasn't ranking my choices, just putting them down as they came to me.

ah, well in that case

[the last donut of the night]

"a midnight in paris" fucking sucked, i never got why the american media wen't wild for it

[RedSonRising]

Haven't seen many of the ones lifted, but as a fan of the originals, I very much enjoyed Planet of the Apes.

[NineOneFour]

Really want to see "Drive". Still haven't seen it.

Really liked "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". Highly recommend it and made me heartsick for Europe at the same time.

[LeftyDave118]

I just realized I have not seen many movies from 2011, but Hobo with a Shot Gun was a fun watch and Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was pretty good as well. There are some others out there that I want to see but haven't gotten around to yet like Melnocholia and Red State.

[Pirate Utopian]

I didnt care for Red State. It was a real mess.

[Philosopher Jay]

I finally got to see Film Socialisme on netflix.
It is more or less a non-narrative film and I found it hard to read. It takes place mainly aboard a cruise ship. Was the cruise ship supposed to be a metaphor for postmodern capitalism?
There are some amusing discussions in scenes with characters who seem to come and go pretty much at random. Lots of the images and the sharp montage editing was striking.
In the later part of the movie, there is some interesting mixing of the Odessa footage from Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin"
If Godard had a specific point, it escaped me. Still, it was much more interesting and fun to watch than 95% of Hollywood movies.

[Philosopher Jay]

I just saw "Red State." Yes it was a mess. It is too bad because it had some very good things in it. [Spoiler alert - don't continue if you don't want to know about important surprises in the film.]

I think the first 2/3rds of the movie is very effective when it shows right wing Christian religious fanatics as really scarey psychopaths. In the last 1/3, Kevin Smith seems to want to introduce some kind of balance, so he shows the government agents as being almost as ruthless and psychotic as the Christian Paramilitary cult. While the psychosis of the paramilitary religious group seems quite realistic and well drawn, the decision of the government agents to massacre both the innocent and guilty in the Church's compound seems forced and an alien element to the story. It was as if Smith wanted to be able to say, I am not just beating up on right-wing religious nuts, but I'm against the abuses of the Waco-Guantanamo Bay U.S. government too. This sudden switch of targets tends to undercut the story and undercuts some excellent acting by Michael Parks as the cult leader and Kerry Bishe as a girl desperate to escape from the cult.

Political points should flow from the logic of the story, as it does in the first 2/3rds of the film. Smith has hurt his film by making the story follow his balanced political points in the last 1/3rd.

[The Stalinator]

The Skin I Live In was unarguably the best film I've ever seen.

Melancholia was good too, though I found the first half of it rather slow.

[x359594]

Although I saw it last week Hugo was released in 2011. Finally a good 3-D movie from Hollywood (there were a few good ones form the 1953-54 era) and one of the best movies of 2011. Cinephiles will love it.

[Lyev]

You know, I always felt that I was 'supposed' to like Godard yet... dunno, that bit in Week End with the ten minute traffic jam pissed me the hell off (even if the rest of the film was good) and I've never really liked him that much ever since. *shrug*This scene is actually 7 minutes, if I'm pedantic. And it is actually meant to "piss you the hell off". Much of the rest of the film is along similar themes using similar techniques so it seems strange how you enjoyed the rest but were infuriated by this scene only.

Film Socialisme came out in about mid-2011 in cinemas in the UK, and was released around autumn on DVD in the UK. I did see it, but probably wouldn't rank as one of my "best" of last year of what I saw. A few films that haven't been mentioned which i liked:
"Poetry" by Lee-Chang Dong, a quiet South Korean film which almost brought me to tears
"We Need to Talk About Kevin", Lynn Ramsay and
"Shame", Steve McQueen (starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan who have both been pretty busy recently)

Two Iranian films, neither of which I saw, but wish I had because everyone seemed to be raving about them:
"This is Not a Film" by Jafar Panahi who is still in jail I think
"A Separation", Asghar Farhadi

[Lyev]

I finally got to see Film Socialisme on netflix.
It is more or less a non-narrative film and I found it hard to read. It takes place mainly aboard a cruise ship. Was the cruise ship supposed to be a metaphor for postmodern capitalism?
There are some amusing discussions in scenes with characters who seem to come and go pretty much at random. Lots of the images and the sharp montage editing was striking.
In the later part of the movie, there is some interesting mixing of the Odessa footage from Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin"
If Godard had a specific point, it escaped me. Still, it was much more interesting and fun to watch than 95% of Hollywood movies.The film is saturated with references to literature, philosophy, history and cinema. In the title credits right at the start there are names like "M. Heidegger", "J.P. Sartre" and "Plato" which I think is kind of funny. This is something I really like actually; Godard still is capable of making his audience laugh. There are his distinctive puns, like when some of the film's characters are discussing 'auteurism' on the cruise ship, it is rendered in the "Navajo" subtitles as 'Or-tourisme'.
I would say this film is something like a discursive "visual essay", but like all of Godard's films, Film Socialisme persistently evade any kind of easy definition or analysis. I do not think that the cruise ship is "meant" to be symbolic of postmodern capitalism. This is from an interview I was reading:
Q: When I saw the llama in your film, I said to myself: that llama is Jean-Luc!

GODARD: Not at all — that llama lived on the side of a garage; I saw him everyday, and I said to myself: we're going to use him. There was a donkey too.In others words, I don't think a lot of it has a definite, directed or wholly intentional "meaning" which we are meant to take in a two-dimensional fashion. The way my film teacher described it, and he is a big fan of JLG too (he said himself he didn't what the hell the Film Socialisme was "about") is that Godard is basically like an eccentric grandfather, so people don't really take him wholly serious perhaps, but he is a rule unto to himself because he does whatever he likes. I think people still respect and revere him. Plus this is possibly the last film he'll make before he passes away.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

This scene is actually 7 minutes, if I'm pedantic. And it is actually meant to "piss you the hell off". Much of the rest of the film is along similar themes using similar techniques so it seems strange how you enjoyed the rest but were infuriated by this scene only.

I know it was meant to piss me off. And it did that successfully. And I didn't like it. The rest of the film may have followed similar techniques but, in my opinion, it wasn't so mind-numbingly boring (or at least it's the scene I remember clearest). I always found Godard to be fantastic to analyse and apply theory to but I can never really say I particularly enjoyed much of his work... although having just written that I remembered Two or Three Things I Know About Her which is fantastic. Call me inconsistent; my opinions vary from film to film, scene to scene. *shrug*

[Fennec]

I liked "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (primarily because of Oldman and Firth, who I really admire, particularly the latter). TV series is doubtlessly far better but it is also much longer and thus more detailed so I wouldn't compare the two.

Interesting fact I observed: Bill Haydon's codename is the "Tailor" which is also how the Okhrana called Roman Malinovsky, their mole inside the Party.