Favorites Of 1998

1.- THE THIN RED LINE (Terrence Malick)
2.- MY NAME IS JOE (Ken Loach)
3.- HAPPINESS (Todd Solondz)
4.- RUSHMORE (Wes Anderson)
5.- SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (John Madden)
--- VIETNAM: LONG TIME COMING (Blumenthal-Gilbert-Quinn)
7.- BULWORTH (Warren Beatty)
--- SMALL SOLDIERS (Joe Dante)
--- TRANS (Julian Goldberger)
10. A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES (James Ivory)
--- DANCE ME TO MY SONG (Rolf de Heer)
--- DARK CITY (Alex Proyas)

Runners Up

Gods and Monsters, Velvet Goldmine, Pleasantville, The Big Lebowski, Elizabeth, Babe: Pig in the City, Primary Colors, Twilight, The Farm: Angola U.S.A., Saving Private Ryan, There's Something About Mary.

1. FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI (Hou Hsiao Hsien/ Taiwan)
2. THE APPLE (Samira Mahkmalbaf/ Iran)
-- CABARET BALKAN (Goran Paskaljevic/ Yugoslavia)
4. THE CELEBRATION (Thomas Vitenberg/ Denmark)
-- THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS (Erick Zonka/ France)
-- I STAND ALONE (Gaspar Noe/ France)
-- THE HOLE (Tsai Ming Liang/ Taiwan)
8. BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT (Emir Kusturica/ Yugoslavia)
-- CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST (Jin Ho Hur/ South Korea)
-- DOCTOR AKAGI (Shohei Imamura/ Japan)
-- ETERNITY AND A DAY (Theo Angelopoulos/ Greece)
-- LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER (Olivier Assayas/ France)

Runners Up

Lovers of the Artic Circle, Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, Divorce Iranian Style, Central Station, West Beirut, Secret Defense, Wind With the Gone, Beshkempir the Adopted Son, The Harmonium in my Memory, Show Me Love, Alice and Martin, Divine, The Rose Seller.

1. Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg)
2. Thin Red Line (Malick)
3. Rushmore (Anderson)
4. Flowers of Shanghai (Hsaio-Hsien)
5. John Leguizamo’s Freak (Lee)
6. After Life (Koreeda)
7. Run, Lola Run (Twynker)
8. Eternity and a Day (Angelopoulos)
9. The Big Lebowski (Coen)
10. The Hole (Ming-Liang)

bubbling under were Spike Lee's He Got Game, Steven Soderbergs Out of Sight, and Woody Allen's Celebrity.

Over all the year wasn't nearly as strong as the next year would prove. I was tempted as to whether or not John Leguizamo's performance film Freak actually counted, but hell if The Magic Flute (1975) is a real movie then I suppose this is as well. Although the film was directed by Spike Lee, it is entirely Leguizamo, and no other picture has come close to tapping the amount of talent this man posesses.

I love most of the films on your list, and the other ones are at least worth seeing. I have the Spielberg film as a runner-up mostly because of outstanding production/tech values. Huge agreement between us regarding Leguizamo's talent, both as a performer and writer. It's only that, for me, the Obie award-winning first one-man show he made Mambo Mouth (1991) is the one that's most consistently funny and revealing. He wrote and performed that debut not knowing whether he'd ever get another chance, and it shows.

Again a very difficult year. It seems like I've seen dozens of great films in 1998


1. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick / USA, Canada)
2. Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Julio Medem / Spain, France)
3. City of Angels (Brad Silberling / USA)
4. Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade (Hiroyuki Okiura / Japan)
5. After Life (Hirokazu Koreeda / Japan)
6. Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo / USA)
7. Eternity and a Day (Theo Angelopoulos / Greece, France, Italy)
8. The Idiots (Lars von Trier / Denmark, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Italy)
9. L`ennui (Cédric Kahn / France, Portugal)
10. Celebrity (Woody Allen / USA)

Nice lists Sano

You also have Barry Lyndon on your profile-
would you like a Beck's compliments of moi?

:)

Is that Walerian Boro on your profile as well?

He's a dirty little secret in my house...

Thanks.

Yes, that's Boro, just couldn't type the full title due to space restriction. He is one of my top ten directors, but seems to be awfully neglected nowadays. There's a good article at sensesofcinema.com with the author promising to finish a book on him in the near future :-)
I'm glad you like him. Though Goto - Island of Love is so far my favorite, the other four films I've seen from hear are also great. But it's difficult getting your hands on an uncensored copy of many of his films, and I'd love to see his animated stuff from the 60s.