Best movies of 2010 lists

[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.

[oscar jubis]

One always has to consider who is the audience of any piece of writing and adjust vocabulary accordingly. A word like "extra-diegetic" is appropriate for a journal essay but perhaps not for this forum and certainly not for my lectures since my students are mostly sophomores. However, I decided to use this term (and others) because it's most important to me to be precise in my writing. The key this time is that there is no equivalent to "diegesis" even though I know it's not a commonly-used word.

You're right to say I tend to use the word "genre" as an "urgh". By definition, genre films follow or adhere to conventions that have proved effective hence they tend to be conventional and comfortably satisfying. A lot of the great films of the past 40 or 50 years take genre codes/conventions/scenarios/motifs as the basis or the starting point of something truly inspired and original. But most films being made stick close to conventional formulas.

New noirs? I tend to be very rigorous with my terminology. I have a hard time calling anything after Touch of Evil (1958) "noir" without pondering to what extent the label is deserved. Having said that, the following are films of the past 25 years or so that I like a lot and that may be called noir or neo-noir or at least "noirish":
Blade Runner
Trouble in Mind
House of Games
Miller's Crossing
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Reservoir Dogs
Dead Again
One False Move
Se7en
The Usual Suspects
Dark City
Deep Crimson
Jackie Brown
L.A. Confidential
A History of Violence
Memories of Murder
Bad Education
Pusher II
The Machinist
Tell No One
Eastern Promises

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for this interesting and challenging entry. I've had to look up some of these. I remember nearly all the titles, but it's been a while since I've watched them. You're opening a large topic. I'll try to put in my two cents, but I'd have to spend hours to give a proper reply or contribute anything of value on this.

It bothers me to see 'genre' used pejoratively since the word also means novel, play, poem, or more specific literary types, romance, crime, in literarure, and there is no real reason belonging to a 'genre' should make any movie inferior to another. Pretty much every movie belongs to some genre, though it may of course straddle several genres, which is often what we like. Where we differ is in that I find that sometimes a film that is a pure movie genre, particularly noir, with nothing added, it can be quite fine. But your list implies you sometimes give in to that notion too.

As for neo-noir, the pure ones that are good and grow out of the original are rather few. I don't see how you're being all that "rigorous "in your terminology; I'd say you're being rather loose. No harm in that, I agree with such an approach, kind of necessary when what we like is blends of genres, but it's funny your saying you're "rigorous" and then giving this big long mixed list.

Blade Runner -- future noir? It's got the 2-bit detective running into serious trouble. I don't think the classic Forties American films noirs were evern science fiction. If they were you should name some of them.
House of Games -- conceptual-puzzle noir
Reservoir Dogs--a failed-caper film. Then is Rififi noir? Of course a lot of French movies are, Melville's especially. Not just Tell No One, which anyway is of course directly from an American novel
Dead Again--noir format, but rather mediocre, as I recall. There are plenty more where that come from if you can still browse some video store, I'll bet, but most of them lack elegance or finish. Kenneth Branagh should stick to Shakespeare.
One False Move--Yes, this has a very strong noir flavor.
Usual Suspects--a crime puzzle movie. Too clever for its own good but fun. The director failed to live up to this promise though.
Deep Crimson -- maybe noir, from the sound of it but I never heard of it. seems to be in Spanish.
Jackie Brown--Tarantino understands the B-movie and this has been called a film noir.
L.A. Confidential--James Ellroy's books, which I've read, are more complicated than noir but partake of its spirit, certainly. They're noirish conspiratorial epics! And very dark, which is not the same as noir or there would be tons more noir films than there really are.
Trouble in Mind--definitily has noirish tendencies. I used to love Alan Rudolph at that time.
A History of Violence--I don't know what that is but surely it's not noir. Again, too complicated.
You missed John Dahl, some of whose movies are the best and purest neo-noirs: Kill Me Again, Red Rock West, The Last Seduction. I have a feeling there are more with Philip Baker Hall. I know there are a few others but I'd have to browse my library to remember.

"A lot of the great films of the past 40 or 50 years take genre codes/conventions/scenarios/motifs as the basis or the starting point of something truly inspired and original. But most films being made stick close to conventional formulas."

The first sentence is obiouvsly true, though you don't have to lecture us if we're not your sophomore class -- who maybe should have your fancy Greek rhetorical word "diagesis" explained to them: after all they're there to learn. On the other hand maybe just "showing vs. telling" is all you need. The second senntence -- I don't know. It implies a cookie-cutter quality to films whereas they are always changing, however conventional they may be for their moment in time.

I recall Se7en as being a horror movie about a serial killer. If it's noir so is Silence of the Lambs.

More than Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple is a noir.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for this interesting and challenging entry. I've had to look up some of these. I remember nearly all the titles, but it's been a while since I've watched them. I don't see how you're being all that "rigorous "in your terminology; I'd say you're being rather loose. No harm in that, I agree with such an approach, kind of necessary when what we like is blends of genres, but it's funny your saying you're "rigorous" and then giving this big long mixed list.

My pleasure. The preamble was necessary to qualify my making a list of "new noirs". You asked "please tell me some of your favorite NEW..." and I decided to show my appreciation for this interesting conversation about movies by doing what you requested.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, thanks. But I still think your application of the terms is not more "rigorous" than mine. In some ways less since you omitted some of the most strictly noir of the neo-noirs, i.e., John Dahl's.

[oscar jubis]

I only included movies I like a lot.

[Chris Knipp]

I see you do have a list of noirish films that you like. I like most of them too, but I also like other ones that are very noir -- my point this time. Tell my why you don't like John Dahl, if you know.

[oscar jubis]

It's been so long since Red Rock West and The Last Seduction came out...I remember thinking that the fierce performance of the female lead in the latter was by itself worth the price of admission. I remember enjoying RRW but quickly forgetting everything about it. Well-made, solid and entertaining films but I like them less than the ones I listed. Maybe worth checking out again...

[Chris Knipp]

Linda Firorentino, isn't it? Yes, fierce. There are one or two more I would like to recommend but I have to think of them.