Ah, lists. Lists represent a problem for me in any form. While most of the blogosphere has chimed in with a traditional ten best list, I have had a hard time making one myself. All of the starts and stops have lead me to the understanding that art is not something that I enjoy ranking; I am far too aware that my own moods, needs and expectations are usually as important to my relationship with a film as the movie itself. That is to say, I somehow allow the experience of seeing a film with an audience to impact my personal assessment of the film. Most of us will admit to amazing communal experiences seeing movies; those moments in a theater that confirm (or even initiate) our love of film. Obviously, these are not the best set of critical tools; most critical minds try to divorce the context of attending a screening from the film being presented, and I try too. But sometimes, that wonderful convergence of experience and presentation lead to a feeling of absolute kismet. These are the experiences I want to celebrate at the end of 2005, the moments that reminded me of why I love film in the first place.

So, I present The Back Row Manifesto’s Top 10 Cinematic Experiences of 2005... Enjoy!

1. Kings and Queen/ La vie des morts at BAM’s Arnaud Desplechin Retrospective

As mentioned in my last post, 2005 has been a year-long love affair with Kings and Queen; I saw the film twice in 2004 (at Toronto and the New York Film Festival) before seeing it three times in 2005; at BAM, programming it in competition at the 2005 Sarasota Film Festival, and then seeing it again at the Cinema Village upon its theatrical release. I even got to interview Desplechin for indieWIRE, the best 45 minutes of my year hands down (Thanks Eug and Brian!). Of all of those screenings, two truly stand out; the near empty press screening at Toronto 2004 (where I saw the film for the first time) and the BAM screening with Arnaud Desplechin in attendance. I took a large group of friends to the screening, and while most were excited by our proximity to the stars in attendance (Michael Stipe sat directly in front of us), everyone who joined for the screening loved the film. The highlight of the evening was the Q&A, where Desplechin answered questions and was as humble and charming as ever. Of course, I just got the DVD as a Christmas present (Thanks, honey!). The following Sunday, BAM did us all a favor and screened Desplechin’s first featurette La vie des morts, which has rarely been screened here in the U.S. The screening, nearly full and bristling with energy, had the feeling of a private viewing for like-minded friends. The film itself did not disappoint, and the grainy print delivered the sense of communal revelation; the answer to a long, lost secret.

2. The Year of Herzog! Grizzly Man/The White Diamond/Wheel of Time

I didn’t see this one coming, but in early summer, I took in Werner Herzog’s Wheel of Time and The White Diamond and instantaneously fell back in love with Herzog as an artist. It was weeks later when I finally caught up with Grizzly Man, which I found to be one of the most important documentaries of the year. As I mentioned before, no other filmmaker in the past decade, maybe in all of film history, can lay claim to a stronger single year than Werner Herzog’s 2005, and with the impending release of Wild Blue Yonder and the fictional Rescue Dawn in 2006, Herzog appears to be on a five film in two year filmmaking bender that I anxiously await. Of all of the 2005 moments, two Herzog experiences stand out; Mark Antony Yhap’s statement of regret for his own inability to bring his rooster on board for his trip above the tree line in The White Diamond was probably the most human moment on screen this year, and the experience of watching Grizzly Man with my friend G, who was reduced to tears by the story.

3. The Wayward Cloud at The Toronto Film Festival

Tsai Ming-Liang’s The Wayward Cloud is the one movie I saw this year that blew away every expectation I had. I went to a late-festival press screening in Toronto, exhausted from a week of parties, films, meetings, and far too little sleep only to be riveted to my seat for the entire film. Let’s be frank; If someone doesn’t buy and release this film, I may lose what little faith I retain in American film distribution. There is no filmmaker who blends a deadpan sense of humor so deftly with a humane appreciation of the cruelties of human suffering as Tsai, and I think The Wayward Cloud is his best to date. Anyone who has ever felt desire for another person only to be devastated by the consummation of that desire (and who among has not longed for something only to be shattered by the possession of it) will feel this film in their bones; I can’t say I’ve ever seen romantic love eviscerated quite so perfectly.

4. Darwin’s Nightmare at BAM

How did this film walk out of the 2004 Toronto Film Festival without being hailed as the masterpiece of the entire event? I foolishly skipped the Toronto screening only to stumble upon a preview screening at BAM (again, I must declare my admiration for Florence Almonzini and her continual excellence in programming) with J, only to walk away convinced that we had seen a primal representation of the documentary form. Everything about Hubert Sauper’s film is perfect; the dramatic structure, the images captured, the experiences conveyed. Not many films can lay claim to changing one’s world view, especially when it is as admittedly lefty as my own, but Darwin’s Nightmare proved my most pessimistic fears to be wild under exaggerations. I challenge anyone to watch this film with an open mind and not be shaken to the core.

5. Keane at the Nantucket Film Festival

If there were one movie for which I could grab American by the lapels, shake it violently, slap it a few times across the cheeks, and force it to sit down and watch, it would have to be Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, the most criminally unseen film of 2005. I was lucky enough to be able to program the film for the Nantucket Film Festival, and Lodge and his amazing daughter Serena joined us for the weekend; the experience of meeting the Kerrigans only heightened my appreciation for this incredible movie. For those who have seen the film, Lodge and Serena both went up after the screenings for the Q&A, and you can imagine the questions from the floor as father and daughter faced the audience. Interestingly, every preview I saw at the movies this season seemed to be premised on a family in crisis (MI3, Firewall, etc.), but as an expression of parental anxiety, there may not be a more potent movie ever made than Keane.

America, You Blew It: Damien Lewis in Lodge Kerrigan's terribly neglected Keane

6. Caché & Press Conference at The New York Film Festival

Everyone loves a controversy, so it should come as no surprise that one of the year’s most controversial (and most excellent) films, Caché, provided the most heated press conference for a film I’ve ever seen. Of course, the conference wasn’t heated because of the film’s statements on bourgeois guilt and violence in modern-day Paris, but because the filmmaker wouldn’t spill a single answer to the film’s biggest riddle. Michael Haneke announced at the beginning of the conference that he would not answer any questions on the subject and, true to his word, deflected questioner after questioner who sought the director’s interpretation of his own film. It was a revelatory moment watching the best and brightest of the press corps rise to a collective boil because an artist refused to tell them what to think about his work; I am desperately looking forward to the reviews of the film where writers will be forced to think for themselves and feel their way through the film’s meaning. I write this almost one year to the day after we lost Susan Sontag, and it is heartening to watch an artist live up to her ideals.

7. The Best of Youth Double Header at The Film Forum

Am I the only person who moved to New York City specifically to be closer to cinema? Sure, I followed work as well, but deep down, I have always imagined the lifestyle available to a cinephile in NYC to be an ideal just beyond my reach; It’s not like I hang out with A.O. Scott or other film bloggers and spend long, languid nights talking about movies (although, god, that sounds amazing). Instead, I follow the anonymous crowds in and out of public and press screenings, having a cocktail or dinner after a film and talking about it for a few minutes before turning to other topics. But there was a single screening this year that was probably the closest I have ever been to living the dream; back to back screenings of Parts I and II of The Best of Youth at the Film Forum with about 6 friends, followed by a walk in the rain to TriBeCa for a long, conversation filled dinner. Let's begin at the beginning; Our group sat in the front row for the first half of the film (everyone ran very late), but I looked down the line and all eyes were riveted to the screen. At the intermission, everyone was abuzz about the first half , and even the most cynical and impatient of the group had no intention to leave before seeing the second half. After moving our seats to the middle of the theater, a gentleman behind us asked what we thought so far, and we all talked glowingly about the movie; a very friendly conversation in a movie theater that sometimes you are often compelled to start if only to confirm that your pleasure is shared. I love when this happens. By the end of the second half, the group was emotionally exhausted and completely satisfied as we spilled through the glass doors and out onto Houston St. We got a table at the restaurant we had agreed upon, ordered lots of good wine, ate a ton of good food, and talked about the movie, and film, for hours. Even the bill was modestly priced. All in all, a perfect day. Thanks to M, G, E, KT, PG and J for sharing it with me.

8. Lilya 4-Ever at The Walter Reade Cinema (Sat April 2: 2pm)

This one is a no brainer; having seen everything by Lukas Moodysson except Lilya 4-ever, I bolted up to the Walter Reade to see their New Swedish Cinema screening of the film. I know I am late to the party, but somehow this movie eluded me for a couple of years despite my undying attempts to catch up with it. The movie is an awesome achievement, made more so by the fact that on this particular day, every degradation and outrage was so deeply felt. Sometimes, the right film catches you on the right day and your internal rhythms and needs match exactly what the film delivers, and this was my experience seeing Lilya 4-ever which has since become a personal touchstone for me (it is now available on Netflix, so no excuses). After the film, J was so inconsolable in the lobby of the theater, she couldn’t talk to me at all; she simply stood in front of the movie poster display and cried her eyes out. Her reaction was everything I had been feeling as well, and somehow, in the afterglow of the film’s devastating finale, we understood one another perfectly.

9. Overlord at The Sarasota Film Festival

There are moments that we film programmers live for; for many, that involves a world premiere film discovery being acknowledged and sold at a film festival. For others, like me, it involves being able to find an audience for a film (and a filmmaker) that might otherwise go unseen. At last year’s Sarasota Film Festival, I was able to bring in Stuart Cooper and his brand new print of the almost forgotten 1975 masterpiece Overlord to a wildly appreciative audience. I was shocked, not because of the warm response the film received from our audience (it certainly deserved it), but because of the number of people who came out to see it. If there was one film that made me feel like I had done my job as a programmer, that made me feel good about working for 6 months to put together a film program, this was it. Stuart was so gracious, the crowd so moved; everything in that theater was just how I had hoped it would be. I hope that bodes well for the film’s upcoming release from Janus Films; be sure to run out and see it in 2006.

10. Innocence at the Cinema Village

In all honesty, and despite the fact that I loved the film, the best thing about seeing the brazenly inventive Innocence was watching the parade of single men over the age of 45 walk into the tiniest theater in the Cinema Village, scrutinize the very small seating space for a modicum of privacy and, finding none, fidget uncomfortably in their seats until the lights went down. I’m not saying that anything was amiss during the screening, and I promise I didn’t see any trenchcoats, but let’s just say that the skeeve-factor on that particular weekday afternoon screening was off the charts. Of course, the film itself is so unique and full of wonder, with its own fairy tale logic and an entire universe of meaning glimmering in the frame, I rest easy knowing that any perv who saw Innocence with the hopes of being aroused must have left the theater slightly confused and maybe a better man for the experience. Here is the perfect example of art triumphing over misunderstanding, rumor and expectation by creating a world that resists any attempt at stereotyping.

Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2006!

This year, I was honored to once again be invited by the team at indieWIRE to participate in their Best of Foreign-Language Film Poll. Interestingly, my own votes echoed quite a few of my peers in the industry, while others were clearly different. My only complaint was the exclusion of Werner Herzog and his trifecta of amazing documentaries from the 'foreign' category (the poll is for foreign 'language' films). I think Herzog was the Director of the Year by a country mile, releasing 3 amazing films this year (Grizzly Man, Wheel of Time, and The White Diamond) with no one coming close to that achievement in the past decade (maybe ever). I do not regret my vote for Lucrecia Martel , but she was not my first choice. Shouldn't documentary films independently produced in Tibet/India or Guyana by a German Director count, despite having English-speaking voice overs and/or subjects? Ah, the complications of globalization. Maybe next year.

Without further ado, and in the spirit of full-disclosure, the Back Row Manifesto presents our complete ballot in the 2005 indieWIRE Foreign-Language Film Poll...

Best Film
KINGS AND QUEEN by Arnaud Desplechin
This movie was my favorite film of any kind released this year, not simply foreign. Desplechin is at the top of his game, and with star turns from both Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric, the film is a terrific blend of comedy and tragedy. My interview with Arnaud Desplechin can be found here, and talking with him was the absolute highlight of my year. My thoughts on the film can be found here.

Valentin Lelong and Mathieu Amalric in Arnaud Desplechin's Kings and Queen

Best Documentary
DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE by Hubert Sauper
DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE is the most powerful statement on the current state of the world; the film's images are so profound, experiences so full that any other medium seems useless. Essential. My thoughts on the film can be found here.

Best Director
Lucrecia Martel for THE HOLY GIRL
It is hard when you live in a society that constantly denies the notion of a class structure to understand the lack of American perspective on the decay of the priviledged classes, but in films like Michael Haneke's CACHÉ and Lucrecia Martel's awesome THE HOLY GIRL, we saw the global reality of the spiritual and moral decline of the bourgeoise take center stage again. Foreign films can show us the status of class relations world wide, but I am still waiting for an American director to outline the flawed American class structure with anywhere near the skill and grace on display in THE HOLY GIRL.

Best Screenplay
THE WORLD by Jia Zhangke
A perfect distillation of urban anxiety about globalization and the emptiness of work. I loved this story, which was the perfect microcosm of the struggle of foreign film in the American marketplace. My thoughts on the film can be found here.

Best Actor
Jean-Pierre Bacri in LOOK AT ME
Bacri's scowling, nasty Étienne Cassard is a classic on-screen bastard who, surprisingly, elicited a tremendous amount of sympathy from the audiences of LOOK AT ME. Bacri eats the part up and is tremendous fun to watch in the role of the mean, selfish, indifferent father who slings bon-mots like a cowboy drawing a pistol. My previously unblogged review of the film can be found after the jump.*

Jean-Pierre Bacri and Marilou Berry in Agnes Jaoui's Look At Me

Best Actress
Emmanuelle Devos for KINGS AND QUEEN and GILLES' WIFE
Devos had two great roles this year, and both were criminally underseen by audiences. In KINGS AND QUEEN, she plays a self-centered mother with a closet full of skeletons, and in GILLES' WIFE, a troubled wife and mother who can't find a way to reconcile her own needs with the social confines in which she lives. The roles were miles apart, but all Devos; shy, quiet, full of intensity and innocence. She is emerging as a great actress.

Best Supporting Actor/Actress
The cast of NOBODY KNOWS by Hirokazu Kore-eda
It is not too often that a film almost exclusively starring an entire cast of children is as powerful and well-acted as NOBODY KNOWS. These perfromances, none of which were a leading role, all feel totally real, not acted, and the entire ensemble are worthy of praise, as is the director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who got his cast to deliver a stunning ensemble performance.

Best First Film
INNOCENCE by Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Beautiful, baffling, and terribly underseen, this story of a community of young girls guiding one another along the road to sexual maturity is a fully realized fairy tale unlike anything else seen this year. Completely original.

Best Technical Achievement (Cinematography, Production Design, Editing, etc.)
2046 by WONG KAR-WAI
Stunning! What more can you say?

Don't Act Like You've Never Seen A Ten Before... Click It!

Thanks To E-Liz For the Link!

All of those promises to blog, oh so long ago. Sigh.

I forgive myself for not writing more, and frankly this time, no excuses aside from the general holiday madness. I have been running around like the chicken from Caché! (Insert rim shot). Let me get you up to speed, in case you are a person who truly cares why I haven't been a good blogger this month.

I flew home to Michigan for Thanksgiving and, after a lovely dinner with the family and with J, drove back to NYC with a car. I loaded up the car, and J and I drove down to Florida in a single 19 hour stretch. It was really fun, listened to the entirety of Freakanomics on my iPod, and in the interest of time, skipped South Of The Border* and drove on through to Sarasota.

After arriving in Sarasota, I got unpacked and moved into my new digs: an office/apartment directly above the Film Festival offices. It's actually a nice set up and, once I got cable installed, is a pretty good place to cook, sleep, work and hang out, which is all I can really ask of gratis housing. Two days after arriving in Sarasota, J headed back to NYC and I headed off to Los Angeles for a week of film festival meetings with Jody, the SFF's Executive Director. It was a very successful trip and though I can't yet discuss details, I left L.A. energized for a great festival.

The past couple of weeks since that trip have been a constant series of phone calls, emails, film tracking updates, confirmations (yay!), declines (boo!) and in between, trying to get to the gym and to the stores to buy gifts. I have totally failed in all social/familial areas. In light of the time crunch, who has time for movies and blogging? Ok, well, I do. But only a little bit. I have become a big fan of the 10:00pm week night screening; the teenagers are home, the cell phones are silent and all is well. That said, I can understand the issues people have with going to the movies; the theater itself is an unprofessional place, full of underpaid workers who don't want to confront problems. Long lines, obnoxious behavior? Oh, yeah. 20 minutes of commercials? Check. That said, there is a great art house here in Sarasota and they do a nice job of keeping it simple, but the screen size, the sound system, the seats, etc. are not up to the standard of the multiplex. Its a battle of comfort vs. quality. That is why theaters that can provide both can be a real boon to the exhibitor industry, I feel. I'll stop complaining now; here are some quick thoughts on what I've been up to.

1. The Sundance Channel is kicking ass lately. Is it just me? I saw Cassavetes' Minnie and Moskowitz the other night (my new cable box has a DVR; dear lord, how did I survive before this?), and despite grumblings from recently migrated curmudgeons, I am a fan of Iconoclasts, which is very interesting. I have only seen Mario Batali on Michael Stipe and Renée Zellweger on Christiane Amanpour, but both shows feature an aspect I really love; watching two famous people totally mark out for one another. It's interesting to not only see artists from different worlds meeting and talking, but it is fun to watch the vulnerability of someone who is outside their element; Stipe in the kitchen and Zellweger confronting tragedy (although both acquit themselves nicely). Anyway, I'm a fan.

2. King Kong: I liked a lot of it and was put off by the hokey bits, but one thing I really liked about the film was the lack of a single perspective; the film always shifts between Anne, Kong, and Denham and there is no narration/voice over/exposition. It is much to the film's benefit that there are none of the old shorthand tricks; a cop never looks up and says "He's headed for the Empire State Building!" or an airforce plane scrambling scene; we are always with the characters, and this only intensifies our empathy because as the challenges arrive, they are surprising to the characters and to us. But there are problems as well; do we need the Coke comerical on the Central Park pond (oh, that cute furry guy!)? And finally, Peter Jackson, your film apparantly cost over $200 million dollars... can you please find a new camera effect to replace your low budget "drop the frame rate/ faux slo-mo" trick that you have now used to death? I hate this effect in every film I see it, it is a hack technique, so it is a shock to see something so technically accomplished as the Brontosaurus stampede coupled with the attack of the 'natives' scene, which looks right out of a cheap cable thriller.

3. Syriana: I was underwhelmed by this film, more so because of the structural/stylistic deja-vu I felt watching it (it is oh so Traffic) than because of any real deficiencies in the film itself. The real problem here is that there are too many subplots that don't get enough time and the film feels like two movies; a thriller about a CIA agent who loses a rocket to a terrorist and is scapegoated for a failed assassination attempt, and a corporate espionage procedural about an oil merger and its political ramifications. The stories certainly overlap and come together, but the details you really want to see are glossed over for more and more scenes that drive home the film's obvious political points. The film doesn't say anything new, but conveys familiar ideas well.

4.Walk The Line: Great singing, great acting. Again, biopic shorthand is utilized to great effect and that is fine, but personally, I am waiting for the film that re-invents the biopic genre. I preferred Capote for its intense focus on a short period of time, but Walk The Line at least knows it is a love story and delivers on the archetype. Fair enough. The film could use a trim and there are lots of indulgent closeups that seem to linger (thus "showing us the soul"-- feh) but I have to say, just as I started to squirm a little, a song would begin and I'd be smiling and tapping my toes.

That is really all. I will be posting a list of the Top Films of 2005 soon, so stay tuned, and until then, Happy Holidays!**

* Is it just me, or is this concept more than a little dated and, let's be honset, racist? If I were South Carolina, I might try to change my image a little. Yeesh.

**That's right, Happy Holidays! Who the fuck is going to start a culture war based on a friendly greeting? Ah, religious right, you continually find ways to sicken me...

There are no X-Box 360’s left in the entirety of America. Don’t have one yet? You blew it. Somehow, a mere 4 days after the season’s big-ticket kiddie gift was released, the good ol’ US of A has managed to consume the entire first run of Microsoft’s new video game system. Not a new story (I am old enough to remember the Cabbage Patch Kids debacle of the mid-eighties), but still somehow completely indicative of the season; if Hollywood tried to cash in on the phenomenon, as they did in Governor Schwarzenegger’s craptastic Jingle All The Way, you know that the popular post-Thanksgiving shopping orgy has transcended tradition to become a mindless ritual. Not that I am complaining too much; aside from the occasional traffic jam near the entrance of Wal-Mart, the mad-dash to “buy! buy! buy!” tends to leave a nice void in the movie theaters. Sure, Hollywood is banking on the holiday season to deliver the big revenues and somehow rescue an abysmal year at the box office, but not quite yet. You’ll notice hardly anyone is rushing to release their cash cows in the late November/ early December window; we’re all too busy fighting one another for the best retail deals* and running to see Harry Potter continue his run as the most boring character ever to be franchised. No, the big movies are just on the horizon, hazy in the bleary-eyed distance like an oasis in the parched, cracked landscape; like a mirage, cinematic greatness often remains an illusion.

I don’t mean to be a Grinch or a Scrooge, but seriously, how much holiday shopping can you do? How many times can you confront the endless volume of human traffic and still maintain your sanity? The holiday season is a wonderful time of year to actually do some good and give, especially this year when so many people are in so much need, but instead of watching your fellow man devolve into a slack-jawed automaton while waiting in line at the utterly worthless customer service desk of the local Best Buy franchise**, may I suggest a trip to the movies? Who knows, you may find it to be a gift you give yourself, and there’s nothing wrong with that. God, I can’t believe I typed that last sentence.

This year’s holiday films seem to be an interesting mix of compelling stories that are destined for Oscar props, but I wouldn’t know; I haven’t seen any of them. Unlike my insider friends who have spent the entire fall attending press screenings and trying to out blog one another about which films are destined for success, I haven’t seen anything since In Her Shoes (which I liked quite a bit, actually). What kind of cinephile film blogger am I? The snobby, elitist douche-bag that Armond White recently excoriated? *** Outsider pretender to filmic insight? Loser? I don’t really care. Placing tongue firmly against the inside of my cheek, The Back Row Manifesto presents our Sights Unseen Holiday Film Preview.

Brokeback Mountain

I can’t be sure, from what I understand, this is Eugene Hernandez’s favorite movie of the year, so I assume it’s actually pretty good because hey, I trust Eugene. In the film, which I haven’t seen despite two chances to catch it in Toronto (I was saving it for theatrical release), apparently Heath Ledger breaks Jake Gyllenhaal’s heart by not domesticating their cowboy love, only to have his own heart broken by tragedy. At least that’s what happened in Annie Proulx’s amazing short story. Joking aside, this one is gonna be good if they stick to the mood of the original story and from all accounts, it’s excellent. I can’t wait to trick my step-mom into seeing it!

Ride 'em Cowboy: Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain