Braden A's Top Ten for 2006
2006 has been a very important year for me, both personally and in terms of the films I have seen. Losing my job, my mom being diagnosed with cancer, a wonderful vacation in New York City in the summer, and other events have made it a very important and memorable year for me, and I think that there are many films with which I have associated memories of these events.
At any other time, perhaps these films would not have been as eye-opening or as meaningful to me. I know that I have films from my childhood that I still love and am greatly entertained by, even if just for their nostalgic value.and perhaps that is what will happen with some of these films. Maybe they aren't really outstanding films on their own, but coupled with the memories I have attached to them, they will forever stand out to me.
So, these are the top ten films I saw for the first time this year. While it is not going to be a chronological list, I think it would be best to start with one that I saw fairly early in the year, because it left me longing to explore an entire genre of filmmaking.
Le Samourai - This is one that I recently reviewed for Genrebusters, and has quickly become one of my favorites. I saw it in the early Spring, and at first I actually wasn't sure what to think about it. I wasn't prepared for the use of silence, and it was much more visually vibrant than anything I could have expected. It's one of the few times I have ever watched a movie a second time, right when the credits finished rolling the first time.
It's a delightful throwback to film noir and American gangster pictures, with a great French flavor.
Blood and Black Lace - Next on the list is Mario Bava's 1964 giallo, Blood and Black Lace. This is another film that owes a lot of its greatness to its style - the vibrant colours, picturesque cinematography and interesting locations. One thing with the giallo genre is that often the acting is pretty sub-par - a lot of this came from the fact that, because the films are so visual, the directors would often hire actors and actresses that really looked the part, and sometimes this meant that they were flown in from other countries. That is why you will notice in these films that EVERYONE is dubbed.the actors and actresses would say their lines in their native language, and then be dubbed into any language for its release.
North by Northwest - Now, while I love every film I have seen by Alfred Hitchcock, I have not seen nearly enough to say I am any kind of authority on his career. Just this year I became addicted to Cary Grant films, which were more often than not light romantic comedies from the '30s and '40s. Seeing North By Northwest was a great surprise, and I enjoyed it immensely.
The great set pieces, Grant's boyish charm and Hitchcock's indisputable ability to film pure tension all made it an incredibly exciting viewing experience. This is my favorite Hitchcock film to date, and it is what really made me think that Hitchcock should have made a James Bond film.
The Fountain - Up next is the most recent release on my list, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. You may wonder why, out of all of the incredible imagery in 1500 AD Spain, or in the beautiful sequences in space, did I pick this simple shot of Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz sitting on a roof with a telescope? Because, purely and simply, this movie is about two people - two people so desperately in love, that when one of them contracts a fatal illness, it brings the other to the brink of madness and his soul to the edges of eternity to try and save her.
This movie was emotionally devastating, absolutely gorgeous, and spoke to me in ways few (if any) films have ever done before. It made me question my own beliefs about life, death and the idea of eternity, and I have been talking about it with others ever since. Hugh Jackman deserves an Oscar, and even though he will never get it, I think I'll just make myself happy and pretend he did.
The Descent - Another more recent entry on my list is Neil Marshall's 2005 horror film. Equal parts monster film, gore flick and psychological horror, The Descent achieves what few films of the genre do: it's actually scary.really scary. And with a budget of just 7 million dollars, it firmly establishes that less really can be more.
The film's creatures are among some of the most frightening and disturbing in concept of recent memory, and while there are the inevitable instances of characters making less-than-logical choices, for the most part it's smartly written and executed very well.
Few films have scared me away from trying to do anything or go anywhere, but I can now safely say that any part of me that was ever interested in exploring a cave is now completely dead.
The Bride with White Hair - While previously I had a passing interest in kung fu cinema, it's only this year that I began really looking at the genre and seeing how much it has to offer. This all began with Chang Cheh's wonderfully over-the-top The Kid With the Golden Arm, but where I really felt that I had found a jewel was with Ronny Yu's 1993 film The Bride With White Hair.
Starring the stunning Brigitte Lin in the title role, alongside Leslie Cheung as the man she falls in love with, it is one of the most romantic films I have ever seen. While the action is spectacular, it is more about the love story, and it presents a truly heartbreaking, Shakespearean romantic tragedy.
The Proposition - One genre I didn't require an introduction to was the western - I've been in love with them since childhood, and aside from the occasional gem, the genre seems to be dead, lost in another era. Although I still felt this way after seeing John Hillcoat's gritty western The Proposition, at least I got a temporary feeling of giddiness and nostalgia. One thing many people have wrong about westerns is that they are not lighthearted tales of good-looking, finely groomed cowboys riding into the sunset with the girl. Even in the days of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper, any western fan could tell you that the truly great ones showed the Wild West as a cruel, vicious place where only a strong gun and a quick hand could keep you alive.
This film changes the setting from the American West to the Australian Outback, and elements such as "The Rider's Song" - which is whispered in the background periodically throughout the film - bring about images from Stephen King's epic series The Dark Tower.
It's a brutally violent film, but also a very gritty and ultimately saddening look at morals and the responsibilities held by those given badges and guns to protect our well-being. It is also the story of the loyalty held by brothers, and how much one brother really owes another when he represents everything that is evil and wrong with the world.
Written by Nick Cave (who also wrote and performed much of the film's music), it's a dark film and not for the lighthearted. But it's rewarding, and one of the most beautiful films to come around in a long while.
Yakuza Graveyard - This is one of Kinji Fukasaku's now legendary Yakuza films. Released in 1976, it is the story of Kuroiwa (played by Yakuza film veteran Tetsuya Watari). He is a cop who plays by his own rules, usually resorting to shooting suspects instead of chasing them, or beating the crap out of them instead of interrogating them. Throughout the film, he begins to realize that perhaps he picked the wrong profession - should be maybe be working for the Yakuza?
The really cool thing about Fukasaku's Yakuza films is that he does not have any illusions about the Yakuza life being fun, free or honorable. Through watching any of his films relating to this subject matter, it is clear to see that he thinks they are dishonorable scum - hence the title of his 5-part opus, Battles Without Honor or Humanity (also known as The Yakuza Papers).
Watari plays a frightening policeman, and an even more frightening mobster. It's a really great gangster film, and on par with anything Martin Scorsese has done about American crime.
Lady Snowblood - This is the very definition of a female badass. Starring the stunningly beautiful Meiko Kaji, as Yuki Kashima (or as she would come to be known, Lady Snowblood), she is a woman whose very birth was for revenge. Long ago her family was slaughtered by criminals and only her mother left alive. The mother is sent to prison, where she becomes obsessed with conceiving a child which can spend its life seeking revenge.
This film had a huge influence on Quentin Tarantino (and he even outright stole many of the plot elements and even some shots from it), but it's much better than anything he's ever done. It combines ultra-violent action and enormous arterial sprays with a saddening story and tragic main character to create an all-out great film. It's a fun and emotionally involving ride.
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The Body Snatcher - The final entry on my list is also earliest film to be released. It's none other than Robert Wise's 1945 shocker The Body Snatcher, starring Boris Karloff in one of his creepiest roles as the titular character - a man hired by a medical professor to perform grave robberies so that he may use the bodies in his demonstrations and experiments. However, when there's a shortage of bodies, Karloff must come up with a way to continue providing the product.
Robert Wise is one of the true masters of horror - and this was firmly established in 1963 with The Haunting, one of the scariest films ever made. This film (made nearly 20 years earlier) works as a horror film, as a moral examination, and as a mood piece. The final sequence on a buggy during a stormy night is, as a friend of mine once said, "the stuff of nightmares."
So concludes my list of the 10 best films I saw this year. It took a lot of effort to avoid including Superman Returns on here, but alas I decided it didn't quite make it (and no, that's not sarcasm.I really did love it).
I hope that these cinematic ramblings have been at least mildly entertaining, and maybe you'll be inspired to rent one of these treasures, and let me know what you think of it when you do.
