Retro Lists! Best Films of the Year: 1998

A year or two back I retrospectively began to post up my best of the year film lists on Dark Eye Socket; they are currently complete from 2000 to 2010. (Scroll down the right-hand side of the blog page and click on 'top tens' under 'labels'.) In the run up to the 2011 film lists in Dec/Jan I'll be sporadically posting up my film picks from 1999 all the way back to 1990. (1989 and earlier may have to just remain a mystery... for now, anyway.)

As with the earlier posts it's purely to maintain a record of them online, for personal posterity, and for the general perusal of anyone so inclined to scroll through them. As ever, the films are dictated by UK release date (all were, by-and-large, released here between Jan. 1st and Dec. 31st 1999). The conspicuous absence of certain significant or key titles may mean that either, a) I saw the film in question and didn't rate it highly enough, or b) I didn't see it and still have it to look forward to. Hurrah for cinematic longevity. But, of course, as is always the case in these matters, the list could all change in a week, a month, a year as, when and if I see more films from 1999 in future.

But for now, here are My Ten Selections for Best of 1998:

01. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)

02. The Hole (Tsai Ming-Liang)

03. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)

04. Live Flesh (Pedro Almodóvar)

05. Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven)

06. Love and Death on Long Island (Richard Kwietniowski)

07. The Kingdom (Lars von Trier)

08. Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov)

09. Love Is the Devil (John Maybury)

10. Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Five more, in no order:

Cube (Vincenzo Natali)
A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes)
Snake Eyes (Brian De Palma)
Happy Together (Wong Kar Wai)

Male & Female Acting of the Year:

* Homayon Ershadi Taste of Cherry
John Hurt Love and Death on Long Island
Robert Forster Jackie Brown
Derek Jacobi Love Is the Devil
Steve Martin The Spanish Prisoner

* Pam Grier Jackie Brown
Julianne Moore Boogie Nights
Toni Collette Velvet Goldmine
Sigourney Weaver The Ice Storm
Susanne Lothar Funny Games

Retro Lists! Best Films of the Year: 1999

A year or two back I retrospectively began to post up my best of the year film lists on Dark Eye Socket; they are currently complete from 2000 to 2010. (Scroll down the right-hand side of the blog page and click on 'top tens' under 'labels'.) In the run up to the 2011 film lists in Dec/Jan I'll be sporadically posting up my film picks from 1999 all the way back to 1990. (1989 and earlier may have to just remain a mystery... for now, anyway.)

As with the earlier posts it's purely to maintain a record of them online, for personal posterity, and for the general perusal of anyone so inclined to scroll through them. As ever, the films are dictated by UK release date (all were, by-and-large, released here between Jan. 1st and Dec. 31st 1999). The conspicuous absence of certain significant or key titles may mean that either, a) I saw the film in question and didn't rate it highly enough, or b) I didn't see it and still have it to look forward to. Hurrah for cinematic longevity. But, of course, as is always the case in these matters, the list could all change in a week, a month, a year as, when and if I see more films from 1999 in future.

But, for now and for fun curiosity, here are My ten selections for Best of 1999:

01. Belfast, Maine (Frederick Wiseman)

02. eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)

03. The Iron Giant (Brad Bird)

04. Gods and Monsters (Bill Condon)

05. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)

06. High Art (Lisa Cholodenko)

07. Central Station (Walter Salles)

08. Last Night (Don McKellar)

09. The Straight Story (David Lynch)

10. A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)

Five more, in no order:

Festen (Thomas Vinterberg)
The Apple/Sib (Samira Makhmalbaf)
Felicia's Journey (Atom Egoyan)
Ravenous (Antonia Bird)
Following (Christopher Nolan)

Male & Female Acting of the Year - five each, no order:

* Ian McKellen Gods and Monsters
Richard Farnsworth The Straight Story
Bill Murray Rushmore
James Caviezel The Thin Red Line
Guy Pierce Ravenous

* Fernanda Montenegro Central station
Bodil Jørgensen The Idiots
Ally Sheedy High Art
Sissy Spacek The Straight Story
Nicole Kidman Eyes Wide Shut

Take Three @ TFE: Season 2 Wrap-up

My Take Three column (the Sunday Film Experience series which looks at three notable performances from a supporting or character actor's career) has finished until February next year. But, until then, here's the intro and a handy link to a wrap-up post of all 24 write-ups from season 2.

Last Sunday’s ‘Take Three’ on Paul Dano was the last edition for a while. I’ve enjoyed writing season 2 a great deal. I hope they've been interesting to read, too. The series resumed in March with Marisa Tomei, an actress who has been doing some her best work in recent years; similarly, Barbara Hershey has seen a keen resurgence in her career recently, particularly with Black Swan; and Judy Davis, quiet on the big screen over the last few years, will again be a name on everyone’s lips with new movies due soon. Writing about Shelley Duvall and Isabella Rossellini was sheer pleasure. They're two actresses who have uncommon elegance, with quirks and kinks on the side in everything that they do...

Read the rest here