Best movies of 2010 lists

[tabuno]

Howard Schumann just posted, "I never said these were THE best films of the year or that Shutter Island was included in THE most disappointing films. The list are MY favorites and those I was disappointed in. As in all lists, they are my personal opinion. The world would be very dull if everybody saw things the same way."

Perhaps, Howard may be correct that he "never said" such things, but and I quote from his earlier post:

"Most Disappointing films of 2010

Shutter Island, It’s Complicated. Another Year, Mao’s Last Dancer, Never Let Me Go, Invictus, When You’re Strange, I Am Love"

If my eyes are deceiving me the words under - The Disappointing films of 2010" are Shutter Island. Mr. Schumann has written that Shutter Island was included in THE most disappointing films.

Am I hullcinating all this?

[oscar jubis]

Where are you, Tabuno?
I watched THE DOUBLE HOUR from Chris's Best Unreleased 0f 2010, which has been released in 2011 to quite good reviews (72 Metacritic). I'm sorry to say that I found the film more conventional and less...artful than I was hoping. That ancient, cheap device of springing an unmotivated, extra-diegetic sudden loud noise on the viewer has got to go. Soulful performance by the male lead and an intriguing mystery plot are huge assets. I agree with the Voice reviewer who wonders what a more talented director could do with the materials on hand.

[Chris Knipp]

Oscar you have never been known to like anything noirish. Whereas I particularly do. Allow for the fact also that the scene in Italian film is not encouraging lately, and this was in an Italian series in San Francisco and in that context caused considerable excitement, coming from a new director with a new lead actress. She is good two, and a bit reminiscent of Monica Vitti.

[Chris Knipp]

Can you explain what the "extra-diagetic" sound was and when it occurred? Ancient, crude device? Gosh, I'm sorry! :) I did not know the term "extra diagetic," did you learn that in film school or know it as a child?

[oscar jubis]

Oscar you have never been known to like anything noirish. Whereas I particularly do.

I figure this "noirish" designation is merited by the element of seductive entrapment in the relationship between the couple. Sometimes it is not clear to me what is meant by this term (and neo-noir) when applied to contemporary films. Noir is a term that became parlance (long) after the great film noirs where released. It used to refer more specifically to b&w visual elements. Nowadays it is more liberally used, perhaps excessively so. But I see the logic behind its use relative to The Double Hour, especially noirish.
I think that the quote above mischaracterizes me, Chris. I could compose a long post listing the Noir, neo-noir or noirish films I have supported and recommended in this forum.

Can you explain what the "extra-diagetic" sound was and when it occurred? Ancient, crude device? Gosh, I'm sorry! :) I did not know the term "extra diagetic," did you learn that in film school or know it as a child? (Chris)

As a child? I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic and perhaps objecting to my use of the term. Is this word too academic or technical for this forum? Instead of "extra-diegetic", I could write "produced beyond or outside or in addition to the world-on-film, the world inhabited by the characters".
To your question.
In the admiring Variety review, the critic notes that the film "switches between genres and comes out on top" and later identifies "horror" as one of those genres. There is a device used primarily in the horror genre dating back to the early years of sound film consisting of a loud noise introduced when least expected. Sometimes the source of the (clang, or bang or slam) sound is subsequently revealed to be something inoffensive, sometimes it is not revealed at all thus creating a sense of dread or anxious anticipation. This convention is used several times by the filmmakers here, twice when the female lead is alone in the bathtub. A pretty girl, naked in the bathroom, hearing noises recorded at much higher volume than anything else, noises that seem to come from nowhere; this is by now a very old cliche used to give a jolt to character and viewer. I seem to have tired of it.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, that extra-whatever technique is a horror movie technique. Please tell me some of your favorite NEW -- not old or classic -- noir films. You tend to use the word "genre' as an "ugh" word and often refer by "genre" to something noirish, in my experience. Anyway, I'm not shocked by your not being so crazy about La Doppia Ora. I guess I just liked it for two reasons: I like that kind of story, and I was happy to see a movie with some zing in it coming out of Italy, where movies have been so flat lately. You don't have to lecture me on noir though, man. I think readers here would know the history. Yeah, the term is a bit ovdrused today. I think in our 8 or 9 years of exchanging views of film I've shown that I've liked neo-noir -- like the films of John Dahl -- much more than you have done. But this may not be clear to you. Your negative reaction to Double Hour may have other causes anyway, who knows? Some like it, some don't. Of the films in the Italian series in San Francisco last year, it is the only one that got distribution, so it has things going for it.

[Chris Knipp]

I think also the moral uncertainty -- the deliberate confusion about who's a good guy or a bad guy, and the mystery and glamor about the bad guy -- is a noirish element in this movie.

[Chris Knipp]

New topic but about this thread of best of 2010


BEST UNRELEASED IN US
Double Hour, The (La doppia ora, Giuseppe Capotondi 2009)
-In the Beginning (À l'origine, Xavier Giannoli 2009)
Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux, Xavier Beauvois 2010)
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong 2010)
-Post Mortem (Pablo Larraín 2010)
Rapt (Lucas Belvaux 2009)
Robber, The (Der Räuber, Benjamin Heisenberg 2010)
Strange Case of Angelica, The (O Estranho Caso de Angélica, Manoel de Oliveira 2010)
We Are What We Are (Somos lo que hay, Jorge Michel Grau 2010)
-You Think You're the Prettiest, But You're the Sluttiest (Te creís la más linda, pero erís la más puta, Che Sandoval 2008)

A lot of these have been released in the US, at least in NYC. Those with a tick mark I think have not been. I am glad Double Hour, The Robber, and We Are What We Are, not so obvious, got US theatrical showings. Rapt is the latest, opened this week.