She Came from Outer Space

First of all, I have to admit that one reason I definitely wanted to participate in The Film Experience's Hit Me With Your Best Shot this week was that I needed an excuse to share "not David Lean's finest moment", starring Patsy Stone herself (starts at 2:17).

My favorite shot from Booberella is definitely this:

Atmospheric! But now on to Barbarella...

Can't get this score out of my head.

Two Resolutions

1. From now on, I will write here only about the films, performances, etc. that I love, or at least enjoy.

2. I will not write anything about the Oscars or other awards, because 99% of the time, thinking about them only irritates me.

Best Picture Lineups of the New Millennium Ranked

A few days ago, I finally popped in that Letters from Iwo Jima DVD that had been waiting in my desk drawer for over two and a half years, which means that I've now seen all the Best Picture Oscar nominees from 2000 onwards. And what better time to rank the lineups from those years than one day before the new nominees are announced? So, from worst to best:

12) 2008: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Frost/Nixon - Milk - The Reader - Slumdog Millionaire
The only one of these that's anywhere close to the best films of 2008 is Milk. The Reader took a lot of flak for (presumably) denying The Dark Knight or WALL·E a nomination, but it's actually my second choice, just ahead of Benjamin Button, which, I have to admit, kind of moved me in the last 30 minutes or so. There's still the problem of the first two hours, though.

11) 2011: The Artist - The Descendants - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - The Help - Hugo - Midnight in Paris - Moneyball - The Tree of Life - War Horse
One of those rare years when my favorite nominee won, and yet The Artist might not even be in my top 20 of 2011. It's a shame that the voters couldn't resist year-end bait like War Horse and Extremely Loud in favor of much better films which were probably just outside the top nine: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bridesmaids and maybe, just maybe, even Drive (it did well at the BAFTAs). I prefer each of those four to any of the nominees.

10) 2009: Avatar - The Blind Side - District 9 - An Education - The Hurt Locker - Inglourious Basterds - Precious - A Serious Man - Up - Up in the Air
The second time in the last 12 years when the Academy chose the best nominee, and the second time when it's a film that I appreciate, but don't love. A very diverse lineup, for sure, but most of these movies are problematic/very problematic. Too bad that Pixar's first nomination in the Best Picture category came for Up, which becomes quite a mess after a promising start. 2009 was a dismal year for English-language films in general, though, and at least the Academy gave the cold shoulder to the year-end prestige pics Invictus, The Lovely Bones and Nine, which all turned out terrible.

The Year So Far

My top ten of 2012 as of December 31st:

1. Holy Motors
2. Barbara
3. Amour
4. Berberian Sound Studio
5. Frankenweenie
6. Sister
7. Tabu
8. Looper
9. Rust and Bone
10. Moonrise Kingdom


And the bottom five, from least worst to most worst: Mirror Mirror, Wrath of the Titans, The Dark Knight Rises, Purge and Pieta.


What I'm dying to see the most: 1. FRANCES HA. I'm sure I'll have to wait at least until summer, though, like with Margaret last year. Also looking forward to No, The Loneliest Planet, The Master and Zero Dark Thirty.


What I'm not looking forward to at all, but will still almost certainly watch (of course, most of these will get a load of Oscar nominations):

1. Les Misérables
A bombastic musical directed by Tom Hooper? Do not want.
2. Django Unchained
I do enjoy some of Tarantino's films (more precisely,the 1997-2007 period), but Django looks terrible to me.
3. Seven Psychopaths
Hated In Bruges. This one seems only a little less obnoxious.
4. Life of Pi
Mildly interested in the visuals, but that's it.
5. Silver Linings Playbook
Probably a slightly-above-average romcom that's wildly overpraised.

I didn't include The Hobbit, because I'm not willing to torture myself that much - the LOTR trilogy was hard enough to sit through. Plus, already the poster gave me hives.

"The End Is Near, The Plague Is Here"

So, I saw Epidemic, a sort-of-a-horror movie from Lars von Trier's early days, and whaddayaknow! It turns out that Dancer in the Dark wasn't the first film for which he co-wrote a song:

The juxtaposition between the quite horrifying final scene and this totally 80s end credits pop is amazing in an almost Lynchian way. It's a shame that Epidemic wasn't released in the US (at least according to IMDb) and therefore wasn't eligible for the Best Original Song Oscar, because obviously it would have deserved to win hands down.