Arnaud Desplechin: Kings and Queen (2004)

[Chris Knipp]

Well, these have to be sorted out individually, annual Best Lists are a personal thing and no two are alike. I was just talking about French films that were released in this country this year; they may not have the same release dates in France. I don't think a lot of people really liked Lila Says. It has had many who were not impressed.
I also think that A History of Violence is overrated, very much so, and I can see this year as in other years how critical opinions can snowball; a few like something and then before long they all think they do too. Grizzly Man is great. I rate it very high, bearing in mind that I have not seen Herzog's other recent documentary or a lot of other new ones. Clean I thought was last year. Even though I am not satisfied with 2046 I have to consider it one of the year's great foreign films because of the style and the quality of its being a kind of summary of Wong's period preoccupations. Wong is one of the foreign filmmakers who has mattered most to me over the last decade or so. Haneke I have discoverd relatively late but I admire him more and more and think Caché one of the year's best too. I wouldn't get too hung up on the Village poll. It may look canonical but it ain't. None of them are. Yeah, The Intruder....that was a fresh experience. You probably are going to like it. I see Carlos Reygadas has a new film opening here in NYC at the Angelika Film Center shortly. If you're talking about Garrel it would be better to mention Regular Lovers, which came out this year and was at the NYFF maybe Toronto and Cannes, with no US distributor though.