Alfred Hitchcock

Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

Marnie (1964) - ****

The Birds (1963) - **½+

Psycho (1960) - ****

North by Northwest (1959) - ***

Vertigo (1958) - **½+

The Wrong Man (1956) - ***½

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) - ***

To Catch a Thief (1955) - **½

Rear Window (1954) - ****

Dial M for Murder (1954) - *½

Strangers on a Train (1951) - ****

Stage Fright (1950) - **

Rope (1948) - ****

Notorious (1946) - ****

Spellbound (1945) - **½

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - ***+

Suspicion (1941) - **½

Rebecca (1940) - **½+

Sabotage (1936) - ***

The 39 Steps (1935) - ****

A + indicates that I feel a repeat viewing could increase the overall rating.

Wolf Creek (Greg McLean, 2005) ***

One of the more noteworthy horror films of the decade. It expands on typical slasher movie conventions, taking the cat-and-mouse conceit and giving the antagonist a vast, foreboding environment to roam around in. The setting is the Australian outback and our antagonist, a smart, unrelenting psychopath, is at one with the environment around him. He's portrayed in a way where he clearly belongs—certain shots like him looking into his sniper scope in the distance, or the final shot where his silhouette disappears into the bright yellow desert sunset are further evidence—whereas our protagonists do not. McLean frequently and effectively uses their disadvantage as a springboard for generating tension. In that regard, the film has an exploitation/grindhouse edge to it, but Wolf Creek never goes too over-the-top and never uses violence when not mandatory to the film's narrative flow.

To further establish a gravely, rough tone that's also shared by other grindhouse films, Wolf Creek makes clear from the very beginning that the potential enormity of nature is a major focus. Will Gibson's elaborate digital photography evokes the roughness of the film's narrow highway or dirt-covered terrain. Landscapes are also rendered in a deep focus that gives the sky and the ground the appearance of shooting out into infinity. Wolf Creek examines that infinity in a violent, menacing horror film context.

Jean-Luc Godard

Notre musique (2004) - ***
In Praise of Love (2001) - ***
JLG/JLG - Self-Portrait in December (1994) - ***½
Hail Mary (1985) - **
First Name: Carmen (1983) - ***
Slow Motion (1980) - ***½
Here and Elsewhere (1976) - ***
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1972) - **½
Tout va bien (1972) - **½
Sympathy for the Devil (1968) - ***
Week End (1967) - ****
Masculin Féminin (1966) - ****
Pierrot le fou (1965) - ****
Alphaville (1965) - ***
Une femme mariée (1964) - ***
Band of Outsiders (1964) - ****
Contempt (1963) - ****
Les carabiniers (1963) - **½
Le petit soldat (1963) - ***
Vivre sa vie (1962) - ***½
A Woman Is a Woman (1961) - ***
A History of Water (1961) - **½
Breathless (1960) - ***½

Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel, 2008) ***

Because it was so carefully and significantly divided into two parts, I was reminded of the approach that Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul took to his films Tropical Malady (2004) and Syndromes and a Century (2006) while watching Frontier of Dawn. The film juxtaposes the moody, youthful characteristics of French New Wave cinema and couples them with a modern Paris dreamily filmed by the late William Lubtchansky. Garrel uses two sections to tell the story of the two relationships François (Louis Garrel) has with both Carole (Laura Smet) and Ève (Clémentine Poidatz). Carole is an alcoholic actress who meets François one day during a photo-shoot and the two begin a relationship. Unbeknownst to François, Carole is already married. When François attempts to distance himself from Carole, she goes mad, is put into a mental institution and eventually commits suicide after learning François was seeing someone else.

A title card effectively transports us a year later to the second section of the film where François and that someone else, Ève, are beginning a family and making plans for their future. However, Carole begins to haunt François by appearing in his mirror, and she won't leave him alone. Frontier of Dawn essentially becomes a powerful ghost story about lost love. Carole's appearances in the latter section of the movie are presented in a way that made Laura Smet look like she just walked off the set of a Mario Bava movie, but they are rendered in a way that is appropriately haunting and even chilling. The first half of the movie is adequate build-up, but the second half of the movie is when it really begins to shine as François questions the power of a memory over a promising tomorrow.

2004

1. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)

2. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

3. L'Intrus (Claire Denis)

4. Keane (Lodge Kerrigan)

5. The Bridesmaid (Claude Chabrol)

6. Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)

7. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson)

8. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel)

9. Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)

10. Notre musique (Jean-Luc Godard)

Honorable mentions: The Aviator (Martin Scorsese), Calvaire [The Ordeal] (Fabrice Du Welz) and Collateral (Michael Mann)

2005

1. Caché (Michael Haneke)

2. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black)

3. Who's Camus Anyway? (Mitsuo Yanagimachi)

4. The Descent (Neil Marshall)

5. Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch)

6. The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach)

7. Manderlay (Lars von Trier)

8. Brick (Rian Johnson)

9. The Weather Man (Gore Verbinski)

10. The Funky Forest: First Contact (Katsuhito Ishi)

2006

1. Inland Empire (David Lynch)

2. Miami Vice (Michael Mann)

3. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

4. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)

5. Retribution (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

6. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)

7. Exiled (Johnnie To)

8. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)

9. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (Dito Montiel)

10. This Is England (Shane Meadows)

Honorable mentions: Art School Confidential (Terry Zwigoff), The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma), Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck), Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood), Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola), and A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)

2007

1. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
2. La France (Serge Bozon)
3. No Country For Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
4. Zodiac (David Fincher)
5. [REC] (Juame Balagueró and Paco Plaza)

6. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)

7. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)

8. Mister Lonely (Harmony Korine)

9. Import Export (Ulrich Seidl)

10. Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas)

Honorable mentions: 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo), The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson), The Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien), A Girl Cut in Two (Claude Chabrol), In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín), The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon), Knocked Up (Judd Apatow), Light Is Waiting (Michael Robinson), Mad Detective (Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai), Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong) and Victory Over the Sun (Michael Robinson)

2008

1. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

2. Martyrs (Pascal Laugier)

3. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis)

4. Two Lovers (James Gray)

5. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)

6. Hunger (Steve McQueen)

7. In Bruges (Martin McDonagh)

8. Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green)

9. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)

10. Burn After Reading (Joel and Ethan Coen)

Honorable mentions: Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel), Help Me Eros (Lee Keng-sheng), Man on Wire (James Marsh), Somers Town (Shane Meadows), Vinyan (Fabrice du Welz), and Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)

2009

1. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)

2. Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)

3. Antichrist (Lars von Trier)

4. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)

5. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

6. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)

7. Up (Pete Docter)

8. The Hangover (Todd Phillips)

9. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog)

10. Public Enemies (Michael Mann)