2013 World Poll – Part 2

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LUCAS HAMMER

TIMID SCIENTIST BY DAY, FILMMAKER EXTRAORDINAIRE BY NIGHT.

The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous, 2012)
Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt, 2013)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
On The Road (Walter Salles, 2012)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
Escape from Tomorrow (Randy Moore, 2013) 

Worst Films of 2013

The Wolverine (James Mangold, 2013)
Kick-ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow, 2013)
Trance (Danny Boyle, 2013)
Evil Dead (Fede Alvarez, 2013)
Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, 2013)
Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie, 2012)

Retrospective Mention

La Notte (The Night, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961. Criterion Collection Blu-Ray released 2013)

For me, 2013 was a monumental year for cinema. I saw the single greatest special-effect generated scene ever created in Cuarón’s Gravity and arguably the most transcendental film ever made, The Act of Killing. In 2013, the existential crisis of modernity was ever-so present and beautifully presented in two films: Salles’s On The Road and Korine’s Spring Breakers. I was one of the few lucky individuals to get the chance to see Randy Moore’s Escape from Tomorrow (Ebertfest, 2013) before it was believed to have a snowball’s chance in hell at seeing a wide release due to Disney’s typically tight grip, but luckily for the filmmakers, it seems the film will see the light of distribution. For 2013 performances, I immensely enjoyed Matthew McConaughey’s performance in Dallas Buyers’ Club (Jean Marc Vallée, 2013). He conveyed his character’s aggressive drive, angst, and sleaziness in the most convincing performance of the year. Additionally, Miles Teller’s performance in The Spectacular Now was so natural and believable that it also warrants a mention.

Returning to my favourite film of the year, The Act of Killing – words cannot describe how thought-provoking I found this film to be. It will go down as one of the most impactful and important films ever made. I would compare it to Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988) but that only affected a single man’s outcome. I believe that The Act of Killing will bring about change and awareness for thousands. If this were a normal cut and dry documentary, it would have never had such an impact, but the way the film progresses creates layers upon layers of humanistic perplexities, showcasing the complexities of the evil acts normal beings commit. Indonesia will never be the same and nor will I.

The Act of Killing

LEE HILL

LONDON-BASED WRITER. AUTHOR OF A GRAND GUY: THE ART AND LIFE OF TERRY SOUTHERN AND A BFI BOOK ON EASY RIDER. 

Bests (in no particular order)

Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
To the Wonder (Terrence Malick, 2012)
Après mai (Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas, 2012)
La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
Le Weekend (Roger Michell, 2013)
Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener, 2013)
Suzanne (Katell Quillévéré, 2013)
Gare du Nord (Claire Simon, 2013)
Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013)
All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)
The Counselor (Ridley Scott, 2013)
Where Are We Now? (Tony Oursler, 2013) (music video)
Love Is Lost (David Bowie, 2013) (music video)

Honourable mentions (in no particular order)
The Last Impresario (Gracie Otto, 2013)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 2013)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies (Wiktor Ericsson, 2013)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)

Reissues

Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973), The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961) and kiss-the-ground accolades to Criterion and Masters of Cinema for their ongoing programs.

Less than meets the eyes and other senses 

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)
Stoker (Chan-wook Park, 2013)
World War Z (Marc Forster, 2013)
The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann, 2013)
The Look of Love (Michael Winterbottom, 2013)

Blue Jasmine

WAI HO

FILM CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER, CHINA.

1. Peleh Akhar (The Last Step, Ali Mosaffa, 2012)
2. Môj pes Killer (My Dog Killer, Mira Fornay, 2013)
3. E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
4. XL (Marteinn Þórsson, 2013)
5. Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
6. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
7. Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
8. Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi & Kamboziya Partovi, 2013)
9. L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
10. Styd (Shame, Yusup Razykov, 2013)

ALEXANDER HORWATH

DIRECTOR OF THE AUSTRIAN FILMMUSEUM, VIENNA. 

1. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
   La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
2. At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, 2013)
   Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
   Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
3. Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
   L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
4. Un Château en Italie (A Castle in Italy, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, 2013)
   L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
   Je m’appelle hmmm… (Agnès B., 2013)
   Jimmy P. (Psychothérapie d’un Indien des Plaines) (Jimmy P., Arnaud Desplechin, 2013)
   Mouton (Marianne Pistone and Gilles Deroo, 2013)
   Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
   Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
5. Återträffen (The Reunion, Anna Odell, 2013)
   E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
   I Used to Be Darker (Matthew Porterfield, 2013)

(criterion: world-premiered in 2013.)

PETER HOURIGAN

LEADS FILM DISCUSSION GROUPS AT THE CENTRE FOR ADULT EDUCATION, MELBOURNE. 

Out of the past:

Lettre à la prison (Letter to Prison, Marc Scialom, 1969-70)
This film quickly disappeared on original release, not helped by Chris Marker’s rejection of it as not political enough. My standout title from Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato. 

Shah-re ziba (Beautiful City, Asghar Farhadi, 2004)
Now appearing in retrospectives, it shows that his 2011 Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (A Separation) was no accident.

Thanks to Shakespeare:

Richard II (Rupert Goold, 2012) Part of a BBC series, The Hollow Crown.
This featured the greatest performance I saw in 2013, with Ben Whishaw as Richard11.

Much Ado About Nothing (Josh Whedon, 2012)
Perhaps conceived almost as a home-movie with friends, this joyously captures the humour and humanity of Shakespeare.

Some films that gained a commercial release:

Vous n’avez encore rein vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Alain Resnais, 2012)
Saddled with a clumsy English title Resnais shows he can still make intellectually witty films. 

V tumane (In the Fog, Sergei Loznitsa, 2012)
World War II and its often morally impossible problems still resonate in Russia. 

Blancianieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)
The tale of Snow White and the styles of silent cinema are employed way beyond pastiche and the self-congratulatory humourlessness of The Artist (Michael Hazanavicius, 2011). 

Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
Breaking apart conventions of documentary, fiction and essay films, this was an original, thought provoking film exploring family, storytelling, emotions and lots more.

Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
Such a compassionate look at one of life’s most difficult and unavoidable periods.

From the Melbourne International Film Festival:

Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi & Kambuzia Partovi, 2013)
Even when working under the most constrained conditions, Panahi and Partovi produce a masterpiece of insight and intellect and humour. 

Workers (José Luis Valle, 2013)
A sardonic look at worker and how they are treated with a mordant humour that most pleasurably took me by surprise. 

What is This Film Called Love? (Mark Cousins, 2012)
It might be a piece of indulgence – on the parts of both Cousins and myself, but this whimsical recording of a few days’ in a foreign city caught my spirit at the time of seeing it.

Blancianieves

CERISE HOWARD

FREELANCE WRITER AND BROADCASTER, PEREGRINE FILM CRITIC AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE CZECH AND SLOVAK FILM FESTIVAL OF AUSTRALIA. 

10 best new films seen in, or shortly to be seen in, general release in Melbourne, in a wobbly order of merit and with a few glaring omissions

1. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)
The most extraordinary, densely ethically complex film I’ve seen for many a long year and amongst the least comfortable viewing experiences I’ve ever endured, I wish it was drawing a much longer bow in implicating the cinema in the barbaric massacring of countless innocents in Indonesia in the ’60s. Scarcely less bitter a pill to swallow is The Act of Killing‘s application of the cinematic apparatus as a rehabilitative, redemptive tool for certain frighteningly charismatic, film-mad perpetrators of just these very atrocities. An astonishing accomplishment, which I may yet never bring myself to watch again.

American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
No (Pablo Larraín, 2012)
The Rocket (Kim Mordaunt, 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 2013)
Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012)
Barbara (Christian Petzold, 2012)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)

Best new films seen at the 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival

Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
Tore tanzt (Nothing Bad Can Happen, Katrin Gebbe, 2013)
Jîn (Reha Erdem, 2013)
Grzeli nateli dgeebi (In Bloom, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß, 2013)
The Capsule (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2013)
Camille Claudel 1915 (Bruno Dumont, 2013)
Oh Boy! (Jan Ole Gerster, 2012)
Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2013)
All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013) 

Best new films seen at festivals elsewhere in 2013 

Hořící keř (Burning Bush, Agnieszka Holland, 2013)
Pandy (Pandas, Matúš Vizár, 2013)
The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013)
Môj pes Killer (My Dog Killer, Mira Fornay, 2013)
Heli (Amat Escalante, 2013)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, 2013)
Truba (Pipeline, Vitaly Mansky, 2013)
Miele (Honey, Valeria Golino, 2013)
Barring some poor CGI – something so great a natural world image-smith as Jodorowsky surely has no need for recourse to – La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013)
The first nine-tenths of Vechnoe vozvraschenie (Eternal Homecoming, Kira Muratova, 2013)

Surprise block-bluster-y good times

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Peter Jackson, 2013)
Viewed in 3D at 24fps. Notwithstanding that the film wasn’t shot to be viewed under the conditions I viewed it under, and that there can’t help but be compromise involved in a film being shot in any one format when it’s later to be delivered to audiences across multiple others, each imposing inexorable variations upon the virtues and failings of the original, I still enjoyed The Desolation of Smaug in 3D at 24fps immensely – all the more as I really hadn’t expected to, so aghast was I at the hypertrophied Blu-Ray shop demo ambience produced by the delivery of the first Hobbit instalment in 48fps 3D. Why, there are even wry tips of the hat in this to Jackson’s very first film, that no-budget splatter wonder, Bad Taste (1987), amidst one particularly brilliantly choreographed – and very funny – prolonged sequence of top notch mayhem. I’m now even looking forward to part three… 

Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 2012)
No, really. Overstretching and cloyingly new-age-y, I nonetheless still found much to admire in this singular epic, which sees remarkable drag acts across gender, race, space and time perpetrated many times over by a clutch of famed but often barely recognisable stars, making for some startling reveals in the closing credits. 

Greatest film-going sense of occasion

No contest: catching Murnau’s Sunrise (1927) from sundown, with live symphony orchestral accompaniment, on the Odessa steps during the 4^th OIFF. 

A little blowing of one’s own trumpet 

I remain inordinately proud to have been integral in bringing to Melbourne screens, amongst some other fine offerings, a handful of masterpieces on gorgeous 35mm by the great, but nowadays vastly under-celebrated Czech animator Jiří Trnka, at the inaugural Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia. Wonderful things, I fancy, lie in store for a 2^nd edition of the festival in 2014, which will doubtless consume much of my energy – and unavoidably again put a bit of a crimp in my non-Czech and Slovak film viewing – every bit as much as it did this year, but ultimately to hopefully even better, and still even better received, effect.

Greatest retrospectives

“Uptown Girl: The Cinema of Shirley Clarke” at ACMI – Clarke’s cinema was a long overdue discovery of the greatest revelatory import! 

Courtesy of the Melbourne Cinémathèque: “Moving Through Time and Space: The Films of Chantal Akerman”; Dekalog (The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1989) – seldom can three successive Wednesday nights have been better spent!, and “Troubled Heroes and Volatile Landscapes: The Cinema of Anthony Mann”, to name but three highlights.

“Shining Violence: Italian Giallo” at the Melbourne International Film Festival – not just for the joy of catching stalwart faves on 35mm on the big screen, like Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso (Deep Red, 1975) and Tenebrae (1982, and even if shorn of those famous few seconds of spectacular parabolic fake blood action painting), and Lucio Fulci’s Non si sevizia un paperino (Don’t Torture a Duckling, 1972), but for the glorious psychedelic revelation that was Elio Petri’s Un tranquillo posto di campagna (A Quiet Place in the Country, 1968). If only there could have been a few more titles fleshing out the program!

Sergei Paradjanov retrospective in Odessa – not for the joy of accessing rare archival prints, as the projections were surely all digital, but especially for viewing Tini zabutykh predkiv (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, 1964) out of doors in the land of its creation, complemented by a worthy new biopic (Paradjanov, Serge Avedikian and Olena Fetisova, 2013) and a fascinating exhibition of Paradjanov’s collage work. 

In Karlovy Vary – a fabulous retro miscellany including Všichni dobří rodáci (All My Compatriots, Vojtěch Jasný, 1968 – a gorgeous digital restoration of a key Czechoslovak New Wave film, upstaged only by the irrepressible Jasný himself); Kým sa skončí táto noc (Before Tonight is Over, Peter Solan, 1965, another excellent restoration of an under-travelled New Wave film); Pytel blech (A Bag of Fleas, Věra Chytilová, 1962); Cesta do pravěku (Journey to the Beginning of Time, Karel Zeman, 1955); Příchozí z temnot (The Arrival from the Darkness, Jan Stanislav Kolár, 1921, with a witty original score performed by Andrea Rottin), and The Ring (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927, with live piano accompaniment from Neil Brand). 

The Rocket

BRIAN HU

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE SAN DIEGO ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL.

25 favourites, seen in Southern California or on the festival circuit.

1. Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013)
2. Du zhan (Drug War, Johnnie To, 2012)
3. Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2013)
4. Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
5. Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
6. Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013)
7. Norte, hagganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 20130
8. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
9. Le Passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
10. Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 2013)
11. Yokomichi Yonosuke (A Story of Yonosuke, Shûichi Okita, 2013)
12. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
13. How to Disappear Completely (Raya Martin, 2013)
14. Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi, 2013)
15. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
16. Ba ma bu zai jia (Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen, 2013)
17. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013)
18. Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
19. Yumen (J. P. Sniadecki, Huang Xiang & Xu Ruatao, 2013)
20. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
21. Big Boy, (Shireen Seno, 2011)
22. E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
23. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
24. Borgman (Alex van Warmerdam, 2013)
25. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)

CHRISTOPH HUBER

FILM CRITIC FOR DIE PRESSE, VIENNA.

22(+2) twinkling twists

Pain & Gain (Michael Bay, 2013)
L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps (The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2013)
Steekspel (Tricked, Paul Verhoeven, 2012)
Notes On Film 6-B. Monologue 02: A Masque of Madness (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2013)
La danza de realidad (The Dance of Reality, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013) & Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)
Muisteja – pieni elokuva 50-luvun Oulusta (Remembrance – A Small Movie About Oulu in the 1950s, Peter von Bagh, 2013)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
מי מפחד מהזאב הרע (Big Bad Wolves, Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, 2013)
Man tam (Blind Detective, Johnnie To, 2013)
Passages… (2. Version) (Harry Tomicek, 2001/12)
Holmes & Watson. Madrid Days (José Luis Garci, 2012)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Tatort: Aus der Tiefe der Zeit (Dominik Graf, 2013)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Educação sentimental (Sentimental Education, Júlio Bressane, 2013)
Kiss of the Damned (Xan Cassavetes, 2012) & Return to Nuke ‘Em High (Lloyd Kaufman, 2013)
Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
Kein großes Ding (Klaus Lemke, 2013)
Hawaii 5-0 3.20 Olelo Pa’a (Joe Dante, 2013)
Gold (Thomas Arslan, 2013)
Deklica in Drevo (A Girl and a Tree, Vlado Škafar, 2013) 

And a dirty dozen of special shorts

O is for Orgasm (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2012) & Dario Argento (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2013)
Film muto (Silent Film, Jean-Marie Straub, 2013)
The Capsule (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2012) & 24 Frames per Century (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2013)
X is for XXL (Xavier Gens, 2012)
Dreh & Trink (Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, 2013)
Der Zug ein Leben (Harry Tomicek, 1999/2012)
Manhã de Santo António (The Morning of San Anthony, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2012)
H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion (Thomas Cappelen Malling, 2012)
Vive l’amour (Monte Hellmann, 2013)
Ein neues Produkt (A New Product, Harun Farocki, 2012)
Verbrechen und Strafe: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 12. Teil (Alexander Kluge, 2013)
F is for Fart (Iguchi Noburo, 2012) 

The treasure trove 

6 serious series

Alexander Zwo (Franz Peter Wirth, 1972) & Tatort: Tote brauchen keine Wohnung (Wolfgang Staudte, 1973) & Derrick 1.3 Stiftungsfest (Helmut Käutner, 1974) & Der Alte: Der Alte schlägt zweimal zu (José Giovanni, 1977) & Derrick 4.7 Mord im TEE 91 (Zbyněk Brynych, 1977) & Der Alte: Sportpalastwalzer (Zbyněk Brynych, 1980)

Winged Victory (George Cukor, 1944) & Edward, My Son (George Cukor, 1949) & A Life of Her Own (George Cukor, 1950) & Wild Is the Wind (George Cukor, 1957) & Love Among the Ruins (George Cukor, 1975) 

El Fantasma del convento (The Phantom of the Convent, Fernando de Fuentes, 1934) & El hombre sin rosto (The Man Without a Face, Juan Bustillo Oro, 1950) & El espejo de la bruja (The Witch’s Mirror, Chano Urueta, 1962) & La tía Alejandra (Aunt Alejandra, Arturo Ripstein, 1979) & Veneno para las hadas (Poison for the Fairies, Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1984) 

The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977) & Scream for Help (Michael Winner, 1984) & Death Wish 3 (Michael Winner, 1985) & Dirty Weekend (Michael Winner, 1993) & Parting Shots (Michael Winner, 1998)

Les cauchemars naissent la nuit (Nightmares Come at Night, Jess Franco, 1970) & X312 – Flug zur Hölle (X312: Flight to Hell, Jess Franco, 1971) & Downtown – Die nackten Puppen der Unterwelt (Jess Franco, 1975) & Die Marquise von Sade (Das Bildnis der Doriana Gray, Jess Franco, 1976) & Faceless (Les predateurs de la nuit, Jess Franco, 1987) & Paula-Paula (Jess Franco, 2010)

22 delectable doubles

Pour le Mérite (Karl Ritter, 1938) & The Blue Max (John Guillermin, 1966)
When a Stranger Calls (Fred Walton, 1979) & When a Stranger Calls Back (Fred Walton, 1993)
The Black Room (Roy William Neill, 1935) & La morte rouge (Victor Erice, 2006)
Käpt’n Rauhbein aus St.Pauli (Nurses for Sale, Rolf Olsen, 1971) & Reise ins Jenseits – Die Welt des Übernatürlichen (Journey to the Beyond, Rolf Olsen, 1975)
Le soldatesse (Women at War, Valerio Zurlini, 1965) & Seduto alla sua destra (Black Jesus, Valerio Zurlini, 1968)
Seven Footprints to Satan (Benjamin Christensen, 1929) & The Brotherhood of Satan (Bernard McEveety, 1971)
The Hellstrom Chronicles (Walon Greed, Ed Spiegel, 1971) & Bug (Jeannot Swarcz, 1975)
Man’s Calling (Allan Dwan, 1912) & Fifteen Maiden Lane (Allan Dwan, 1936)
Cheolgil Ueseo (On The Railway, Kim Song Gyo, 1960?) & Wolmido (Wolmi Island, Cho Gyong-sun, 1982)
Fantasmi a Roma (Ghosts of Rome, Antonio Pietrangeli, 1961) & La visita (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1963)
Happy Birthday To Me (J. Lee Thompson, 1981) & American Gothic (John Hough, 1988)
Mother Revised (Luther Price, 1988/2002) & Clown Revised (Luther Price, 1992-4/2003)
Stunts (Mark L. Lester, 1977) & The Funhouse (Tobe Hooper, 1981)
Nosferato in Brazil (Ivan Cardoso, 1970) & O Universo de Mojica Marins (Ivan Cardoso, 1978)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982) & Chopping Mall (Jim Wynorski, 1986)
Beatrice Cenci (Riccardo Freda, 1956) & Murder Obsession (Follia omicida, Riccardo Freda, 1981)
Tom Turk and Daffy (Chuck Jones, 1944) & Crows’ Feat (Robert McKimson, 1962)
Nek se čuje I naš glas (Let Our Voices Be Heard Too, Krsto Papić, 1968) & Izbavitelj (The Rat Saviour, Krsto Papić, 1976)
Slesar’i kancler (Locksmith and Chancelor, Vladimir Gardin, 1923) & Poslednij attraktion (The Last Attraction, Ol’ga Preobraženskaja, Ivan Pravov, 1930)
Central Airport (William A. Wellman, 1933) & Darby’s Rangers (William A. Wellman, 1958)
I Saw What You Did (William Castle, 1965) & I Saw What You Did (Fred Walton, 1988)
L’oro di Napoli (The Gold of Naples, Vittorio De Sica, 1954) [original 6-episode version] & Teen Kanya (Three Daughters, Satyajit Ray, 1961) [original 3-episode version]

30 singular sights
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (Henry King, 1952)
Údolí včel (Valley of the Bees, Frantisek Vlácil, 1967)
La notte dei diavoli (Night of the Devils, Giorgio Ferroni, 1972)
I Was Monty’s Double (John Guillermin, 1958)
Zwei Windhunde (Douglas Sirk, 1934)
Three Comrades (Frank Borzage, 1938)
Sakasu goningumi (Five Men From the Circus, Naruse Mikio, 1935)
The World Ten Times Over (Wolf Rilla, 1963)
Rio Conchos (Gordon Douglas, 1964)
Perrak (Alfred Vohrer, 1970)
Massacre at Central High (Rene Daalder, 1976)
Lucía (Humberto Solas, 1968)
Der Rosenkavalier (Paul Czinner, 1962)
Crime Does Not Pay No.19: Think It Over (Jacques Tourneur, 1938)
Polizeibericht – Überfall (Ernö Metzner, 1928)
Flight to Mars (Lesley Selander, 1951)
Yozhik v tumane (Hedgehog in the Fog) (Yuri Norstein, 1977)
The Chairman (J. Lee Thompson, 1969)
Bílá nemoc (Skeleton on Horseback, Hugo Haas, 1937)
Das Spinnennetz (Spider’s Web, Bernhard Wicki, 1989)
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ted Kotcheff, 1974)
A Cold Night’s Death (Jerrold Freedman, 1973)
Warning Sign (Hal Barwood, 1985)
Apfelernte (Helga Fanderl, 1994)
Manuela (Gonzalo García Pelayo, 1976)
Viy (Konstantin Ershov and Georgi Kropachyov, 1967)
The Entity (Sidney J. Furie, 1982)
L’occhio dietro la parete (Eyes Behind the Wall, Giuliano Petrelli, 1977)
Gratinirani mozak Pupilije Ferkeverk (The Gratinated Brain of Pupilija Ferkeverk, Karpo Ačimović-Godina, 1970)
-30- (Jack Webb, 1959) 

The Missing Picture

DAVID HUDSON

FILM CRITIC AT FANDOR/KEYFRAME.

1. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
2. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)
3. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
4. Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
5. The Unspeakable Act (Dan Sallitt, 2012)
6. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
7. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
8. Vic + Flo ont vu un ours (Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, Denis Côté, 2013)
9. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
10. Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, 2013)

DARREN HUGHES

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR AND FREELANCE WRITER IN KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.

Best Theatrical Releases of 2013 

Les Salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013)
Viola (Matías Piñeiro, 2012)
San zimei (Three Sisters, Wang Bing, 2012)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2012)
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
This is Martin Bonner (Chad Hartigan, 2013)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
Du zhan (Drug War, Johnnie To, 2012)

Best As-Yet-Unreleased Films of 2013

Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Oktober November (October November, Götz Spielmann, 2013)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013)
Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi & Kambuzia Partovi, 2013)
L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Los insólitos peces gato (The Amazing Catfish, Claudia Sainte-Luce, 2013)

TARA JUDAH

MELBOURNE-BASED FILM WRITER AND CO-HOST OF RRR PODCAST, PLATO’S CAVE.

Australian theatrical release 

1. The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, 2011)
2. Jagten (The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)
3. Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
4. L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
5. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
6. Après mai (Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas, 2012)
7. L’enfant d’en haut (Sister, Ursula Meier, 2012)
8. După dealuri (Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mungiu, 2012)
9. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
10. V tumane (In The Fog, Sergei Loznitsa, 2012) 

International film festival premieres

1. Tore tanzt (Nothing Bad Can Happen, Katrin Gebbe, 2013)
2. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
3. L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
4. Le Passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
5. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013)
6. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012)
7. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
8. După dealuri (Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mungiu, 2012)
9. Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, 2012)
10. La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur, Roman Polanski, 2013) 

Repertory films

1. Clown #1 (Luther Price, 2001), 16mm film print in a gallery bar annexed to the Oberhausen train station, midnight screening, Kurzfilmtage 2013
2. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975), 35mm film print at the Melbourne Cinémathèque
3. Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 1967), 35mm film print, Uptown Girl: The Cinema of Shirley Clarke, Australian Centre for the Moving Image
4. Un tranquillo posto di campagna (A Quiet Place in the Country, Elio Petri, 1968), 35mm film print, Shining Violence: Italian Giallo, Melbourne International Film Festival
5. Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974) Melbourne Cinémathèque
6. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jacques Demy, 1964), 2K DCP restoration, 66^th Festival de Cannes
7. Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon, Yasujiro Ozu, 1962), 2K DCP restoration, 66th Festival de Cannes
8. The Wicker Man – The Final Cut (Robin Hardy, 1973), 2K DCP restoration, The Astor Theatre
9. La ragazza dal pigiama giallo (The Pyjama Girl Case, 1977)
10. Ruka (The Hand, Jiří Trnka, 1965) 35mm film print, joint presentation from Melbourne Cinémathèque and Czech and Slovak Film Festival

The Loneliest Planet

DOMINIK KAMALZADEH

FILM CRITIC AND JOURNALIST, VIENNA.

Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2013)
I Used to be Darker (Matthew Porterfield, 2013)
Quai d’orsay (Bertrand Tavernier, 2013)
Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Vaters Garten – Die Liebe meiner Eltern (Father’s Garden: The Love of My Parents, Peter Liechti, 2013)

Five firsts to remember

To agori troei to fagito tou pouliou (Boy Eating Bird’s Food, Ektoras Lygizos, 2012)
The Dirties (Matt Johnson, 2013)
Äta sova dö (Eat Sleep Die, Gabriela Pichler, 2012)
Mouton (Sheep, Gilles Deroo & Marianne Pistone, 2012)
Soldate Jeannette (Soldier Jane, Daniel Hoesl, 2013)

DANIEL KASMAN

EDITOR OF MUBI, NEW YORK.

Old old

Many by Allan Dwan (highlights include: The Thief’s Wife [1912], Stage Struck [1925], 15 Maiden Lane [1936], The Inside Story [1948], Woman They Almost Lynched [1953], The River’s Edge [1957])
[Als anthropologe im kriegsgefangenenlager feldbach bei graz] (Rudolf Pöch, 1915)
Betty Boop for President (Dave Fleischer, 1932)
Laughter in Hell (Edward L. Cahn, 1933)
Only Yesterday (John M. Stahl, 1933)
Green Fields (Jacob Ben-Ami & Edgar G. Ulmer, 1937)
Sans lendemain (Max Ophüls, 1939)
Rassenkundliche untersuchungen am gefangenen franzosen und belgiern im kriegsgefangenenlager kaisersteinbruch (niederdonau) (1940)
Hitler Lives (Don Siegel, 1945)
The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)
The Chapman Report (George Cukor, 1962)
Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
9 x Alberto Tambellini (Black Is [1966], Black Trip [1966], Black Trip 2 [1967], Blackout [1966], Moonblack [1969], Black Plus X [1966], Black TV [1968], Sun Black [1966-68], Black ‘67 [1967])
The Big Mouth (Jerry Lewis, 1967)
Korotkie vstrechi (Brief Encounters, Kira Muratova, 1967)
Hatsukoi: Jigoku-hen (Nanami: The Inferno of First Love, Susumu Hani, 1968)
N:O:T:H:I:N:G (Paul Sharits, 1968)
T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (Paul Sharits, 1969)
A Casing Shelved (Michael Snow, 1970)
Side Seat Paintings Slides Sound Film (Michael Snow, 1970)
Which Way to the Front? (Jerry Lewis, 1970)
Dolgie provody (Long Farewells, Kira Muratova, 1971)
Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes, 1971)
Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper (David Rimmer, 1972)
Emperor of the North (Robert Aldrich, 1973)
Primary Stimulus (Robert Russett, 1977/1980)
Poznavaya belyy svet (Getting to Know the Big Wide World, Kira Muratova, 1979)
Deep Hearts (Robert Gardner, 1981)
Rich and Famous (George Cukor, 1981)
Klassenverhältnisse (Class Relations, Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1984)
Mémoire des apparences (Life is a Dream, Raúl Ruiz, 1987)
13 x Dominik Graf (Die Katze [1988], Spieler [1990], Die Sieger [1994], Denk ich an Deutschland – Das Wispern im Berg der Ding [1997], Der Felsen [2002], München – Geheimnisse einer Stadt [2000], Die Freunde der Freunde [2002], Hotte im Paradies [2003], Kalter Frühling [2004]), Polizeiruf 110: Der scharlachrote Engel [2005], Eine Stadt wird erpresst [2006], Das Gelübde [2007], Deutschland 09 – Der Weg, den wir nicht zusammen gehen [2007], Das unsichtbare Mädchen [2011])
Films and videos by Jean-Luc Godard (highlights include: Hélas pour moi [Woe Is Me, 1993] Nouvelle Vague [1990], Deux fois cinquante ans de cinéma français [2 x 50 Years of French Cinema, 1995], Adieu au TNS [1998] Liberté et patrie [with Anne-Marie Miéville, 2002], Vrai faux passeport [2006])
Honeymoon (Dan Sallitt, 1998)
Aberration of Light: Dark Chamber Disclosure (Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder, 2011)
Endeavour (Johann Lurf, 2010)

Old new

The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)
Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012)
Le cousin Jules (Cousin Jules, Dominique Benicheti, 1973)
Faust (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2011)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
La noche de enfrente (Night Across the Street, Raúl Ruiz, 2012)
Passion (Brian De Palma, 2012)
Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette, 1981)
San zimei (Three Sisters, Wang Bing, 2012)
Student (Darezhan Omirbaev, 2012)
The Unspeakable Act (Dan Sallitt, 2012)
Viola (Matías Piñeiro, 2012)
Vous n’avez encore rien vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Alain Resnais, 2012)

New new

Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
By Pain of Rhyme and Arabesque of Foraging (David Gatten, 2013)
Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
Un Conte de Michel de Montaigne (Jean-Marie Straub, 2013)
Cut (Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, 2013)
La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013)
Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehnsucht (Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision, Edgar Reitz, 2013)
Du zhan (Drug War, Johnnie To, 2012)
E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
La fille de nulle part (The Girl from Nowhere, Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2012)
L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Pahn, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus (Ken Jacobs, 2013)
Konstellationen (Constellations, Helga Fanderl, 2012)
Lawinen der Erinnerung (Dominik Graf, 2012)
Lunar Almanac (Malena Szlam, 2013)
Man tam (Blind Detective, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai, 2013)
Mes séances de lutte (Love Battles, Jacques Doillon, 2013)
Mount Song (Shambhavi Kaul, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
Pain & Gain (Michael Bay, 2013)
The Quiet Car (Ernie Gehr, 2013)
Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
Les Salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013)Screen Tone (Richard Tuohy, 2012)
The Starry Messenger (Marika Borgeson, 2013)
Sweet Exorcist (Pedro Costa, 2012)
Tessitura Calda (Paolo Gioli, 2013)
Trissákia 3 (Nick Collins, 2012)
Les Trois Désastres (The Three Disasters, Jean-Luc Godard, 2013)
Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded – Wang Bing (Wang Bing, 2013)
Volvo Trucks – The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Live Test 6) (Andreas Nilsson, 2013)
Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2012)

What Now? Remind Me

CHRISTOPHER KEARNEY

INDEPENDENT SCREENWRITER, TV PRODUCTION AND ENGLISH TEACHER AT GEORGE M. STEINBRENNER HIGH SCHOOL, LUTZ, FLORIDA. 

12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
Renoir (Gilles Bourdos, 2012)
The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)
The Attack (Ziad Doueiri, 2012)
Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, 2012)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Lore (Cate Shortland, 2012)
Found (Scott Schirmer, 2012)

Honourable Mentions

All is Lost (J.C.Chandor, 2013)
Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012)
Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperwaite, 2013)
The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola, 2013)
La vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, 2013)
The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013)
Disconnect (Henry Alex Rubin, 2012)
The East (Zal Batmanglij, 2013)
Europa Report (Sebastiàn Cordero, 2012)
Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener, 2013)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler, 2013)
Kapringen (A Hijacking, Tobias Lindholm, 2012)
Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon, 2012)
Mud (Jeff Nichols, 2012)
Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, 2012)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Out of the Furnace (Scott Cooper, 2013)
Philomena (Stephen Frears, 2013)
Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton, 2013)
Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh, 2013)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
The Way Way Back (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, 2013)
The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013)

EHSAN KHOSHBAKHT

ARCHITECT WHO WRITES ABOUT JAZZ AND FILM. HIS NEW BOOK, PUBLISHED IN IRAN, IS CELLULOID ARCHITECTURE.

1-2

Massacre & film obsession:

Sanye Haye Sorbi (Seconds of Lead, Seyed Reza Razavi, 2012)
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)

3-4

Just/unjust:

Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
Omar (Hany Abu-Assad, 2013)

5-6

Comedies about cinema:

Marcel Ophuls et Jean-Luc Godard, La rencontre de St-Gervais (Frédéric Choffat, Vincent Lowy, 2011)
My Name is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns (Kamran Heidari, 2012)

7-8

Ars gratia artis:

André Masson et les quatre éléments (Jean Grémillon 1958) [revived in Edinburgh International Film Festival]
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas, 2000) [revived in London’s BFI Southbank, as a part of Mekas retrospective]

9-10

Fishing/studying:

At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, 2013)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012)

11-12

City symphonies (on the fringe of the city):

Oh Boy (Jan Ole Gerster, 2012)
Sacro GRA (Gianfranco Rosi, 2013)

13-14

Clean cut filmmaking:

La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
La Vie d’Adèle – chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)

The Last of the Unjust

DYLAN KIEWEL

FILM STUDENT.

The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)
A new age East of Eden from Derek Cianfrance, balancing masterful camerawork and a densely layered story with career performances from nearly every component of the ensemble cast.

Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012)
While many have called La Vie d’Adèle the best love story of the year, this story of a romance that breaks down over the course of the title character’s stormy gender transition quite easily takes the cake for me. The passion and fury seen in the two lead actors Melvil Poupaud and Suzanne Clément also win over Adèle‘s duo though by a thinner margin.

Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)
While the other frequent Gosling collaborator pales in comparison to Cianfrance in how he uses the actor, Refn packs this tale of revenge with nightmarish and existential visuals both eye catching and emotionally sickening. If more people went into this for its primal shock value and not to hear good dialogue there would be a lot less disappointment. 

Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
A spiral down quite a dark rabbit hole with a performance from Hugh Jackman echoing Sean Penn in Mystic River and Jake Gyllenhaal in a predicament similar to Zodiac. 

Renoir (Gilles Bourdos, 2012)
An appropriately languorous pace and imagery both vibrant and hazy captures in the painter’s style the master painter himself.

La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Best female on female of the year. Acting I mean. 

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
Best original character of the year though that can’t surprise anyone coming from Noah Baumbach.

Philomena (Stephen Frears, 2013)
A spot-on combo of low-key comedy and dark, compelling subject matter. Another great acting pair in Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.

Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
Linklater finishes his trilogy with a result that feels much like a relationship study as observed by the late Eric Rohmer.

Reality (Matteo Garrone, 2012)
A thinly veiled fantasy tale à la Fellini with a dazzling outro shot.

Honorable Mention:

Simon Killer (Antonio Campos, 2012)
Obviously flawed but still there are traces of the portrait of a breakdown seen in Afterschool and a hypnotic music score.

+1 (Dennis Iliadis, 2013)
Bland acting and bad writing aside the film by the end feels like a nightmare that’s impossible to look away from through the accomplished delivery of its concept and imagery that disturbs like a Bacon painting.

NELSON KIM

NEW YORK-BASED WRITER, FILMMAKER AND TEACHER.

My favourite cinematic experience of the year was probably the final season (#5) of Breaking Bad. In particular, Episode 14 (“Ozymandias”), directed by Rian Johnson, was the most thrilling hour of television I’ve ever seen.

Favourite feature films, in roughly descending order:

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener, 2013)
Al Midan (The Square, Jehane Noujaim, 2013)
Sun Don’t Shine (Amy Seimetz, 2012)
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013)
Après mai (Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas, 2012)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)

If 2013 wasn’t the greatest year for world cinema, at least in my limited viewing, it was an exceptionally strong year for low-budget American independent filmmaking, my specialised field as a practitioner and critic. Along with the Baumbach and Seimetz films listed above, I was dazzled and delighted by Newlyweeds (Shaka King, 2013), Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2013), Mother of George (Andrew Dosunmu, 2013), Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013), and Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013), to name only my top favourites.

Stories We Tell

CARLOTTA KLIEMANN

WRITES FILM REVIEWS AND ESSAYS ON FILM FOR PSICOLOGIA CONTEMPORANEA. TEACHES COURSES ON ITALIAN CINEMA, WOMEN & CINEMA AND CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL CINEMA.

La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)

A virtuoso camerawork and editing amplifies the story of a socialite, his flânerie, his sentimental regrets and frustrated ambitions. But as in La Dolce Vita, at centre stage is the mesmerising beauty of the eternal city clashing with human ugliness and modernity. Showing little of Pasolinian “grace” for his characters, Sorrentino dissects with wry humour contemporary Roman and Italian society, devastated by two decades of Berlusconi era but responsible just the same for their own demise. A visually stunning picture imbued with powerful melancholia.

La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)

A first love which is also a lesbian love, narrated through illuminating shots, time lapses and the uneven balance between important and irrelevant moments in the protagonist’s life, as is the style of the filmmaker. What makes the film a long-lasting experience for the viewer is the riveting performance of the two actresses. A tranche de vie which seems to turn fiction into reality and vice versa. A film that the debate on the titillation of male viewers does not hinder, and one of the best depictions of amour fou.

Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, 2012)

A hymn to female youth and self-determination with the pace of a pre-adolescent. Deceptively simple, Wadjda illustrates the oppression and limitations women in certain Arab countries are subjected to, but shows how those strict rules are to some degree self-inflicted. The film is a pessimistic take on the state of gender relations and the stifling role played by religion and tradition, against which even love subsides, but its inspiring ending provides a glimmer of hope for future generations.

Jagten (The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)

Powerful in its capacity to strike alternatively the key of ambiguity and plausibility, the film unravels through two parallel lines: one condenses contemporary phobia re: pedophilia, the other brings about the primal fear of the “other” as the potential transgressor of society’s rules. When these two lines accidentally intersect, a community expels its foreign body. The power of words and that of the unsaid: a pervasive modern tragedy.

RAINER KNEPPERGES

FILMMAKER, COLOGNE, GERMANY.

My 51 favourite films seen in 2013 for the first time. In chronological order: my momentary mini-history of film. 

Film de famille Grenffulle – Alphonse XIII à Bois-Boudran (1913)
Ingeborg Holm (Victor Sjöström, 1913)
Children of Eve (John H. Collins, 1915)
Ménilmontant (Dimitri Kirsanoff, 1926)
Brudeferden i Hardanger (Bridal Party in Hardanger, Rasmus Breistein, 1926)
East Side, West Side (Allan Dwan, 1927)
The Ring (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)
Dynamite (Cecil B. DeMille, 1929)
Indiscreet (Leo McCarey, 1931)
To the Last Man (Henry Hathaway, 1933)
Les Misérables (Raymond Bernard, 1934)
The Murder Man (Tim Whelan, 1935)
They Won’t Forget (Mervyn LeRoy, 1937)
Alexander’s Ragtime Band (Henry King, 1938)
Brigham Young (Henry Hathaway, 1940)
Mikaheri no tô (Introspection Tower, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
Holy Matrimony (John M. Stahl, 1943)
I bambini ci guardano (The Children are Watching Us, Vittorio De Sica, 1944)
Champagne Charlie (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1944)
Home in Indiana (Henry Hathaway, 1944)
I’ll Be Seeing You (William Dieterle, 1944)
La parta del cielo (Vittorio De Sica, 1945)
The Rocking Horse Winner (Anthony Pelissier, 1949)
Prince of Foxes (Henry King, 1949)
The Sound of Fury (Cy Endfield, 1950)
Gone to Earth (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1950)
Fourteen Hours (Henry Hathaway, 1951)
Here’s a Health to the Barley Mow (Peter Kennedy, 1952)
Little Fugitive (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel & Ruth Orkin, 1953)
Oss Oss Wee Oss (Alan Lomax, 1953)
Prince Valiant (Henry Hathaway, 1954)
Texas Lady (Tim Whelan, 1955)
Autumn Leaves (Robert Aldrich, 1956)
Fort Dobbs (Gordon Douglas, 1958)
Les Dragueurs (The Chasers, Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1959)
Seven Thieves (Henry Hathaway, 1960)
Denn das Weib ist schwach (Wolfgang Glück, 1961)
Two Rode Together (John Ford, 1961)
Gypsy (Mervyn LeRoy, 1962)
Life at the Top (Ted Kotcheff, 1965)
Bonanza: Clarissa (Lewis Allen, 1967)
Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971)
Blutiger Freitag (Bloody Friday, Rolf Olsen, 1972)
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ted Kotcheff, 1974)
The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979)
Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988)
Nordstadt (Michael Kupczyk, 2005)
Lucky Louie (Andrew D. Weyman, 2006)
Mamma Mia! (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008)
Collapse (Chris Smith, 2009)
Super (James Gunn, 2010)

My 2013 top 15

Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, 2013)
The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013)
Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener, 2013)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Just 45 Minutes From Broadway (Henry Jaglom, 2012)
Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012)
Lutz (Oliver Held, 2013)
Oz the Great and Powerful (Sam Raimi, 2013)
Sexmonster! (Jörg Buttgereit & Thilo Gosejohann, 2013)
Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)
The Starry Messenger (Bedwyr Williams, 2013)
This Is 40 (Judd Apatow, 2012)
This Is the End (Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen, 2013)
We’re the Millers (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2013)
Ein Wochenende in Deutschland (A Weekend in Germany, Jan Soldat, 2012)

This is the End

JAY KUEHNER

CONTRIBUTES REGULARLY TO CINEMA SCOPE AND FANDOR, AND TEACHES CONSTRUCTIVE FILM CRITICISM AT THE NORTHWEST FILM FORUM IN SEATTLE.

Such a vast list serves as its own commentary. In 2013, let each film go where it may.

Costa da Morte (Coast of Death, Lois Patiño, 2013)
A Mãe e o Mar (The Mother and the Sea, Gonçalo Tocha, 2013)
Leviathan (Lucian Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)
După dealuri (Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mingiu, 2012)
E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
O Corpo de Afonso (The King’s Body, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2013)
Los Posibles (Santiago Mitre and Juan Onorfi Barbato, 2013)
Los ilusos (The Wishful Thinkers, Jonás Trueba, 2013)
Mouton (Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone, 2012)
Loubia Hamra (Bloody Beans, Narimane Mari, 2013)
Soshite chichi no naru (Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2013)
Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013)
Pine Ridge (Anna Eborn, 2013)
Stop the Pounding Heart (Roberto Minervini, 2013)
Mille Soleils (A Thousand Suns, Mati Diop, 2013)
The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013)
La última película (Raya Martin and Mark Peranson, 2013)
Història de la meva mort (The Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater (Gabe Klinger, 2013)
Stemple Pass (James Benning, 2012)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Lukas nino (Lukas the Strange, John Torres, 2013)
Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
L’Armée du salut (Salvation Army, Abdellah Taïa, 2013)
O Novo Testamento de Jesus Cristo segundo João (The New Testament of Jesus Christ According to John, Joaquim Pinto and Nuno Leonel, 2013)
L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps (The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2013)
Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau metabolism (When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2013)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Phillippe Garrel, 2013)
Yumen (J.P. Sniadecki, Huang Xiang and Xu Ruotao, 2012)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Les Salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, 2013)

ADAM KUNTAVANISH

CRITIC AND EDITOR FOR THE TORONTO-BASED ONLINE PUBLICATION NEXT PROJECTION. 

1. Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013)
   In the non-Weinsteinised cut, Wong expands his usual scope without lessening the unrequited yearning by incorporating the martial into the emotional.
2. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
   In the follow-up to one of my favourite debuts of the 2000s, Primer, Shane Carruth again manages to tease the abstract but impossibly emotional ramifications from another knotty, lo-sci-fi concept.
3. L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
   Guiraudie’s characters are geographically and morally isolated in a pristine wilderness, only to become corrupted by the consequences of desire.
4. The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013)
   The loose thematic trilogy of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz ends with another buddy genre mash-up with stern lessons for arrested slacker adolescence.
5. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
   Indie king Bujalski uses period equipment to take a cockeyed look at the source of our digital age.
6. Xi you xiang mo pian (Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, Stephen Chow & Chi-kin Kwok, 2013)
   An exemplar of Chow’s brand of nonsense comedy; a loving literary adaptation; an action-romance extravaganza: all wrapped into one.
7. Le Passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
   A narrative and thematic companion to my favourite film of 2011, A Separation, Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up reinforces his place as one of cinema’s premier dramatists and masters of moral ambiguity.
8. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
   After a seemingly perfect send-off in Before Sunset, Linklater, Delpy and Hawke up the emotional ante to reveal the day-to-day work of maintaining a relationship.
9. A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, 2013)
   another genre whatsit from the mind of Ben Wheatley, this time a claim to the grubby, hallucinatory English period throne once held by Michael Reeves and Ken Russell.
10. In a World… (Lake Bell, 2013)
    Lake Bell’s triple threat as star, writer and director mirrors her protagonist’s tragicomic uphill climb literally to be heard.

A Few 2013 US Premiere Favourites 

The following made their non-festival premieres within the US in 2013 (and I didn’t include them in last year’s poll):

Du zhan (Drug War, Johnnie To, 2012)
A última vez que vi Macau (The Last Time I Saw Macao, João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata, 2012)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, 2012)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2012)
Vous n’avez encore rien vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Alain Resnais, 2012)

The Grandmaster

EUGENIA LAI

Best 2013 commerical releases

Paradies: Hoffnung (Paradise: Hope, Ulrich Seidl, 2013)
Paradies: Glaube (Paradise: Faith, Ulrich Seidl, 2012)
Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love, Ulrich Seidel, 2012)
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
Student (Darezhan Omirbayev, 2012)
Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau metabolism (When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2013)
Trois exercices d’interpretation (Three Exercises of Interpretation, Cristi Puiu, 2013)
Der Glanz des Tages (The Shine of Day, Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel, 2012)
După dealuri (Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mingiu, 2012)
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)

Best – repertoires/festivals 2013 (seen in cinemas) 

Le Printemps (Spring, Marcel Hanoun, 1972)
Huacho (Alejandro Fernández Almendras, 2009)
Sentados frente al fuego (Alejandro Fernández Almendras, 2011)
Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam, Joris Ivens, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, William Klein, Claude Lelouch & Agnès Varda, 1967)
Halley (Sebastian Hofmann, 2012)
Los mejores temas (The Greatest Hits, Nicolas Pereda, 2012)
Los últimos cristeros (The Last Christeros, Matias Meyer, 2011)
Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen (The Forest for the Trees, Maren Ade, 2003)
Dokfa nai meuman (Mysterious Object at Noon, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000)
Abschied von gestern (Yesterday Girl, Alexander Kluge, 1966)
Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos (The Artist in the Circus Dome: Clueless, Alexander Kluge, 1968)
Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin (Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave, Alexander Kluge, 1973)
Deutschland im Herbst (Germany in Autumn, Alexander Kluge, 1978)
Rani radovi (Zelimir Zilnik, 1969)
Démanty noci (Diamonds of the Night, Jan Nemec, 1964)
Mucedníci lásky (Martyrs of Love, Jan Nemec, 1967)
Glykia symmoria (Sweet Bunch, Nikos Nikolaidis, 1983)
Slnko v sieti (The Sun in a Net, Stefan Uher, 1962)
Duo Sang (A Borrowed Life, Wu Nien-Jen, 1994)
Skrivánci na niti (Larks on a String, Jirí Menzel, 1990)
Trans-Europ-Express (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1966)
Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 1967)
Furyo shonen (Bad Boys, Susumu Hani, 1961)
The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)
Play (Ruben Östlund, 2011)
La rivière du hibou (An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge, Robert Enrico, 1962)
Mitote (Mexican Ritual, Eugenio Polgovsky, 2012)
Antoine et Antoinette (Jacques Becker, 1947)
10 Rillington Place (Richard Fleischer, 1971)
La Libertad (Freedom, Lisandro Alonso, 2001)
Mise à sac (Pillaged, Alain Cavalier, 1967)

MARC LAURIA

PART-TIME SCRIPTWRITER, FULL-TIME CINEPHILE.

Time stands still dept.
The Clock (Christian Marclay, 2010)
Leviathan (Lucian Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012)

Death squads dept.
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous, 2012)
The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh, 2012)
Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)

The ghost of Rohmer dept.
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)

The ghost of Mandingo dept.
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)

Asian auteurs run wild dept.
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013)

The Altman/Ashby/Towne/Scorsese New Hollywood revival dept.
 American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)

Leviathan

MAXIMILIAN LE CAIN

EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKER, CORK, IRELAND.

The messy patterns of my film viewing are not really dictated by what’s newly released, but here are a few scattered highlights of 2013 in no particular order…

Longest Video Ever in the World on YT. keeps Going 606H [25 Days] Counter Stuck 222Hr by YouTube user Everybody Every1. The robots have taken over the spaceship. Makes for beautiful, haunting, conceptually terrifying viewing. Can we really afford to acknowledge how momentous and challenging this work is on so many levels, unintentionally or not?

Three further profound cinematic shocks I have no wish to recover from: Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012), Copacabana Mon Amour (Rogério Sganzerla, 1970), Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961).

Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012): digital cinema reaches full maturity.

Raúl Ruiz’s La noche de enfrente (Night Across the Street, 2012) and, even more so, the late master’s magnificent Ballet aquatique (2011).

From the Philippines: John Torres’ Lukas Nino (Lukas the Strange, 2013), Lav Diaz’s Siglo ng pagluluwal (Century of Birthing, 2011) and, best of all, Gym Lumbera’s Anak Araw (Albino, 2012).

From home, that is, from the Irish experimental underground: Rouzbeh Rashidi’s HSP: There Is No Escape From The Terrors of The Mind (2013) and Dean Kavanagh’s A Harbour Town (2013) proved the best works yet by these prodigious and utterly fearless filmmakers.

What else? A word of warning to the many who were quick to dismiss Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem (2012): we need Zombie more than you might think. While on the subject of the dismissed, Cormac McCarthy’s astonishing script for The Counselor (Ridley Scott, 2013) deserved to have been made by Peckinpah.

And since I recently vanished (hopefully for good) into Re:Voir’s boxset of Adolpho Arrietta’s films, all memories of any other DVDs purchased this year seem to have magically evaporated.

ELAINE LENNON

INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR WHO WRITES ABOUT FILM.

1. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarión, 2013) outer space
2. This Is 40 (Judd Apatow, 2012) inner space
3. Hitchcock (Sacha Gervasi, 2012) psycho space
4. The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola, 2013) ultra space
5. Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013) ultra lurid
6. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012) ultra trash
7. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012) oratory, invective & gloves
8. La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paulo Sorrentino, 2013) ultra italiano
9. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) ultra spaghetti
10. Frozen (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2013) ultra animo

Only God Forgives

DENNIS LIM

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING, FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER, NEW YORK.

Top 10 2013 premieres

1. L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
2. Norte, hangganan ng kasaysaya (Norte, The End Of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
3. Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
4. E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
5. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
6. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
7. Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2013)
8. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
9. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
10. Mouton (Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone, 2013)

JB MABE

FILMMAKER, PROGRAMMER, LIBRARIAN, CHICAGO.

1. The work of Becca Hall, Julian Antos and Kyle Westphal running the
Northwest Chicago Film Society.

2. Forget the Past (Adam Paradis, 2013, 35mm)
Josh Fadem Slept in His Clothes (Josh Fadem, 2013, internet)
Our Summer Made Her Light Escape (Sasha Waters Freyer, 2012, 16mm)
fog vortex (Christina Battle, 2013, installation)
Utopia & Ribbon Candy (Luther Price, 2012, 35mm slides)

3. Beginning of the End (Bert I. Gordon, 1957, 35mm)

4. To the Wonder (Terrence Malick, 2013, 35mm)
The theatrical trailer for Zardoz (anonymous, 1974, 35mm)
Watercolor (Fall Creek) (Vincent Grenier, 2013, digital)
Gold Moon, Sharp Arrow (Malic Amalya, 2013, 16mm)
Wrecked (Ian Curry, 2013, 16mm performance)
hiLarious clip from 30 Rock!! (Nathan Fielder, 2012, internet)

5. Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 1967, 35mm)
Maître-Vent (Simon Quéhiellard, 2012, digital)
Foxfur (Damon Packard, 2012, digital)
Sharony! (Jennet Thomas, 2000, digital)
“Wheels Ontario” sketches on Kroll Show (Jonathan Krisel, 2013, TV)

6. “Wrecking Ball” at The American Music Awards (Miley Cyrus, 2013, TV performance)

7. See You Next Tuesday (Drew Tobia, 2013, digital)
I Can’t Sleep (Claire Denis, 1994, 35mm)
The Intruder (Roger Corman, 1962, 35mm)
Sarah McLachlan “Angel” Animal Cruelty Video ***ORIGINAL VERSION***
(Megan Amram, 2013, internet)
Behind the Meatball (Frank Tashlin, 1945, 35mm)

8. Gunman’s Walk (Phil Karlson, 1958)

9. Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974, 35mm)
“Animal Control” episode in series 5 of Parks and Recreation (Craig Zisk, 2013, TV)
The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959, 35mm)
Dark Waters (André De Toth, 1944, 35mm)

10. Theobromine (Moe McPhearson, 2013, digital)
Them Oracles (Alee Peoples, 2012, 16mm)
primitive (Benjamin Balcom, 2012, 16mm)
A Body Without Organs (Stephen Graves, 2012, digital)
Light Streaming (Kathleen Rugh, 2012, 16mm)
Darna: A Stone Is a Heart You Cannot Swallow (Jon Lazam, 2013, digital)

11. This list is due before I see Blast Of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961), The Party (Blake Edwards, 1968), and Colossus: The Forbin Project (Joseph Sargent, 1970) on 35mm in the last two weeks of December. I say this less because I think those films will enter my top ten list, and more to brag on Chicago’s community of great programmers and institutions bringing films to us every day.

FIDEL JESÚS QUIRÓS MAQUEIRA

FILM WEBSITE EDITOR, HAVANA, CUBA.

I have to confess that I have become increasingly more stubborn when it comes to attending film exhibition, so this list narrows every year. There was almost nothing from Hollywood’s pics, but rather plenty at its margins. Paul Schrader’s The Canyons is a slasher film deconstruction, with solid dialogue and authentic visuals of the “wealthy” A.L. The film subverts the traditional crime narrative to show the horrors of passion. Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is one of the few authentic black spirit vindications, taking the spectators to the extremes of cinematic pleasures. Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles came to travel the American geographic and human landscape, making his own the mood of Kerouac’s beatnik novel On the Road.

Another Brazilian filmmaker, from Recife, Heito Lacerdas makes his film debut with Tatuagem, which deals with the burden of traditional narrative, but manages ultimately to create its own visual tale of cabaret theatre representation, and even a film within film, thanks to its committed immersion in Brazilian countercultural roots. Argentinean Lucía Puenzo’s Wakolda descends to the weird and stunning landscape of the Patagonia, in an imaginary appointment with the Nazi doctor Mengele. Puenzo creates a film of her own that is an auteur, social, lyrical and commercial film at the same time.

Marcos Berger, a gay Argentinean filmmaker, creates in Hawaii a moral tale of repressed desire and love, in an idyllic landscape of a provincial villa, the perfect scenery for frustration, solitude but also love and dreams. Canadian Bruce LaBruce’s Gerontophilia, called by many a soft LaBruce, turned out to be for me an enchanting work, a realistic depiction of love exceptions.

Even though France increasingly emulates Hollywood fare, it still produces each year a batch of unique films. Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone shows how the French constantly surpass their own aesthetic boundaries, this time reinventing gritty realism, imbuing it with physical lyricism. And if someone doubts that the French are constantly reinventing cinema, and its genres, there is the brilliant Valérie Donzelli’s Declaration of War, a funny shot of melodrama.

I am faithful to East European flicks at the Havana Festival. Last year it was Christian Petzold’s Barbara, a detailed account of the day-by-day surveillance of individual lives during the communist period in East Germany, and the final redemption of the protagonist through love and endurance. This year it was Eighty Letters by Václav Kadrnka, a film I found at first a pedantic, overlong kind of short film, but which gradually becomes an exciting feature with a minimalist approach to the tedium of 1980s Czechoslovakia and the caged lives of its citizens, through the tale of the Kafkian odyssey of a mother and son’s emigration application process.

I conclude with the superb Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, which, according to its director, was conceived before the also-black-and-white-silent French film, The Artist. It shows how much film art has evolved to digital from its very roots, from fairytales to a postmodern vision of them.

Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013)
The Canyons (Paul Schrader, 2013)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
On the Road (Walter Salles, 2012)
Tatuagem (Tattoo, Hilton Lacerda, 2013)
Wakolda (Lucía Puenzo, 2013)
Hawaii (Marco Berger, 2013)
Gerontophilia, (Bruce La Bruce, 2013)
De rouille et d’os (Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard, 2012)
La Guerre est Declarée (Declaration of War, Valérie Donzelli, 2011)
Barbara (Christian Petzold, 2012)
Osmdesát dopisů (Eighty Letters, Václav Kadrnka, 2011)
Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)

The Canyons

MIGUEL MARIAS

ECONOMIST; FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE SPANISH FILM ARCHIVE (1986-88). AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON MANUEL MUR OTI AND LEO MCCAREY. HAS WRITTEN FOR MOST SPANISH FILM MAGAZINES, NOW MAINLY WRITING FOR FOREIGN ONLINE MAGAZINES.

A) Great films seen for the first time, made since 2008

La Fille de nulle part (The Girl from Nowhere, Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2012), Une Autre Vie (Another Life, Emmanuel Mouret, 2013), My Sister’s Keeper (Nick Cassavetes, 2009), Vous n’avez encore rien vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Alain Resnais, 2012), Mud (Jeff Nichols, 2011/2), Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi, Hong Sang-soo, 2013), Le Temps de l’aventure (Just a Sigh, Jérôme Bonnell, 2013), Les Salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013), L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)

B) Great films seen for the first time, made before 2008

Dorogoí tsenoí (The Horse That Weeps, Mark Donskoí, 1957), Nazi Concentration Camps (George Stevens, 1945), Echoes of Silence (Peter Emanuel Goldman, 1962-5//7), Fue no shiratama (Eternal Heart/Undying Pearl, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1929), Germinal (Albert Capellani, 1913), L’Assommoir (Albert Capellani, 1908), Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers Are Among Us, Wolfgang Staudte, 1946), Tuntematon Sotilas / Okänd Soldat (The Unknown Soldier, Edvin Laine, 1955), Cigalon (Marcel Pagnol, 1935), Sasame-yuki (Fine Snow / The Makioka Sisters, Ichikawa Kon, 1983), Ludwig II (Glanz und Ende eines Königs) (Helmut Käutner, 1954/5), Les Rendez-vous du Diable (Haroun Tazieff, 1958/9), Onna no za (A Woman’s Place, Narusē Mikio, 1961/2), Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal (Arnaud des Pallières, 2000), Kahdeksan surmanluotia (Eight Deadly Shots, Mikko Niskanen, 1972), Turumba (Kidlat Tahimik, 1981), Hollywood Story (William Castle, 1951), Something To Live For (George Stevens, 1951/2), Osorezan no onna (The Innocent Witch, Goshō Heinosukē, 1965), Posliesloviie (Epilogue, Marlien Khutsiiev, 1983), Eien no Hito (Immortal Love / Eternal Love, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1961), Kono ko wo Nokoshite (Children of Nagasaki, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1983)

C) Very good films seen for the first time, made since 2008

Promised Land (Gus Van Sant, 2012), Age Is… (Stephen Dwoskin, 2012), Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013), Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2012), Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Hae-won, Hong Sang-soo, 2012/3), San zimei (Three Sisters, Wang Bing, 2012), Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013), Muisteja (Pieni elokuva 1950-luvun Oulusta)/Minnen (En liten film om Uleåborg på 1950-talet) (Remembrance: A Small Film About Oulu in the 1950s, Peter von Bagh, 2013), Ohjaaja matkalla ihmiseksi-Mikko Niskasen tarina (The Story of Mikko Niskanen, Peter von Bagh, 2010), Jean-Luc Godard: Le Désordre exposé (Céline Gailleurd & Olivier Bohler, 2012), L’Inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013), La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013), Eloxio da distancia/Elogio de la distancia (Praise of Distance, Felipe Vega & Julio Llamazares, 2008), We Are What We Are (Jim Mickle, 2013), Cinco elementos sobre cualquier universe (Ideas sobre paisaje) (Mercedes Álvarez, 2010), Celluloid Man (Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, 2012), Flight (Robert Zemeckis, 2012), My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (Werner Herzog, 2009), La casa Emak Bakia (Oskar Alegria, 2012), Saddle the Wind (José Oliveira, 2013)

D) Very good films seen for the first time, made before 2008

A Life in the Balance (Harry Horner, 1954/5), The Unguarded Moment (Harry Keller, 1956), The Unfaithful (Vincent Sherman, 1947), The Case Against Brooklyn (Paul Wendkos, 1958), The Alligator People (Roy Del Ruth, 1959), Night Editor (Henry Levin, 1946), The Notebook (Nick Cassavetes, 2004), Fyrvaktarens dotter (The Lighthousekeeper’s Daughter, Georg af Klercker, 1918), Lettre d’un cineaste à sa fille. (Eric Pauwels, 2000), Sierra (Alfred E. Green, 1950), O canto do mar (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1950/52/54), Drenge (Nils Malmros, 1977), Marabangong bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare, Kidlat Tahimik, 1977), Dongfang hong (The East Is Red, Wang Ping, 1965), Trapped (Fred Walton, 1989), Split Second (Dick Powell, 1953), Rails & Tails (Alison Eastwood, 2007), Back Pay (William A. Seiter, 1930), Ostatni etap (The Last Stage, Wanda Jakubowska, 1947/8), Konjiki yasha (Damned Gold, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1937), Mudar de vida (Paulo Rocha, 1966), Le Tunnel (Kurt Bernhardt, 1933), The Man from Earth / Jerome Bixby’s ‘The Man from Earth’ (Richard Schenkman, 2007), The Unknown (Henry Levin, 1946), Beware, My Lovely (Harry Horner, 1952), Vicki (Harry Horner, 1953), And So They Were Married (Elliott Nugent, 1936), Aki Tachinu (The Approach of Autumn, Narusē Mikio, 1960), When A Stranger Calls Back (Fred Walton, 1993), Larceny (George Sherman, 1948), Olympia 52 (Chris Marker, 1952), Unhook the Stars (Nick Cassavetes, 1996), Untamed (Jack Conway, 1929), Cry ‘Havoc’ (Richard Thorpe, 1943), White Cargo (Richard Thorpe, 1942), Strange Holiday (Arch Oboler, 1945), Hell Below (Jack Conway, 1933), The Easiest Way (Jack Conway, 1930/1), Ever in My Heart (Archie L. Mayo, 1933), Four Guns to the Border (Richard Carlson, 1954)

E) Great films rediscovered or re-evaluated by a new vision

Koibumi (Love Letters, Tanaka Kinuyô, 1953), Quatre nuits d’un rêveur (Four Nights of a Dreamer, Robert Bresson, 1971), Mietiél (The Snowstorm, Vladimir Basov, 1964), The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953), Bad Day At Black Rock (John Sturges, 1954), Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944), Young Cassidy (John Ford & Jack Cardiff, 1965), Sylvesternacht. Ein Dialog (Douglas Sirk, 1977), Sprich zu mir wie der Regen (Douglas Sirk, 1975), Four Faces West/They Passed This Way (Alfred E. Green, 1948), The Naked Dawn (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1954), Bourbon Street Blues (Douglas Sirk, 1978), It Should Happen To You (George Cukor, 1954), Murder Is My Beat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955), Wheel of Ashes (Peter Emanuel Goldman, 1968/9), Pearl of the South Pacific (Allan Dwan, 1955), A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964), The Honeymoon Machine (Richard Thorpe, 1961), Stolen Holiday (Michael Curtiz, 1936/7)

F) Very good pictures rediscovered or re-evaluated (not always for the best) by a new vision

Captain Carey, U.S.A. (Mitchell Leisen, 1949/50), The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1953), The Marrying Kind (George Cukor, 1952), Le Puritain (The Puritan, Jeff Musso, 1937/8), Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947), Brewster’s Millions (Allan Dwan, 1944/5), Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz, 1938), Pat and Mike (George Cukor, 1952), Let’s Make Love (George Cukor, 1960), Heller in Pink Tights (George Cukor, 1960), Sodankylä ikuisesti. Elokuvan vuosisata (Sodankylä Forever. The Century of Cinema, Peter von Bagh, 2010), La Dolorosa (Jean Grémillon, 1934), Souls at Sea (Henry Hathaway, 1937), Libeled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936), The Jayhawkers! (Melvin Frank, 1959), The Maverick Queen (Joseph Kane, 1956), Red Mountain (William Dieterle; coll. John V. Farrow, 1951), War Paint (Lesley Selander, 1953), Girls About Town (George Cukor, 1931/2), Ulee’s Gold (Victor Nunez, 1997), Rockabye (George Cukor, 1932), Uma abella na chuva (Fernando Lopes, 1972), Back From Eternity (John V. Farrow, 1956), Payment on Demand (Curtis Bernhardt, 1951), La pasión desnuda (Naked Passion, Luis César Amadori, 1953), 36 Hours (George Seaton, 1964)

NEIL MCGLONE

WRITER FOR SIGHT AND SOUND, FILM ADVISOR AND RESEARCHER FOR MARK COUSINS’ A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM.

Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2013)
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Leones (Jazmín López, 2012)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012)
Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2013)
La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Starred Up (David Mackenzie, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)

Short Term 12 – wears its heart on its sleeve without ever falling into the trap of over-sentimentality. I don’t mind admitting it reduced me to tears on several occasions!

Under the Skin – a film like this comes along once every 20 years or so; stark, clinical, the modern equivalent of a Roeg/Cammell collaboration, sound design and score incredible.

Leviathan – real footage doc that feels like a horror film vs found footage film that attempts to be a horror film.

Other film highlights this year: being asked to be film advisor and researcher on Mark Cousins’ A Story of Children and Film then attending its premiere with Mark and the gang in Cannes; watching Shane Meadows’ Stone Roses movie at 3:15am in the big tent at Midnight Sun Film Festival where strong Finnish vodka was passed round freely and every Roses song was sung at full volume; Peter von Bagh’s most personal film to date Muisteja – pieni elokuva 1950-luvun Oulusta (aka Remembrance) reducing Marco Bellocchio to tears as he sat next to me at the screening; enjoying ten days in Bologna at Il Cinema Ritrovato with Alexander Payne and other cinephiles where I saw one of my favourite movies projected for the first time, Sans Lendemain (1940) by Max Ophüls and discovered the noir-like qualities of Yves Allégret’s Une si jolie petite plage (Riptide, 1949) through the shimmering cinematography of Henri Alekan; whilst undertaking a career overview interview with Alan Rudolph being asked by him to be his official biographer; being invited by Ben Wheatley to a private screening of A Field in England then later in the year meeting him and Nic Roeg in Brighton; a resurgence in strong British films this year with Kelly + Victor, The Selfish Giant and Brit-horror The Borderlands. A more recent film highlight for this year has been Abel Gance’s Napoleon (1927) at the Royal Festival Hall with Carl Davis score.

Upstream Color

DUNCAN MCLEAN

FILM STUDIES LECTURER AND REVIEWER.

12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013) 
Steve McQueen continues his rise with 12 Years a Slave, a brutal, relentless film and the most important film yet made about pre-Civil War slavery.

All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)
It was great to see a filmmaker trust his audience enough that he didn’t feel the need to spoon-feed them. All is Lost is a compelling, minimalist film built around an amazing central performance.

American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
David O. Russell has had a massive year, culminating in this darkly comedic caper film featuring strong performances from a cast of Russell regulars.

Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, 2013)
An interesting procedural film which is elevated thanks to a commanding performance from Hanks and strong direction from Greengrass.

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
The most overwhelming cinematic experience in recent memory, Cuarón manages to make space simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.

Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
A surrealist film with subject matter that could have been silly if the film wasn’t so very sincere. Unconventional voice performances from a disembodied Johansson and Phoenix.

Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012)
If not for Gravity this would have been the visual achievement of the year. Ang Lee took a novel universally considered to be un-filmable and turned it into a visual feast.

Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)
The most life affirming film of the year, Russell took the otherness out of mental illness in this touching and hilarious story. My pick for best film of the year.

Stoker (Park Chan-wook, 2013)
Park’s first English language film retains his gift for stunning visuals and is a creepy and compelling thriller which elicits a visceral reaction.

The Way Way Back (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, 2013)
A witty and affecting coming of age story featuring some brilliant comedic performances particularly from Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney.

Other Notable Films
Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
Rush (Ron Howard, 2013)
Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)

DAVID MELVILLE

WRITER AND LECTURER, EDINBURGH, UK.

We often think of “classic” films as products of the past. Yet the best of this year can hold its own with the all-time greats. Now is a good time to be in love with cinema…

La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
The film that restored my faith in Italian cinema – after three decades of stagnation and decline. A glittering tour of the not-so-dolce vita, with sequences that approach sheer poetry.

Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)
Technicolor noir can go no further than this gangster tale set in a Day-Glo Bangkok. As an incestuous Mafia mother, Kristin Scott-Thomas is among the most seductive but terrifying women in film history!

The Eye of the Storm (Fred Schepisi, 2011)
This took two years to reach the UK, but is well worth the wait. From a novel by Patrick White (one of the 20^th Century’s greatest authors) this is a note-perfect study in family breakdown. Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush excel as the siblings; Charlotte Rampling, as the mother, is beyond perfection.

Jeune et jolie (Young & Beautiful, François Ozon, 2013)
In this cool and slyly erotic tale, a teenage girl ventures into prostitution. Ozon does not explain or endorse her actions…he trusts us to watch and join the dots. In the radiant Marine Vacth, a dazzling new star is born.

Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013)
Can a great performance in itself make a great film? Michael Douglas as Liberace might almost make you say yes. At least the ‘80s are now the stuff of “period” drama.

Other outstanding films (released this year):

The Paperboy (Lee Daniels, 2012)
O Gebo e a sombra (Gebo and the Shadow, Manoel de Oliveira, 2012)
Vous n’avez encore rien vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Alain Resnais, 2012)
Byzantium (Neil Jordan, 2012)
To the Wonder (Terrence Malick, 2012)
Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)
The Canyons (Paul Schrader, 2013)

Worst Films

Los amantes pasajeros (I’m So Excited!, Pedro Almodóvar, 2013)
This airborne farce plays like Benny Hill dubbed into Spanish – except that Benny Hill had better jokes.

Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
So you were rich. Now you aren’t. Get over it.

Exciting rediscoveries on DVD:

Al di là del bene e del male (Beyond Good and Evil, Liliana Cavani, 1977)
Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1944)
Necropolis (Franco Brocani, 1970)
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)
J’étais une aventurière (I Was an Adventuress, Raymond Bernard, 1938)

These have been so hard to see for so long that they are virtually new movies!

Behind the Candelabra

ADRIAN MENDIZABAL

FILIPINO CINEPHILE FROM MANILA. HE WISHES TO WRITE MORE ABOUT CINEMA IN THE YEARS TO COME.

Lukas Nino (Lukas the Strange, John Torres, 2013)
Guerrilla is a Poet (Sari & Kiri Dalena, 2013)
Pantomina sa mga anyong ikinubli ng alon (Pantomime for Figures Shrouded by Waves, Jon Lazam, 2013) (short)
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
Islands (Whammy Alcazaren, 2013)
The Search for Weng-Weng (Andrew Leavold, 2013)
Ang Pagbabalat ng Ahas (Timmy Harn, 2013)
Maliw (Soliloquies, Rob Jara, 2013)
Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen, 2013)
Porno (Adolf Alix Jr, 2013)
Quick Change (Eduardo Roy, 2013)
La última película (Raya Martin and Mark Peranson, 2013)
iNay (Carl Joseph Echague-Papa, 2013)
Iskalawags (Keith Deligero, 2013)
Debosyon (Devotion, Alvin Yapan, 2013)

As of this writing, I haven’t watched some local Filipino films that might be part of the list like Lav Diaz’s critically lauded Norte, End of History and Raya Martin’s How to Disappear Completely. I also missed Mes de Guzman’s Steel is the Earth during its run at Cinema Rehiyon Reloaded last August 2013.

Some notable films I’ve seen this year include Joshell Montañano’s unreleased experimental film Alipin ng Sining (Art Slave, 2013) somewhat reminiscent of the avant-garde Fluxfilms. I also like Jerrold Tarog’s Sana Dati (If Only, 2013), Hannah Espia’s Transit and Jet Leyco’s audacious, multilayered political film Bukas na lang sapagat gabi na (Leave It For Tomorrow For the Night Has Fallen, 2013).

LLOYD MICHAELS

EDITOR, FILM CRITICISM.

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Barbara (Christian Petzold, 2012)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)

MADS B. MIKKELSEN

PROGRAMMER, CPH:DOX / COPENHAGEN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL.

Nine films that made cinema exciting and dangerous this year. In no particular new world order:

Loubia Hamra (Bloody Beans, Narimane Mari, 2013)
Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013)
Natpwe, the Feast of the Spirits (Tiane Doan na Champassak and Jean Dubrel, 2013)
The Dirties (Matt Johnson, 2013)
La última película (Raya Martin and Mark Peranson, 2013)
Head and Hands (my black angel) (Aida Ruilova, 2013)
Shen Jing (Hooly Bible, Li Hongqi, 2013)
Återträffen (The Reunion, Anna Odell, 2013)
Les Trois Désastres (The Three Disasters, Jean-Luc Godard, 2013)

2013 also happened to be the year where a lot of people (myself included) had the chance to re-view Jacques Rivette’s Out 1: Noli me tangere (1971) and Out 1: Spectre (1974) in one go – this time with subtitles. An ideal, timeless film from one of the greatest minds in cinema.

PS. By the time of this writing, I am yet to see the latest films by the two great romantics of Albert Serra and Philippe Garrel who will no doubt qualify as exciting and, yes, dangerous. Beware!

DAVID MILLER

TRUSTEE AND PROGRAMMER KESWICK FILM CLUB.

La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Andy & Lana Wachowski, 2012)
Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013)
Like Someone In Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2012)
Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)
La jaula de oro (The Golden Dream, Diego Quemada-Diez, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodyson, 2013)
White Tiger (Karen Shakhnazarov, 2012)
The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh, 2012)

And one that was awful: What Richard Did (Lenny Abrahamson, 2012)

Cloud Atlas

OLAF MÖLLER

CINEPHILE, WRITER, TRANSLATOR AND CURATOR, COLOGNE, GERMANY.

Olaf Möller’s Eleven Friends

Team Manager Team (Films of the Year)

L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Namyŏng-dong 1985 (National Security, Chŏng Chiyŏng, 2012)

First Team (Line-up in strictly alphabetical order)

Återträffen (The Reunion, Anna Odell, 2013)
Le Beau danger (René Frölke, 2013)
Le Dernier des Injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
Muisteja – Pieni elokuva 1950-luvun Oulusta (Remembrance – A Small Movie About Oulu in the 1950s, Peter von Bagh, 2013)
My Mefaḥed MeZeʾeb Harʿ (Big Bad Wolves, ˀharon Qešales & Nabot Papušado, 2013)
Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Paradesi (The Vagabond, Bala, 2013)
Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy, Nils Malmros, 2013)
–Trudno byt’ bogom (Hard To Be a God, Aleksej Jurevič German [finished by Aleksej Aleksejevič German & Svetlana Karmalita], 2013)
Der Unfertige (The Incomplete, Jan Soldat, 2013)
Za Marksa… (For Marx…, Svetlana Baskova, 2012)

Substitutes

Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehnsucht (Home From Home – Chronicle of a Vision, Edgar Reitz, 2013) // At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, 2013) // Boven is het stil (It’s All So Quiet, Nanouk Leopold, 2013) // Camille Claudel 1915 (Bruno Dumont, 2013) // Dí rénjié zhī – Shéndōu lóngwáng 3D (Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon 3D {Tsui Hark}, 2013) // O fim e os meios (Means to an End, Murilo Salles, 2013) // Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Miyazaki Hayao, 2013) // Kopfkino (Lene Berg, 2012) // A Messenger From The Shadows. Notes on Film 06 – A. Monologue 01 (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2012/13) & A Masque of Madness. Notes on Film 06 – B. Monologue 02 (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2013) // Saatvin Sair (The Seventh Walk, Amit Dutta, 2013) // Vos’merka (Break Loose, Aleksej Učitel’, 2013) // Yksitoista ihmisen kuvaa (11 Images of a Human, Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskalio, 2012)

+ Tatort: Aus der Tiefe der Zeit (Dominik Graf, TV 2013)

Extended Team

00 Schneider – Im Wendekreis der Eidechse (Helge Schneider [& Andrea Schumacher], 2013) // Ba ͑d al-mawqīya (After the Battle, Yusrī Naṣr-Allāh, 2012) // Before Midnight (Richard Linklater) // Deklica in drevo (A Girl and a Tree; Vlado Škafar) // Dialogue d’ombres (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1954-2013) // Exhibition (Joanna Hogg) // Fata Morgana (Peter Schreiner, 2013) // Fēng Ài (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wáng Bìng, 2013) // Finsterworld (Frauke Finsterwalder, 2013) // Gerontophilia (Bruce LaBruce, 2013) // Goeng¹ si¹ (Rigor Mortis, Maak Zeon Lung {Juno Mak}, 2013) // Já Visto, Jamais Visto (Seen, Never Seen, Andrea Tonacci, 2013) // Kahaani (Story, Sujoy Ghosh, 2012) // Kuuden päivän juoksu (Six Day Run, Mika Taanila, 2013) // Lei bik waa gwai mei hai lit – Kei waan je (Tales From the Dark 2, Can Gaa Soeng{Gordon Chan}, Lau⁴ Gwok³ Coeng¹ {Lawrence Lau}, Taai³ Dik⁶ Lo⁴ Ban¹ Gwaan¹ {Teddy Robin Kwan}, 2013) // Mariposa – Sa Hawla ng Gabi (Mariposa in the Cage of the Night, Richard Villarosa Somes, 2012) // Mes séances de lutte (Love Battles, Jacques Doillon, 2013) // Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013) // Parce que j’étais peintre (Because I was a Painter, Christophe Cognet, 2013) // Pirika na filmu (Pirika on Film, Želimir Žilnik, 2013) // Rol’ (The Role, Konstantin Lopušanskij, 2013) // Rangbhoomi (Kamal Swaroop, 2013) // Skurstenis (The Chimney, Laila Pakalniņa, 2013) // Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

Medical Staff

(film/video-based/related installations and/or exhibitions, film/video art projects, films seen in exhibitions, and other creations such as these; plus: a theatre piece just like the movies its director makes)

8. Mai (May 8^th; Romuald Karmakar, 2013) // “The Beginning. Living Figures Dying” (video installation; Clemens von Wedemeyer, 2013) // “Chess” (video installation; Lorna Simpson, 2013) // “Dà gǔzǐ duī – Millet Mountain” (video installation, as presented at the 55. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – Il Palazzo Enciclopedico; Kàn Xuān, 2012/13) // Dirty Young Loose (Lene Berg, 2013) // “[Electric Assemblage Videomural rooted in Stan VanDerBeek’s Movie-Drome project, as presented at the 55. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – Il Palazzo Enciclopedico, 2013]” // How Not To Be Seen. A Fucking Didactic Educational .Mov File (Hito Steyerl, 2013) // Imitation of Life (Mathias Poledna, 2013) // “Murmel Murmel” (theater production; Herbert Fritsch, 2012) // Shirley – Visions of Reality (Gustav Deutsch, 2013) & “Visions of Reality” (exhibition; Hanna Schimek & Gustav Deutsch, 2013) // “Tilaa massa tilassa massa litassa maalit: ali tila – Material Conditions of Inner Spaces” (video & light installation; Erkka Nissinen, 2013) // a poem written by 5 poets at once (first attempt) (Tanaka Kōki, 2013) // “Utopia” (slide show; Luther Price, 2012) // You Killed the Underground Film or the Real Meaning of Kunst bleibt… bleibt… (Wilhelm Hein, 2013)

Olaf Möller’s Eleven Veterans 2013

Team Manager (Auteur Revelation of the Year)

Samhold må til (Olav Dalgard, 1935)
Vi bygger landet (Olav Dalgard, 1936)
By og land, hand i hand (Olav Dalgard, 1937)
Lenkene brytes (Olav Dalgard, 1938)
Det drønner gjennom dalen (Olav Dalgard, 1938)
Gryr i Norden (Olav Dalgard, 1939)
Om kjærlighet synger de (The Song of Love, Olav Dalgard, 1946)

First Team (Line-Up in strictly alphabetical order)

Almost a Friar (Allan Dwan, 1912)
[L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, filmée en procédé stereoscopic Lumière] (Louis Lumière, 1935)
Clown (complete revised) (Luther Price, 2003)
Keisatsukan (Policeman, Uchida Tomu, 1933)
Naan Kadavul (I Am God, Bala, 2009)
Operation Diplomat (John Guillermin, 1953)
Rings um eine Kirche (Götz Hirt-Reger, 1943)
The Rosary Murders (Fred Walton, 1987)
Svetlyj gorod [fragment] (Bright Town, Ol’ga Preobraženskaja [& Ivan Pravov], 1928)
Ursus (Mighty Ursus, Carlo Campogalliani, 1961)
Žena s krajolikom (Woman with Landscape, Ivica Matić, 1975)
+ Los Angeles Plays Itself [2013 revision] (Thom Andersen)

Substitutes

Blutiger Freitag (Bloody Friday, Rolf Olsen, 1972) // Dernek (Country Fair, Zoran Tadić, 1975) // Le fatiche di Ercole (Hercules, Pietro Francisci, 1958) // Das Gesicht im Dunkeln (Double Face, Riccardo Freda, 1969) // Kämp (Valentin Vaala, 1970) // Kanko no machi (Jubilation Street, Kinoshita Keisuke, 1944) // Kŏmŭn mŏri (Black Hair, Yi Manhŭi, 1964) // Ein langer Ritt nach Eden (Günter Hendel, 1974) // Most Dangerous Man Alive (Allan Dwan, 1961) // Mother (Revised) (Luther Price, 2002) // Nidhanaya (The Treasure, Lester James Peries, 1973) // Ongaku kigeki: Horoyoi jinsei (The Tipsy Life, Kimura Sotoji, 1933) // Päonien-Quickstep (Harry Tomicek, 2011) // Piejūras klimats [destroyed; 1992 edit of the remains] (Maritime Climate, Rolands Kalniņš, 1974) // Rapture (John Guillermin, 1965) // rein/raus (Jan Soldat, 2010) // [Scènes érotiques réalisée pour le Animateur Stéréoscopique] (René Bünzli, ~1900) // Ta’ det som en mand, frue! (Take It Like a Man, Ma’am!, Mette Knudsen & Elisabeth Rygaard & Li Vilstrup, 1975) // La torna (Francesc Bellmunt, 1978) // [Verscharren von Kadavern in einem Bomberntrichter] (Götz Hirt-Reger, 1943) // When a Stranger Calls (Fred Walton, 1979) // White Rock (Tony Maylam, 1977) // Yuddham Sei (Wage War, Myshkin, 2011) // Zvanyj užin (The Dinner Party, Fridrich Ėrmler, 1953) 

Extended Team

235.000.000 (Uldis Brauns [& Biruta Veldre & Laima Žurgina], 1967) // Le 15/8 (Chantal Akerman & Samy Szlingerbaum, 1973) // Aadukalam (Vetrimaaran, 2011) // Aamua kaupungissa (Morning in the City, Jörn Donner, 1954) // After the Garden: Dusty Ricket (Luther Price, 2007) // Akmens un šķembas (Stone and Flinders, Rolands Kalniņš, 1966) // Aloumínio tīs Elládos (Aluminium of Greece, Roússos Koúndouros, 1965) // L’Ami de monsieur [outtake, dance scene] (Pierre de Cuvier, 1936) // El ángel desnudo (Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1946) // Ani imoto (Older Brother, Younger Sister, Kimura Sotoji, 1935) // Anja (Ol’ga Preobraženskaja, 1927) // A.P. (Anno passato, Karpo Godina, 1966) // April Fools Day (Fred Walton, 1986) // Asuntopula (Holger Harrivirta, 1947) // Barcelona (James Stevens-Edwards, 1927) // Das blaue Band (Harry Tomicek, 2011) // Border (Simone Häckel & Kolja Barbara Kunt & Ariane Pauls & Markus Ruff & Simon Specht, 2006) // The Burglar (Paul Wendkos, 1957) // Can – Free Concert (Peter Przygodda, 1972) // Carnet de identidad (Llorenç Soler, 1970) // Circus goningumi (Five Men in the Circus, Naruse Mikio, 1935) // The Crowded Day (John Guillermin, 1954) // Donde mueren las palabras (Where Words Fail, Hugo Fregonese, 1946) // [Doris Day in ‘Mitternachtsspitzen’ von Irene] (promotional short, German dubbed version; 1960) // Einmal eine große Dame sein (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1934) // Enoken no Seishun Suikoden (Romantic and Crazy, Yamamoto Kajiro, 1934) // Eröffnung der ersten Teilstrecke der Reichsautobahn Frankfurt a.M. – Darmstadt am 19. Mai 1935 (1935) // [Experiments with stereoscopic moving images by William Friese-Greene] (~1890-93) // El Fantasma del convento (The Phantom of the Convent, Fernando de Fuentes, 1934) // Fifteen Maiden Lane (Allan Dwan, 1936) // Flavia, la monaca musulmana (Flavia the Heretic, Gianfranco Mingozzi, 1974) // Geschwisterliebe (Jan Soldat, 2007) // I giorni dell’ira (Day of Anger, Tonino Valerii, 1967) // Graf Porno und die liebesdurstigen Töchter (1969; Günter Hendel) // [Guinean students performing voluntary work in Cuba] (Josefina Crato & José Bolama & Flora Gomes & Sana na N’Hada, 1969) // Harmagedon – Erään maailman loppu (Juha Rosma [& Jussi Parviainen], 1986) // Hitch Hitch Hitchcock (Zoran Tadić, 1969) // Humanic passt immer: Märzenbecher (Axel Corti, 1968) // Ikárie XB 1 (Icarus XB 1, Jindřich Polák, 1963) // Inkblot # 44: Aqua Woman (Luther Price, 2011) // Interim (Jan Soldat, 2011) // Ja, babuška, Iliko i Illarion (I, Grandmother, Iliko and Illarion, Tengiz Abuladze, 1963) // Jaros (Marran Gosov, 1970) // Käpt’n Rauhbein aus St. Pauli (Nurses for Sale, Rolf Olsen, 1971) // Karnaval cvetov (Carnival of Flowers, Nikolaj Ėkk, 1935) // Kattradhu Thamizh (Learned Tamil, Ram, 2007) // Ključi ščast’ja [fragment] (The Keys to Happiness, Vladimir Gardin & Jakov Protazanov [& Giovanni Vitrotti], 1913) // Kon’yaku yubiwa (Engēji ringu) (Engagement Ring, Kinoshita Keisuke, 1950) // Kristally (Crystals, Jakov Kaplunov, 1948) // Laysa lahum wuǧūd (They Do Not Exist, Muṣṭafā Abū ͑ Alī, 1974) // Die lustigen Weiber von Tirol (Hans Bilian, 1964) // Maciste all’inferno (Maciste in Hell, Riccardo Freda, 1962) // Mademoiselle Else (Isabelle Prim, 2010) // Mala seoska priredba (A Little Village Performance, Krsto Papić, 1972) // The Mormon (Allan Dwan, 1912) // Mr. Wonderful (Luther Price, 1988) // Nandalala (Myshkin, 2010) // Ni liv, historien om Jan Baalsrud (Nine Lives, Arne Skouen, 1957) // No. 10 Blues – Goodbye, Saigon (Osada Norio, 1975-2012) // North Beach (Dion Vigne, 1958) // Noticiari de Barcelona N^o 15: Libertat d’espressió (Antoni Ribas, 1978) // Now Is the Time to Put On Your Glasses (Norman McLaren, 1951) // Ongaku eiga: Hyakumannin no gasshō (Chorus of One Million Voices, Tomioka Atsuo, 1935) // La patria del rata (Ratsy, Francisco Lara Polop, 1981) // Peppino e Violetta (Never Take No For an Answer, Maurice Cloche, 1949) // Plebej [fragment] (Plebeian, Jakov Protazanov, 1915) // Poslednij attrakcion (The Last Attraction, Ol’ga Preobraženskaja & Ivan Pravov, 1929) // [Promo per ‘La vendetta è il mio perdono’] (1968) // Rendezvous With Annie (Allan Dwan, 1946) // River Body (Anne Severson, 1971) // Robinzon Kruzo (Robinson Crusoe, Aleksandr Andrievskij, 1947) // Roma contro Roma (War of the Zombies, Giuseppe Vari, 1963) // San Diego Surf (Andy Warhol [& Paul Morrissey], 1968/96) // Sekidō koete (Across the Equator, Tsuburaya Eiji, 1936) // Sethu (Bala, 1999) // Der Sex-Agent (Günter Hendel, 1978) // Shitō no densetsu (A Legend Or Was It?, Kinoshita Keisuke, 1963) // Il signor Max (Mister Max, Mario Camerini, 1937) // Das Stundenhotel von St. Pauli (Hotel by the Hour, Rolf Olsen, 1970) // The Thief’s Wive (Allan Dwan, 1912) // Tietokoneet palvelevat (Computers Serve, Risto Jarva, 1968) // [Trailer für ‘Im singenden Rössl am Königssee’] (1963) // Up in Mabel’s Room (Allan Dwan, 1944) // V allejach parka (In the Alleys of the Park, Lidija Stepanova, 1952) // Vi vil leve! (Rolf Randall & Olav Dalgard, 1946) // Yoru no henrin (The Shape of Night, Nakamura Noboru, 1964) // Yūyakegumo (Clouds at Twilight, Kinoshita Keisuke, 1956)

Medical Staff

(film/video-based/related installations and/or exhibitions, film/video art projects, films seen in exhibitions, and other creations such as these)

Art Kept Me Out Of Jail. Homage To Jacques Mesrine (Jan Fabre, 2009) // Burn (Reynold Reynolds & Patrick Jolley, 2002) // Eigengrau (The Inner Self in Outer Space) (Melvin Moti, 2011) // “Einige Nachrichten an das All” (film-theatre-performance; Kay Voges, 2011) // Ghiro ghiro tondi – Carrousel de jeux (Angela Ricci Lucchi & Yervant Gianikian, 2006) // “Heimat – sandwich construction” (multi-media installation; 2006; Kolja Barbara Kunt) // “The House in the Middle” (installation [includes The House in the Middle, 1954, Federal Civil Defense Authority]; Stephan Mörsch, 2009) // “Ihminen ja tiede” (“Man and Science”, film installation; Mika Taanila, 2011) // Nečajannye radosty [unfinished, destroyed; 2006 edit of the remains] (Unintentional Pleasures, Rustam Chamdamov, 1972-74) // The Return of Bruce Nauman’s “Bouncing Balls” (Francesco Vezzoli, 2006) // Spindrift [2013 reconstruction by Mika Taanila] (Jan Bark & Erkki Kurenniemi, 1967) // “Soft Rains – #6: Suburban Horror” (multi-media installation; Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, 2003)

Norte, the End of History

BRENT MORROW

CINEPHILE AND INFREQUENT KEEPER OF THE BLOG TECHNICOLOR RED, MELBOURNE.

1. L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
2. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
3. Man tam (Blind Detective, Johnnie To, 2013)
4. The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013)
5. La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013)
6. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
7. Les Salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013)
8. Top of the Lake (Jane Campion, 2013)
9. Di renjie: shen du long wang (Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, Tsui Hark, 2013)
10. The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski, 2013)
11. Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
12. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
13. Paradies: Hoffnung (Paradise: Hope, Ulrich Seidl, 2013)
14. Vic+Flo ont vu un ours (Vic+Flo Saw a Bear, Denis Côté, 2013)
15. White Reindeer (Zach Clark, 2013)

A banner year for DTV with Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (Isaac Florentine, 2013), 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded (Roel Reiné, 2013), The Package (Jesse V. Johnson, 2013) and the barely-theatrically-released Man of Tai Chi (Keanu Reeves, 2013) exhibiting greater comprehension of action form than the majority of big studio entertainments. 

BILL MOUSOULIS

FOUNDING EDITOR OF SENSES OF CINEMA. AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER NOW BASED IN EUROPE.

Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau metabolism (When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2013)
Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
I Limouzina (The Limousine, Nikos Panayotopoulos, 2013)
O quinto evanxeo de Gaspar Hauser (The Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser, Alberto Gracia, 2013)
Jîn (Reha Erdem, 2013)
I Teleftaia Farsa (One Last Joke, Vassilis Raisis, 2013)
Miss Violence (Alexandros Avranas, 2013)
September (Penny Panayotopoulou, 2013)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
Na kathesai kai na koitas (Standing Aside, Watching, Giorgos Servetas, 2013)

Nobody’s Daughter Haewon

PETER NAGELS

CINEPHILE, LIBRARIAN AND DREAM RESEARCHER, MELBOURNE.

Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
Kolka Cool (Juris Poskus, 2011)
Mystery Road (Ivan Sen, 2013)
Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013)
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2013)
Les Salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013)
The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrman, 2013)

MARIO NAITO

PRESIDENT OF THE CUBAN FILM ASSOCIATION.

12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Jagten (The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)
Blancanieves, (Pablo Berger, 2011)
Heli (Amat Escalante, 2013)
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
Cesare deve morire (Caesar Must Die, Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani, 2011)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)

RENFREU NEFF

FILM JOURNALIST, EDITORIAL CONSULTANT, FASHION STYLIST.

Best of 2013

 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Philomena (Stephen Frears, 2013)
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
The Butler (Lee Daniels, 2013) – contender Best Ensemble Cast
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013) – contender Best Ensemble Cast

Most overrated

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
La Vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
The Invisible Woman (Ralph Fiennes, 2013)
August: Osage County (John Wells, 2013) – notable for cast, otherwise tedious
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 2013) – just couldn’t get inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013) – luminous black/white cinematography; flat, empty, snow-covered landscape, drab screenplay. Ever been to Nebraska?

Only Lovers Left Alive

BORIS NELEPO

FILM CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER; CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO SÉANCE MAGAZINE AND CORRESPONDENT FOR FESTIVAL DEL FILM LOCARNO.

It was a very good year. Oddly enough, while fewer and fewer people are watching movies around the world, the number of brilliant and incredible films is ever growing. I will not pretend to be objective since I do not believe it is possible at all: the following register is my personal review of this year, spent mostly in front of the screen. And if there something I do believe, it is the fact that the future of cinema includes its past. The history of film is not as yet accomplished, which means that each year brings a plethora of unexpected discoveries. Hence, I сhose to deliver two lists, one of this year’s titles and the other of rediscovered classics.

New films:

25. Les Rencontres d’après minuit (You and the Night, Yann Gonzalez, 2013)
24. After Earth (M. Night Shyamalan, 2013)
23. Pays barbare (Barbaric Land, Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2013)
22. Wara no tate (Shield of Straw, Takashi Miike, 2013)
21. The Unity of All Things 物之合 (Alexander Carver, Daniel Schmidt, 2013)
20. Stemple Pass (James Benning, 2013)
19. Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, The End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
18. Pirika na filmu (Pirika on Film, Želimir Žilnik, 2013)
17. Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
16. L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
15. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
14. The Canyons (Paul Schrader, 2013)
13. Muisteja – Pieni elokuva 1950-luvun Oulusta (Remembrance – A Small Movie about Oulu in the 1950s, Peter von Bagh, 2013)
12. Foudre (Lightning, Manuela Morgaine, 2013)
11. Les Trois Désastres (The Three Disasters, Jean-Luc Godard, 2013)
10. Se Eu Fosse Ladrão, Roubava (If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2013)
9. Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
8. Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
7. La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
6. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
5. The Invisible Life (A Vida Invisível, Vítor Gonçalves, 2013)
4. Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Hong Sang-Soo, 2013)
3. Sangue (Blood, Pippo Delbono, 2013)
2. E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
1. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)

Retrospectives:

25. Gado Bravo (António Lopes Ribeiro, Max Nosseck, Portugal, 1934, 35mm, Berlinale, The Weimar Touch Retrospective)
24. The Camera: Je or La Camera: I (Babette Mangolte, USA/France, 1977, 35mm, Doclisboa, Moving Stills – Photography, Photographers and Documentary Film)
23. Nidhanaya (The Treasure, Lester James Peries, 1972, Sri Lanka, Venice classics)
22. Vrane (Crows, Gordan Mihić, Ljubiša Kozomara, Yugoslavia, 1969, 35mm, goEast-Symposium Bright Black Frames – New Yugoslav Film between Subversion and Critique)
21. Sekido Koete (Across the Equator, Eiji Tsubaraya, Japan, 1936, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Il Giappone parla!)
20. Smorgasbord (Jerry Lewis, 1983, 35mm, Viennale, Jerry Lewis Retrospective)
19. Bless Their Little Hearts (Billy Woodberry, USA, 1984, 35mm, Harvard at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon)
18. Brandos Costumes (Alberto Seixas Santos, 1975, Portugal, 35mm, Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival, Jorge Silva Melo Retrospective)
17. Jutro (The Morning, Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, Yugoslavia, 1967, 35mm, goEast-Symposium Bright Black Frames – New Yugoslav Film between Subversion and Critique)
16. Maynila: Sa mga kuko ng liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Light, Lino Brocka, Philippines, 1975, Cannes Classics)
15. Ce Répondeur ne prend pas de Messages (This Answering Service Takes no Messages, Alain Cavalier, France, 1979, Doclisboa, Alain Cavalier Retrospective)
14. East Side, West Side (Allan Dwan, USA, 1927, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Allan Dwan Retrospective)
13. Corridas de alegría (Gonzalo García Pelayo, Spain, 1982, Viennale, Gonzalo García Pelayo Retrospective)
12. Oshibka inzhenera Kochina (Engineer Kochin’s Error, Aleksandr Mačeret, USSR, 1939, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato, La guerra è vicina: 1938-1939)
11. Love Among the Ruins (George Cukor, UK, 1975, 35mm, George Cukor Retrospective in Locarno)
10. Agosto (Jorge Silva Melo, 1988, Portugal, 35mm, Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival, Jorge Silva Melo Retrospective)
9. München – Geheimnisse einer Stadt (Munich: Secrets of a City, Dominik Graf, Michael Althen, 2000, 35mm, Dominik Graf Retrospective in Rotterdam)
8. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray, USA, 1952, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
7. Mudar de Vida (Change of Life, Paulo Rocha, Portugal, 1966, 35mm, Hommage to Paulo Rocha in Locarno + program of Harvard at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon)
6. Batang West Side (Lav Diaz, Philippines, 2001, 35mm, premiere of restored print in Locarno)
5. La porta del cielo (Vittorio De Sica, Italy, 1945, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Vittorio De Sica Retrospective)
4. Vivir en Sevilla (Gonzalo García Pelayo, Spain, 1978, Viennale, Gonzalo García Pelayo Retrospective)
3. Il Bacio di Tosca (Tosca’s Kiss, Daniel Schmid, Switzerland, 1984, Venice classics)
2. A Matter of Time (Vincente Minnelli, USA/Italy, 1976, 35mm, Festival Temps d’Images: O Cinema à volta de Cinco Artes – Cinco Artes à volta do Cinema in Lisbon)
1. Rich and Famous (George Cukor, USA, 1981, 35mm, George Cukor Retrospective in Locarno)