2006 (Maybe final list)

2006
1. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
2. Miami Vice (Michael Mann)
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee)
4. Time (Kim Ki-duk)
5. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)
6. The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
7. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)
8. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
9. Renaissance (Christian Volckman)
10. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)

2006

2006
1. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
2. Miami Vice (Michael Mann)
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee)
4. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)
5. The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
6. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)
7. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
8. Renaissance (Christian Volckman)
9. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
10. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)

2005 + 2000

Redux:

2005
1. The New World (Terrence Malick)
2. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Zhang Yimou)
4. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
5. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
6. Match Point (Woody Allen)
7. March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet)
8. Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)
9. Cache (Michael Haneke)
10. L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre/Luc Dardenne)

2000
1. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
3. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
4. Vertical Ray of the Sun (Anh Hung Tran)
5. Platform (Jia Zhang Ke)
6. You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan)
7. Yi yi (Edward Yang)
8. Suzhou River (Lou Ye)
9. Quills (Philip Kaufman)
10. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)

2006: Friday

2000

2000
1. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
3. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
4. Vertical Ray of the Sun (Anh Hung Tran)
5. Platform (Jia Zhang Ke)
6. You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan)
7. Yi yi (Edward Yang)
8. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
9. Quills (Philip Kaufman)
10. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)

2006: Friday

2002

2002
1. Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes)
2. Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
3. Hero (Zhang Yimou)
4. Lilya 4-ever (Lukas Moodysson)
5. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. The Pianist (Roman Polanski)
7. Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov)
8. Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhang Ke)
9. Friday Night (Claire Denis)
10. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)

Don't wait up for 00 and 06. Might be an eternity

2001

2001
1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg)
2. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
3. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
4. Millenium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuarón)
6. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Shinichirô Watanabe)
7. In the Bedroom (Todd Field)
8. Beijing Bicycle (Wang Xiaoshuai)
9. Sex and Lucia (Julio Medem)
10. Nowhere in Africa (Caroline Link)

Next: 2000, 2002, 2006 (Next week)

2003

2003
1. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
2. Mystic River (Clint Eastwood)
3. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Kim Ki-duk)
4. Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
5. All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green)
6. Last Life in the Universe (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang)
7. Jeux d'enfants (Yann Samuell)
8. Thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke)
9. Purple Butterfly (Lou Ye)
10. Cafe Lumiere (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

2004

2004
1. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
2. Paranoia Agent (Satoshi Kon)
3. Collateral (Michael Mann)
4. The World (Jia Zhang Ke)
5. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
6. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson)
7. 3-Iron (Kim Ki-duk)
8. Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki)
9. Clean (Olivier Assayas)
10. Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)

Tomorrow: 2003 and maybe 2001

Top 10 Series

I have made new, and improved top 10s of 2000-2006. Unfortunately, 2006 is still under construction, so I shall start at 2005. (2002 will not be decided until the next week or two)

2005
1. The New World (Terrence Malick)
2. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Zhang Yimou)
4. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
5. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
6. Match Point (Woody Allen)
7. March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet)
8. Do You Like Hitchcock? (Dario Argento)
9. Cache (Michael Haneke)
10. L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre/Luc Dardenne)

Tomorrow: 2003

Watched Koyaanisqatsi three times

Except for that completely irregular 5 second scene with the row of fat ladies in orange suits, you'd have pretty much a near flawless movie.

This one:

Favorite Films

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
3. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
4. Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
5. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004)
6. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
7. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
8. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
9. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
10. Cinema Paradiso [full version] (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
12. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
13. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
14. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
15. La Dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
16. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
17. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
18. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
19. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
20. Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)
21. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
22. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
23. Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
24. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
25. Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982)
26. Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954)
27. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
28. Paranoia Agent [series] (Satoshi Kon, 2004)
29. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006)
30. Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)
31. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
32. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
33. Ugetsu monotagari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
34. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
35. Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
36. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
37. Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
38. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991)
39. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
40. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)
41. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
42. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
43. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman, 1988)
44. Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989)
45. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
46. 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
47. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
48. Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939)
49. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
50. The Insider (Michael Mann, 1999)
51. The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992)
52. Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
53. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
54. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005)
55. Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)
56. Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
57. Solyaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
58. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
59. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
60. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
61. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
62. Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
63. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
64. Late Spring "Banshun" (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)
65. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)

Things on my mind:

1. There's exactly 2 months left in this semester.

2. I want out of this school.

3. Wait for my top list in a week.

4. I want to.... experience.

5. I want.... a life changing moment.

Sad.....

Why does Chow love Miss Wang so much?

Whoever knows the answer to that question has figured out life's mystery of love.

Lux Lisbon

Sounds like a name for a famous restaurant or hotel. Who names their kids Lux?


















But oh... how "I wish I were a woman of 36 dressed in a black satin dress and a string of pearls"

And again....

Sept 13

I still have only seen 10 films this whole year! Yeah, I'm slacking... but I should pick it up this week. Update of what I'm anticipating:

1. My Blueberry Nights

Comfortably holding its ridiculously large margin. Its subject breathes youthful pop culture vibes and a strong sense of longing and freedom. Also by far, the most interesting cast and crew of any film this year. Although it may not be the workings of a masterpiece, it has a far more appealing subject matter than most generic studio pictures this year (which appear even more generic, with the long list of terrorist/political/war films coming out, than in previous years). Also, films like Eastern Promises seems too blatantly reliant on its typical "personal auteur style" to come out as really groundbreaking material.

2. Lust, Caution

The trailer was not spectacular, but one of the better trailers of the year. Despite the possibility of seeing an unfocused and bloated epic, this film's appearance suggests a strong sense of sexuality, elegance, and nostalgia. Tony Leung/Ang Lee could potentially be the strongest and most talked about duo this entire year and Tang Wei elicits strong newcomer star status and audience curiosities.

3. Summer Palace

Don't know too much about this film. My anticipation is strictly from its appealing subject matter. Also, I love my romances, especially idealized romances backdropped by time and youth, such as the premise of its college setting.

4. The Darjeeling Limited

The trailer is ho-hum and the actors are too redundantly used in Wes's previous pictures. Yet, this could very well be one of the most entertaining and brilliantly witty films of the year.

5. The Kingdom

Exciting trailer, has Mann influence + potential to be greatly entertaining. This Saturday, hopefully

6. Interview

Has the appearance of intimacy and bond, and Sienna Miller looks pretty good in it. Scheduled to see it next Wednesday.

7. I'm Not There

While still not drawn by its subject matter, the overall hype and its artistic allure is hard to avoid. In addition, I grossly admire Todd Haynes.

8. La Voyage du Ballon Rouge

Gradually losing anticipation. I'm predicting a cute a piece of foreign fluff, a film that Hou is just looking to "make" rather than "explore." In any case, it can't top his previous efforts this decade, as it seems Hou is taking a lighter approach to filmmaking.

9. The Age of Tattoo

Until I get more information about its subject material, my anticipation remains solid, but not strong. Assuming the title is consistent with the film, it seems like an exotic exploration of a bygone time period. Usually fascinating material.

10. Cassandra's Dream

Will be a typical Allen, but.... I can't say no to a Woody Allen film, especially having even seen Scoop in theaters.

I need a clever title

Having covered every year except pre-1930, these are the six films that Irini, Vicky, and I agree are the Best Motion Pictures of their respected years.



Rebecca (1940)























Casablanca (1942)



































The Third Man (1949)
























Rear Window (1954)





















Vertigo (1958)


























Annie Hall (1977)





















If you disagree with any of the above choices, chances are you're probably wrong.

2007: The films that matter

Irini's top 11?? most anticipated
1. my blueberry nights
1. sleuth
3. funny games
4. cassandra's dream
5. lars and the real girl
6. sweeney todd
7. i'm not there
8. lust, caution
9. silk
10. mister lonely
11. the darjeeling limited

Mine
1. my blueberry nights
2. lust, caution
3. summer palace
4. the darjeeling limited
5. la voyage du ballon rouge
6. i'm not there
7. the age of tattoo
8. cassandra's dream

And if I like you enough, I might add your list on here

Top 10 Films About Urban Alienation

Being that my current mood starves for this theme... and the fact that it reflects my own feelings at this current moment:




1. L'Avventura

















- About the confusion and misguided lives of a group of elite upper class individuals weary of their life of materialism and easy-living. Monica Vitti's expression tell all.




2. La Dolce Vita




















- About a newspaper reporter directionless about his place in life. He roams the Rome nightlife in consistent pursuit of pleasure, meanwhile pushing away his future, his life, and all the world's knowledge around him. The last scenes are a moment of "self-discovery" for him.




3. 2046

















- WKW's fairy-tale ode of unrequited love and romance idealizes the textbook common man. In his writings, marked by deep personal feelings reflecting his own life, he remarks about the stories of past romances and unrequited love affairs. And yet.... his life is an escapable conundrum of loneliness and search for love and peace, one of which he never finds.




4. Miami Vice






















5. Heat


















6. 8 1/2








































7. Lost in Translation

8. Millenium Mambo



















9. The World

10. In the Mood For Love

Give me someone to argue with

I'm tired of the lack of excitement of anything online