The Best First Watches of 2015 Part 3
The finale. There is no need for
an epilogue or a passage on what I hope will take place in 2016, as films both
newly made and classics will likely appear abruptly in my view, the greater
concern that I catch up with all I want to see and don't spend the year
watching terrible movies all the time. Beginning this, cutting to the chase,
the first of the ten best works I saw last year is...
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10. 3 Women (Dir. Robert Altman, 1977)
As the blog itself can attest to,
I have an immense interest in unconventional cinema which can either be based
around the type of psychological drama or how the film's world is portrayed. Robert Altman's film was fittingly
conjured up from a dream he had, as enticing a qualifier for me to like it than
anything else but you have to factor in the result's immense quality and affect
on me after seeing it being the greater reward. The performances by Shelley
Duvall and Sissy Spacek are the most vital aspect of this drama's dream logic
succeeding, the both of them lulling you into its story credibly before a
literal dream sequence sets off the psychological blurring that'll take place
in the conclusion. It's an example as a film of an incredibly subtle dream
logic rather than a blatant one, incongruous at first between its seventies decor and Duvall's
various party foods, but eventually leading to a dramatic and emotional realism
in the end when it appears.
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9. Lawrence of Arabia (Dir. David Lean, 1962)
I am committing a possible
blasphemy for some for having this film so low down on the list, with an
obscure anime above it as well, but my admiration for Lawrence of Arabia is a slow burn. It was viewed the best possible
for the first time - Christmas Day, on the largest screen available and with my
parents - and the film is less important for whether its historically accurate
but for being a true epic in running time and scale, one which stands out
further for how psychologically deep it is alongside the spectacle with its
titular figure. The trio of Peter
O'Toole, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif create an elusive and
mysterious individual in the angelic, almost feminine Lawrence, his personality
as depicted through O'Toole's magnificent
breakout role that of someone still struggling with what his goals are even in
the middle of his decision to take Arabia back for the Arabs from the Turkish
Army, each moment where he stares off into the desert having many layers to it
from no dialogue at all. The fact a film like this can never be made today as
well - the real hundreds of extras in combat scenes, real planes and vehicles -
makes the film as justifiably a masterpiece as I've grown up with it being
called.
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8. Fantasia (Dirs. James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Wilfred Jackson and
Hamilton Luske, 1940)
Like Lawrence of Arabia, Fantasia
can be seen as an epic as well for American animation at the point the film was
made and release, Walt Disney taking
a risk with what could seem like a saccharine, populist project but ended up
being a brave experiment comparable to some of the avant-garde shorts from the
same era. I openly confess that, while I grew up with Disney films as a child, I've never really had the inclination to
return to all but the most significant - Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940) - and Alice In Wonderland (1951) as a Lewis Carol mark. I dread viewing some incredible safe and naive films which pander
to the audience regardless of their artistry, but Fantasia, a film I didn't see as a child, is far from this. While
known for its cute segment with Mickey Mouse that was mercilessly parodied in
the Itch and Scratchy Land episode of The
Simpson, the project is able to go from something as fun as hippo ballet
dancers waltzing with crocodiles to starting with a literal avant-garde short
of colour and shapes representing the music.
The film has the boldness to use Igor Stravinsky's The Rites of Spring over a short showing the creation of the world
since the Big Bang which, while it does have the cute baby dinosaurs, is pretty
radical as a take on the theme, the only regret being that after he originally
liked it Stravinsky would later
disown the interpretation. Watching the film did feel like a major cinematic
event, another example of a film where the spectacle is also matched by untouchable
quality and hard work from every animator and musician involved. Only the
regret that, as well documented, Fantasia
has been censored since the sixties for a racial stereotype in the Pastoral
Symphony blots the film's exceptional qualities.
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7. The Addiction / The Blackout / New Rose Hotel (Dir. Abel Ferrara,
1995/97/98)
If this had been The Blackout and New Rose Hotel only, this entry might've been completely different.
Both are great films, let that not be dismissed, The Blackout a scuzzy tale and New
Rose Hotel a character piece which does justify its repetition of earlier
scenes for important effect, but it was The
Addiction that marked 2015 as the year I finally "got" Abel Ferrara. Bad Lieutenant
(1992), which I had seen years before and so doesn't qualify it for the
list, was an incredible eye-opener revisiting it with The Addiction adding fire to the coals of interest in him. All of
his films, revisiting them, have a heightened tone that could easily become
absurd, or tasteless as The Addiction
in its vast collage also includes historical genocide alongside philosophy and
vampirism, an earnestness alongside the darkness that has finally won me over.
His memorable characters - Christopher
Walken explaining to Asia Argento
how to seduce a man, Lili Taylor as a
female mirror of Ferrara himself
struggling through a blood addiction, Matthew
Modine being pushed along by Dennis
Hooper's Faustian film director into a night of degradation - populate a
distinct world that is entirely Ferrara's
own, all three films with Bad
Lieutenant making an exceptional marathon for any viewer to see.
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6. Eyes Without A Face (Dir. Georges Franju, 1960)
Long awaited just because of the
extensive delays the BFI dual-format DVD/Blu-Ray had from October 2014 to
Summer 2015, seeing one of the most highly acclaimed and controversial horror
films of its day was absolutely worth it. It cemented that Georges Franju is becoming one of my favourite directors, having
created a beautiful and haunting work, one that possesses scenes that are still
uncomfortably gory to sit through when it gets to the operation sequence.
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5. The Garden of Sinners (2007-2011/Anime Franchise)
The black sheep of this Top Ten
but a personal choice. It's a series of chapters of one narrative, all released
theatrically first, that could be seen as pretentious, way too violence and,
with each episode from forty minutes to a whole theatrical length, very
complicated to sit through. It neither helps that, unlike the limited edition
but affordable and beautifully put together UK DVD boxset, the original
Japanese rights owner Aniplex sold
this in the USA in a limited edition set that'd cost over $200-$300 at least,
than last year made it possible to import the Japanese Blu-Ray set for $300
plus. The only real flaw with The Garden
of Sinners for me personally, which has become its charm, is that its
ambition does mean it chews on a lot of vague and lofty dialogue, maybe
translation in the subtitles being an issue, which makes its lengthy plot which
mixes chronologically more difficult at points on the first viewing.
Beyond this however, I fall in
love with its darkened mood and willingness to take risks even compared to
other anime, its unique release origins and episode structure an immediate
virtue. It's violence, including sexual, is never exploitative but is one of
the cases, when I've seen other recent anime that has been dubious and flippant
on such content, where the explicitness when do right adds to the severity of
it. It's lofty and honestly pretentious tone doesn't detract from how
interesting its world and characters are, dark fantasy in a real city setting,
and consider its central female character is an emotionless killing machine,
how fleshed out her and the male protagonist's relationship is becomes the most
important dramatic content.
The characterisation and the
clever skewering of chronology in the first chapters really stands out as well,
as does the bravery of 1) the brutality even in a medium like anime which can
be extremely gory, 2) the willingness, not to spoil the serial, to have the
main villain effectively be concluded with halfway through but make the central
protagonists' drama the real concern with another antagonist, and 3) have the
straight to video epilogue, released a few years later, consist of only two
characters talking on a snowy road incline in an existential way, probably too
earnest and odd but such a refreshingly esoteric way to add a cherry to the
cake. Originality with how to present the material let alone the premise is
something I admire greatly, and The
Garden of Sinners is an example of an anime where its flaws cannot
undermine its great ideas. Originally theatrical features, this is as good as
you can get for animation and style, and whilst I find a lot of J-pop in anime
in vast contrast to other fans embarrassingly bad, the music by Kalafina is legitimately great, atmospheric
pop songs. Originally based on a light novel series, The Garden of Sinners is another example where a high quality
production and a willingness to put one's neck on the line for inspiration
creates something admirable.
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4. The Fritz Lang Dr. Mabuse Trilogy
The last big series of films I
saw in 2015 was Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse films. Whilst there were three
films after in the sixties and Claude
Chabrol's 1990 tribute Dr. M,
the Lang trilogy are unique in how
they are three very different entries in terms of style and presentation, all
of them however exhibiting the talents of their director.
Dr. Mabuse The Gambler (1922) is a two part epic, watched over two
nights, of the silent era with a pulp novel tone and a willingness to use the dreamlike
tone and visual effects of the pre-sound era for added greatness. The second, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), a sound film at the precipice of the Nazi
rule of Germany and Lang fleeing to
the US, sinister and fully embracing the phantastical with one of the most
freakish scenes I've seen in cinema for a long time. The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), sadly Lang's last film as poor
eyesight and the inability to get a film made until his death in 1976 prevented
him from continuing, is the least known and feels like a mid-sixties film,
predicting what Euro genre cinema would be like even without the gore or sex,
including cult actor Howard Vernon in
a nice thug role, as strong as the other films before it. Together the trio do
offer up a potent snapshot of the various fears of their time periods percectly
whilst not betraying their entertainment value, popcorn flicks as they should
be with the ability to provoke strong emotions.
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3. Scenes From A Marriage [Theatrical Version] (Dir. Ingmar Bergman,
1973)
Sadly the original television
version of Scenes From A Marriage
was never released on DVD in the UK. In general the state of Ingmar Bergman films in terms of
availability in Britain, most of which the now defunct Tartan Video had the rights to, is embarrassing including key
canonical entries in his filmography, so to be able to see them or have enough
money to import Criterion releases
from the US will be something I won't take for granted. Even in its truncated
version however Scenes From A Marriage
is an incredible drama, another example of acting at its best through Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson's central performances. A huge factor about Bergman's films as well when they are
very acting heavy, when other acting heavy films can feel fleeting and
undermine great performances, is because
the drama in each scene is taken as far as possible, in its theatrical version
only a small selection of incidents as a marriage falls apart which are allowed
to build and go through valleys and peaks of emotions even in the same scene,
incredibly powerful moments which were all felt for me.
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2. The Ballad of Narayama /The Insect Woman
(Dir. Shohei Imamura, 1983/63)
I can thank the Shohei Immamura box set released by Eureka! for allowing me to catch up with
films they had released over the last decade or so of one of my favourite
directors; sadly it's another limited edition, but even if there will not be
another Imamura release on physical
media for the next few years the box compensated for it greatly. Since I had
seen most of the films within it, these two films became a significant gap in
my knowledge of Imamura, his early
success documenting the life of a woman from her birth to older age and the
drama in-between, and his first Cannes film festival success which follows an
ancient community where the elderly are taken to the mountains to perish when
they reach a certain age. They are films, despite the changes in look that took
place in Japanese cinema over two decades aesthetically, from the stark Nikkatsu monochrome to eighties sheen,
which have the same lived in quality, a type of drama that doesn't feel
contrived because of Imamura's entomologist like attitude to outcasts, lowlifes
and the common people. His cynical view about
any organisation or philosophy meant to influence the populous - the military,
the US military, capitalism, lords and politicians - is matched with an
acceptance of the outsiders even when they are uncompromising or cold blooded
in their attempts to survive, seeing them as the real face of humanity he has
sympathy with. Completely frank in his depictions, the result feels like what
drama should be, a literal sociological study of lives which doesn't shy away,
even in the context of a sixties film, in talking about subjects like sexuality
or poverty, nor above having moments of humour or the narrative monologues of The Insect Woman does.
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1. Fruit of Paradise (Dir. Vera Chytilová, 1969)
However, even against Imamura and everything else on this
list, Fruit of Paradise was the real
surprise of the whole year. Long unavailable, its awe-inspiring opening
reinterpretation of the Adam and Eve tale by way of living, textured images is
just the beginning of an alien, curious and ultimately rewarding film. From the
director of Daisies (1966) I'm not
surprised how good it was but the sole viewing has been stuck in my mind since
then, completely disregarding narrative conventions and, like the sequence when
the female protagonist lavishly touches the collection of leaves and shells in
a set of drawers, as much about the sensations and sensations of the film's
construction as well as its tale. That it's also a tale about a man who may be
killing women, set at a strange health spar in the wilderness, adds to its
virtues, and as one of hopefully a few Chytilová
films that have or will be made available in the UK on physical media thanks to
the hard work of Second Run, I
sincerely believe she will become a favourite director of mine. With Fruit of Paradise and Daisies by themselves she probably has
already.
