Best Movies of 2001

2001 is the biggest year so far - I've considered 20 films from that year to be noteworthy. The top film, Amelie, would be one of most important films for me ever.

1. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
2. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
3. The Royal Tenebaums (Wes Anderson)
4. Gosford Park (Robert Altman)
5. Monsters Inc. (Peter Docter, Lee Unkrich & David Silverman)
6. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
7. Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jensen)
8. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
9. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
10. Moulin Rogue! (Baz Luhrmann)
11. Waking Life (Richard Linklater)
12. The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel & Ethan Coen)
13. Ocean's 11 (Steven Soderbergh)
14. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
15. Zoolander (Ben Stiller)
16. Y tu mama tambien (Alfonso Cuaron)
17. The Closet (Francis Veber)
18. Rain (Christine Jeffs)
19. The Score (Frank Oz)
    
20. Buffalo Soldiers (Gregor Jordan)
    

What a film that could have been...

Studying at the moment at 1am in the computer room on campus for my Robert Altman essay that is due on Friday, about three times now its been mentioned that he was dropped for the Ragtime film which turned out (apparently) rather average. I would have so loved to see an Altman version of Ragtime. Pity Altman's dead now.

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day Seven

Day One: M*A*S*H
Day Two: McCabe & Mrs Miller
Day Three: The Long Goodbye
Day Four: Nashville
Day Five: The Player
Day Six: Gosford Park

Robert Altman died about six months after A Prairie Home Companion was released so it proved to be his last and with its permutations on death turned out to be a rather foreshadowing film. It received lackluster reviews but I highly enjoyed it, this film was my introduction to Altman when I watched it at the end of last year. I picked it up at the video store with the firm intention to finally watch one of his movies. (It would later turn out that I would have to study him the next year - stuff like that always amuses me)

The video is of one of the songs amongst the many I could have chosen.

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day Six

Day One: M*A*S*H
Day Two: McCabe & Mrs Miller
Day Three: The Long Goodbye
Day Four: Nashville
Day Five: The Player

Ah, the penultimate day and today's featured movie is Gosford Park. This won the oscar for best original screenplay. Beating some of my favourite films like Memento, Amelie and The Royal Tenenbaums. It beat Monster's Ball as well - but I haven't seen that.

The video today is one of the songs sung, which has been a bit of theme for the videos I've posted from Youtube. Mainly because they're about all that can be found. Altman has an interesting relationship with music. Something that totally needs to be explored... just not now.

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day Five

Day One: M*A*S*H
Day Two: McCabe & Mrs Miller
Day Three: The Long Goodbye
Day Four: Nashville

So we go from 1975 to 1992. After making what many consider to be his masterpiece he slips a little and he makes films like Popeye. Finally, he makes his "comeback" with The Player. Though, it's not really a comeback, he never really went anywhere. People were still giving him money to sit behind a camera.

The clip below is the seven and half minute opening sequence of the movie. I can't actually watch it at the moment because my internet has seemed to have grinded to a halt. According to the comments there is some kind of error with the clip and there looks like there is a cut. But there really isn't.

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day Four

Day One: M*A*S*H
Day Two: McCabe & Mrs Miller
Day Three: The Long Goodbye

Well, we're now onto the last film of the 70's that I've seen of Altman's. Tomorrow will be quite a leap in time after this. Many consider Nashville to be Altman's magnus opus - this three hour epic film of five days in Nashville. 24 main characters all just living. It's truly an amazing film, one of the few films that feel organic when you watch it. It truly feels like a living breathing thing. The video is one of the songs - I'm Easy by Keith Carradine, though I would have really liked to have used the 200 years song from the very beginning.

Some Quick Film Reviews

Seen a bunch of films over the last couple of weeks. So without wasting any more time...

Thelma & Louise (1991, Ridley Scott)
I now finally understand that Simpsons episode where Marge meets Ruth Powers. This is one of those movies that everyone has seemed to have seen except for me... but not anymore! The film itself was really enjoyable. 8/10

Strictly Ballroom (1992, Baz Luhrmann)
I saw Moulin Rouge! about a month ago which introduced me to the exorbitant Baz Luhrmann. The amazing thing is how effortlessly he pulls it off. This film is certainly a charmer. 8/10

A Mighty Wind (2003, Christopher Guest)
Back in first year I randomly got the poster for this film to liven up the hallway in my hall of residence. There was something about those cheery faces that I felt would unsettle everyone else on the floor. I'm a huge fan of the previous movies (Best In Show, Waiting For Guffman, etc...) and this one was nice while not quite living up to those ones. 7.5/10

THX 1138 (1971, George Lucas)
I've never been a big fan of these totalitarian visions of the future movies. They all seem too 1984ish. A good one though. 7/10

Pret-A-Porter (1994, Robert Altman)
This is the eighth Altman film I've seen and this one just felt like Altman going through the paces. It was him applying all those techniques he's known for but for what? It was funny, had some interesting characters and worked. Maybe I'm just experiencing some Altman burnout - seven of those Altman films I saw this year. 7/10

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day Three

Day One: M*A*S*H
Day Two: McCabe & Mrs Miller

Altman's 1973 adaptation The Long Goodbye, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler bombed at the box office. Initially marketed as a straight-up film noir. Elliott Gould as Marlowe didn't convince anyone. With time, it's been more accepted as what it was: a satire. The video below is the opening of the film - it shows many of Altman's characteristic techniques - a warning though - it's ten minutes long.

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day Two

In 1971, a year after MASH, Robert Altman released McCabe & Mrs Miller. His take on the Western. Youtube wasn't very giving with videos. All of them featured Leonard Cohen singing (as he provides the soundtrack) so I decided to give you the trailer.

Seven Days of Robert Altman: Day One

I'm about to write an essay about the late film director Robert Altman - so you should expect lots of writing about Altman on this blog. I find him to be completely fascinating as a director and he's currently my latest favourite director - so far this year I've seen six of his films. With the one I watched at the end of last year that's a total of seven - so I've decided to dedicate this week to Altman and will post a new youtube video every day of an Altman movie.

I start off with M*A*S*H which was the film that broke him into the mainstream way back in 1970. This video has the song that will later become the theme song for the television series... with the lyrics removed of course...