Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Fewer films this year thanks to house moving.  85 only (!) but maybe the dross was absent as I have decided not to award a lemon of the year award for this year.

 

A good range of movies but perhaps we don’t get access yet to the best possible range of top films – distribution is an issue!  We saw a film from Senegal, one from South Africa, a few Asian films and one from Australia.  But, nothing from the Middle East or Scandinavia.  This year we have had the invasion from Romania, which has been very welcome but what other national cinemas are not getting exposure?  Lots of coproductions.  The US leads the pack with France, Argentina and the UK up there as usual.

 

Leading the nominations are: 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days (7), The Lives of Others (6), Pan´s Labyrinth (5), Babel (5) and The Death of Mr Lazarescu (4)

 

So, comments on films that didn’t make the cut:

 

The World’s Fastest Indian – Good to see a Kiwi film.  I liked the spirit and Anthony Hopkin’s performance, although some people hated his accent.

 

The Holiday – Lots of US romance movies but this one had a bit more on the others.  Great cast – Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet. Jude Law, Jack Black … you felt warm all the way through.

 

A Prairie Home Companion – Robert Altman´s last and one of my favourite directors from the start.  This was a goodie with Garrison Kellor and a singing Meryl Streep being a highlight.  The endpiece of a great director of choral pieces.

 

By the way, the deaths of Ulrich Muhe and Ion Fiscuteanu, among the lead actors in films this year were a real loss.

 

Cote d’Azur – this totally light French piece was notable for the luminous Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi

 

Los tiempos cambian – Deneuve and Depardieu can’t save this weak number by Techiné, though it was good to see Tangiers today.

 

Letters from Iwo Jima – a hard one this.  It has all the right ingredients but it just feels too heavy.

 

Thank you for Smoking – a great performance by Aaron Eckhart,

 

Time – Kim Ki-duk’s latest is intriguing but won’t go down in the annals as a great.

 

Anche libero va bene – a really good debut by Kim Rossi Stuart from Italy that made you feel uncomfortable and soft at the same time.

 

Una novia errante – Argentine film that irritated me most of all this year’s releases.

 

12.08 East of Bucharest – one of the Romanian gang.  Political and insightful but while you get some laughs I’d rather wait for the follow up.

 

Scoop – Woody Allen – it irritated me at first, saw it again and decided that despite the lightness of it, the craft is present.

 

Perfume – grand literary novel that tries to replace smells with colours.  For me it didn’t quite work.

 

The Good Shepherd – a bit like the Eastwood, this has great elements but just drags.

 

Shortbus – I enjoyed this with its risque topics and dialogues.  But it doesn’t quite rise up to award status for John Cameron Mitchell.

 

La meglio gioventú – Italian epic that spans 4 decades and is loaded with quality.

 

There were many other films with good features but this will do for now.