MC Yearly Consensus - 2006

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Watashi]

1. Stranger Than Fiction
2. The Fountain
3. United 93
4. Once
5. Pan's Labyrinth

6. Letters from Iwo Jima
7. The Departed
8. Paprika
9. Happy Feet
10. Offside

[Spinal]

1. Inland Empire
2. Once
3. The Lives of Others
4. Paprika
5. Happy Feet

6. Babel
7. Brand Upon the Brain!
8. United 93
9. Goya's Ghosts
10. Little Children
11. Red Road
12. Black Book
13. Marie Antoinette
14. Shortbus
15. Curse of the Golden Flower
16. Children of Men
17. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
18. Death of a President
19. Cashback
20. loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies

Amazing year.

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Volver
2. Marie Antoinette
3. Children of Men
4. Inland Empire
5. Pan's Labyrinth

[Ezee E]

1. Children of Men
2. The Departed
3. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
4. United 93
5. The Lives of Others

[Pop Trash]

1. Southland Tales
2. Old Joy
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. When the Levees Broke
5. Once

6. The Fountain
7. Borat!
8. This Is England
9. A Scanner Darkly
10. Idiocracy

Apologies to The Fountain for dropping you out of the top five and Shortbus for dropping you out of the top ten. My bad.

[soitgoes...]

1. Once (John Carney)
2. Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee)
4. Exiled (Johnny To)
5. Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)
-------------------------------------------
6. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
7. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
8. Red Road (Andrea Arnold)
9. Away from Her (Sarah Polley)
10. Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell)

HMs
The Fall (Tarsem Singh)
Happy Feet (George Miller)
12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster)
An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim)
Pan's Labrynth (Guillermo del Toro)
Jesus Camp (Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)
Election 2 (Johnny To)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)

[Pop Trash]

1. Children of Men
2. The Departed
3. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
4. The Descent
5. United 93

HM: Manderlay

These are 2005 going by IMDB.

[Ezee E]

ah. thanks. will update

[eternity]

1. Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin)
2. The TV Set (Jake Kasdan)
3. The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
4. Little Children (Todd Field)
5. Slither (James Gunn)
---
6. Wristcutters: A Love Story (Goran Dukic)
7. Stranger than Fiction (Marc Forster)
8. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro)
9. The Prestige (Christopher Nolan)
10. For Your Consideration (Christopher Guest)

EDIT: itlow is 2007. oops.

[Pop Trash]

3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee)


Are we counting this? Wasn't it a TV mini-series?

[MacGuffin]

Are we counting this? Wasn't it a TV mini-series?

Dude.

[soitgoes...]

Are we counting this? Wasn't it a TV mini-series?It's a self-regulating system. Either people vote for it or not. Dekalog was a TV mini-series as well, and it finished 4th its year.

[MacGuffin]

1. Miami Vice (Michael Mann)
2. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
4. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
5. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)

6. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
7. The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma)
8. Art School Confidential (Terry Zwigoff)
9. Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)
10. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (Dito Montiel)

[Pop Trash]

Dude.
Melp you?

[Yxklyx]

1. United 93 (Paul Greengrass)
2. Sleeping Dogs Lie (Bob Goldthwait)
3. Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin)
4. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)

6. Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell)
7. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
8. The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
9. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Ming-liang Tsai)
10. Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)

[Stay Puft]

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. Paprika
3. Red Road
4. The Fountain
5. The Host

[Pop Trash]

It's a self-regulating system. Either people vote for it or not. Dekalog was a TV mini-series as well, and it finished 4th its year.
Righty O. It's fantastic and makes my top five. That's why I was curious.

[Melville]

1. Inland Empire
2. Once
3. Time
4. Marie Antoinette
5. Paprika

6. Jesus Camp
7. Lake of Fire
8. Black Book
9. Scoop
10. My Love

[SirNewt]

What a strange uneven year.

[Grouchy]

What a strange uneven year.
Yeah. All the lists are so different.

1. Children of Men
2. Exiled
3. Paprika
4. I'm a Cyborg, But It's OK
5. Black Snake Moan

6. Bug
7. Nightmare Detective
8. Pan's Labyrinth
9. Inland Empire
10. Fearless

HMs: The Last King of Scotland, Avida, Crank, Borat, Lifted, Big Bang Love: Juvenile A.

[origami_mustache]

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. Brand Upon the Brain!
3. The Science of Sleep
4. Still Life
5. I Don't Want To Sleep Alone

The Fountain
Pan'e Labyrinth
Half Nelson
Children of Men
The Departed
The Host
The Prestige
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
Taxidermia

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Children of Men
2. The Departed
3. Casino Royale
4. The Prestige
5.The Fountain

[MadMan]

Still much to view from this year, but what I've seen results in a list that's somewhat to my liking.

1. The Departed
2. A Scanner Darkly
3. Children of Men
4. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
5. Casino Royale

I've decided that while there are other movies I did like from this year, I think I'll just submit only five that I really loved.

[Pop Trash]

Still much to view from this year, but what I've seen results in a list that's somewhat to my liking.

1. The Departed
2. A Scanner Darkly
3. Children of Men
4. Thank You For Smoking
5. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
============================== ==================
6. Casino Royale
7. The Host
8. V For Vendetta
9. Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
10. Rocky Balboa

2005 homie!

[MadMan]

2005 homie!Not according to Criticker. I'm pretty damn sure that both were released in 2006. I saw Thank You For Smoking in theaters in 2006, midway through the year.

[Grouchy]

Not according to Criticker. I'm pretty damn sure that both were released in 2006. I saw Thank You For Smoking in theaters in 2006, midway through the year.
Yeah, but... It's IMDb regulations.

[dreamdead]

1. Still Life
2. Syndromes and a Century
3. Once
4. Woman on the Beach
5. Marie Antoinette

Need to see: Monster House, The Lives of Others, The Last Winter, Brand Upon the Brain

HM: Happy Feet, Children of Men, The Departed, Miami Vice, A Scanner Darkly, Paprika, Half Nelson, This is England, Exiled

[Derek]

1) The Host (Bong Joon-Ho)
2) Inland Empire (David Lynch)
3) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
4) Time (Kim Ki-duk)
5) Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
***************************
6) The Queen (Stephen Frears)
7) Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran)
8) Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro)
9) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles)
10) Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)

HMs: Mutual Appreciation (Andrew Bujalski)
The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
Brick (Rian Johnson)
The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig)
A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)

[EyesWideOpen]

1. The Lives of Others
2. Children of Men
3. Apocalypto
4. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
5. The Fountain

HM: Borat, Cars, The Host, Pan's Labyinth, Stranger than Fiction, United 93

[Watashi]

2005 homie!

Are we seriously counting Harry's Butt-Numb-A-Thon as an actual release date?

[Boner M]

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
3. Lady Chatterley
4. Children of Men
5. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

6. Inland Empire
7. Woman on the Beach
8. The Science of Sleep
9. Old Joy
10. Half Nelson

HM: The Departed, 12:08 East of Bucharest, Offside, Talladega Nights, Bug, Kenny, The Host, United 93

[dreamdead]

7. Woman on the Beach


Whoops. Time to go back and add this and my avatar film...

[MadMan]

Yeah, but... It's IMDb regulations.Bah. I don't do IMDB.com regulations.

[Ezee E]

Bah. I don't do IMDB.com regulations.
They're silly, but we've been following them the entire time.

[MacGuffin]

They're silly, but we've been following them the entire time.

I guess we can make an exception for him, but nobody else is going to vote for those movies because they are following the rules.

[MadMan]

They're silly, but we've been following them the entire time.I find Criticker far easier to use in compiling the lists. All I have to do is go to all my rankings and enter in the year I want to look at. It pops up, and I go from there. Also I'm sure if V For Vendetta was actually nominated for anything Oscar or Golden Globe wise, it'd be nominated for the 2007 year. Which would mean it was from 2006. If two movies on my list don't get counted as a result, well, so be it. I'm rather stubborn.

[MadMan]

I guess we can make an exception for him, but nobody else is going to vote for those movies because they are following the rules.Oh no, don't do that on my account.

[MacGuffin]

Oh no, don't do that on my account.

I'm just kidding. ;)

[MadMan]

I'm just kidding. ;)Heh, alrighty then.

[The Mike]

Wow, this is tough to whittle down....

1. Stranger than Fiction
2. The Fountain
3. Children of Men
4. Pan's Labyrinth
5. Slither

HM: Once, Idiocracy, Snakes on a Plane, The Queen, Crank, The Host, Black Snake Moan, Art School Confidential

[baby doll]

1. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
2. Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke)
3. Le Science des rêves (Michel Gondry)
4. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
5. Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin)

Runners-up: Coeurs (Alain Resnais); Find Me Guilty (Sidney Lumet); In Between Days (So Yong Kim); Inland Empire (David Lynch); Offside (Jafar Panahi)

Need to see: Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako); Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa); I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)

Overrated: Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt); Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

[Watashi]

Why is Science of Sleep in French, but Black Book not in Dutch?

[Boner M]

Why is Science of Sleep in French, but Black Book not in Dutch?
French is sexier.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Why is Science of Sleep in French, but Black Book not in Dutch?
Baby Doll has a preference for the French language because he speaks/understand it. It's not all that strange.

[Yum-Yum]

1. Marie Antoinette
2. Inland Empire
3. Paprika
4. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
5. Brand Upon the Brain!

6. The Host
7. Once
8. Fido
9. Aquamarine
10. Sleeping Dogs Lie

[Hugh_Grant]

1. United 93
.
.
.
2. Once
3. Borat
4. 12:08 East of Bucharest
5. Little Miss Sunshine

HM: Children of Men, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Queen, The Lives of Others, Venus, The Last King of Scotland

[eternity]

9. Aquamarine

...

[Raiders]

1. Pan's Labyrinth (Del Toro)
2. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Lee)
3. Inland Empire (Lynch)
4. Children of Men (Cuaron)
5. The Host (Bong)

------------------------------------------

6. This Is England (Meadows)
7. The Last Winter (Fessenden)
8. The Queen (Frears)
9. Once (Carney)
10. Marie Antoinette (S. Coppola)

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. United 93
2. Children of Men
3. The Departed
4. Once
5. The Fountain

It was an especially good year for horror, I think. Hostel, Slither, and The Last Winter were damn effective in their own ways.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Children of Men
2. Babel
3. The Prestige
4. 12:08 East of Bucharest
5. Iraq in Fragments

[Ezee E]

The Last Winter came out way back then. Jees.

Watched Children of Men again. Still easily on top.

[B-side]

1. The Fountain
2. Brand Upon The Brain!
3. INLAND EMPIRE
4. Pan's Labyrinth
5. A Scanner Darkly
--------------------------
6. Children Of Men
7. Little Children
8. Science Of Sleep
9. Casino Royale
10. Babel

[thefourthwall]

1. Children of Men
2. Stranger Than Fiction
3. Black Snake Moan
4. Once
5. This Is England

[Torgo]

1. Inland Empire
2. Once
3. Half Nelson
4. The Departed
5. The Lives of Others

[Gizmo]

1. The Prestige
2. The Departed
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. Little Miss Sunshine
5. Little Children

[ledfloyd]

1. Children of Men
2. Half Nelson
3. Once
4. The Departed
5. A Prairie Home Companion

[Silencio]

1. The Fountain
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. This Is England
4. Children of Men
5. The Lives of Others

6. Once
7. United 93
8. Marie Antoinette
9. Volver
10. Half Nelson

[trotchky]

1. The Science of Sleep
2. Inland Empire
3. The Fountain
4. Marie Antoinette
5. Old Joy

6. Southland Tales
7. A Scanner Darkly
8. Half Nelson
9. Shortbus
10. Paprika

Really good year.

[Lazlo]

1. Children of Men
2. Little Children
3. The Science of Sleep
4. The Fountain
5. The Departed

[Russ]

1. Inland Empire
2. Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
3. Who Killed the Electric Car?
4. The Fall
5. Brand Upon the Brain!

[chrisnu]

1. Pan's Labyrinth
2. Old Joy
3. Paprika
4. The Lives of Others
5. Black Book

[Duncan]

1. INLAND EMPIRE
2. Still Life
3. Brand Upon the Brain!
4. United 93
5. Marie Antoinette

[SirNewt]

1. The Lives of Others
2. Curse of the Golden Flower
3. Lake of Fire
4. Pan's Labyrinth
5. Casino Royale



Stranger Than Fiction
Children of Men
Babel

[Cherish]

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. Children of Men
3. The Science of Sleep
4. The Prestige
5. The Fountain

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Children of Men
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
4. Paprika
5. The Lives of Others

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Syndromes and A century
2. Children of Men
3. Half Nelson
4. The Science of Sleep
5. The Prestige

[Spinal]

One more day.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Edited mine to include Paprika and The Lives of Others. Because I suck at reading dates, apparently.

[Rowland]

1. Offside
2. Children of Men
3. Exiled
4. The Fountain
5. Black Snake Moan

I'm the first person including Offside in his top five? Match-Cut...

[Watashi]

1. Offside
2. Children of Men
3. Exiled
4. The Fountain
5. Black Snake Moan

I'm the first person including Offside in his top five? Match-Cut...
It's my #10.

[Bosco B Thug]

I'm gonna try to watch United 93 tonight...

1. Inland Empire
2. This is England
3. Offside
4. Syndromes and a Century
5. Black Book

HM: The Host, The Departed, The Lives of Others

Lots of films I haven't seen, of course... which does not include 'Children of Men,' 'Once,' and 'The Fountain,' that's for sure. :P

[Spinal]

Going to start counting. New posts are acceptable. Any edits for posted ballots must happen in a new post. Results won't be posted until tomorrow earliest.

[Spinal]

#10

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/paprika-1.jpg

Paprika

Director: Satoshi Kon

Country: Japan

When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist can stop it: Paprika.

The tall and short bartenders in Paprika's website are voiced by director Satoshi Kon, and the original author of the Paprika novel, Yasutaka Tsutsui, respectively. When Paprika interviews Kogawa in his filmmaker guise, his mannerisms and appearance resemble that of Akira Kurosawa.

"This is easily one of the most insightful and enjoyable films about the unconscious that you're likely to find, full of images that echo through the mind in eerie ways. Paprika maximizes the virtues of anime ... this is without question a unique and superior achievement. " - Mick LaSalle

[Spinal]

#9

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/one_565.jpg

The Lives of Others

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Country: Germany

In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Won Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards. Earned the audience choice award at several different international film festivals including Copenhagen, High Falls, Locarno, Montreal, Palm Springs, Portland, Rotterdam, Vancouver and Warsaw. The German DVD was recalled due to statements von Donnersmarck made in his audio commentary about the alleged activities of politician Gregor Gysi and actress Jenny Gröllmann as in-official agents (IM) for the Staatssicherheit (secret police of former East Germany).

"To watch Lives is not just to enjoy a fabulously constructed timepiece; it's to appreciate a deft cautionary tale ... Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's extraordinary feature debut offers prescient lessons about the danger of societies in which governments are given free rein to monitor their citizens and Internet users voluntarily post their most intimate details on the Web. Dusty history lesson? This movie is downright contemporary." - Desson Thomson

[Spinal]

#8

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/BrandBrain1.jpg

Brand Upon the Brain!

Director: Guy Maddin

Country: USA/Canada

Guy Maddin reluctantly returns to his childhood home, an abandoned Canadian island, where his parents ran an orphanage. As Guy fulfills his dying mother's request to paint the lighthouse which served as the orphanage, memories of strange events there overpower him.

Was presented theatrically with live musical accompaniment, foley artists and narration. At its Toronto International Film Festival premiere in September 2006, the original score was performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with narration by Louis Negin. At the New York Film Festival in October 2006, the film was narrated by actress Isabella Rossellini and accompanied by the Sospeso Collective. All live orchestra performances were conducted by the score's composer, Jason Staczek.

"Wondrously strange, Brand Upon the Brain! transmits conceptual wavelengths ranging from Shakespearean disguise to Grand Guignol dread to a Nancy Drew-styled teen (very late teen) detective sniffing around the sinister doings at a Dickensian orphanage. Yet the results transcend pastiche. The film is a singular achievement." - Michael Phillips

[Spinal]

#7

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/departed1-1024.jpg

The Departed

Director: Martin Scorsese

Country: USA

Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy's identities.

Won four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg). (Nice job, Mark. Say hi to your mother for me.) An adaptation of the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs. This is the movie with the most uses of the word 'fuck' and its derivatives (237) to win the Best Picture Oscar.

"Although many of the plot devices are similar in Scorsese's film and the Hong Kong 'original,' this is Scorsese's film all the way because of his understanding of the central subject of so much of his work: guilt. It is reasonable to assume that Boston working-class men named Costigan, Sullivan, Costello, Dignam and Queenan were brought up as Irish-American Catholics, and that if they have moved outside the church's laws, they have nevertheless not freed themselves of a sense of guilt." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/syndromes.jpg

Syndromes and a Century

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Country: Thailand

A story about director Weerasethakul's parents who were both doctors, and the director's memories about growing up in the hospital environment. The film is divided into two parts, with the characters and dialogue in the second half essentially the same as the first, but with a different setting and outcome.

Banned in Thailand due to some 'improper' scenes. Received a very limited release in Bangkok. This theatrical version had six contentious scenes blacked out or scratched and contained no sound. The Thai title roughly translates as 'Century's Light'.

"Via his elliptical editing and his tales' penchant for drifting, on a whim, into flashbacks or visual asides, the director captures the way in which memories subconsciously operate—how they gently blend into one another with little concern for clear-cut sequential arrangement, and how our reminiscences of certain moments in life are often colored by our lucid, almost-tangible recollections of the specific places in which they occurred ..." - Nick Schager

[Spinal]

#5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/once_500.jpg

Once

Director: John Carney

Country: Ireland

A guitarist/singer-songwriter makes a living by fixing vacuum cleaners by day, and singing and playing for money on the Dublin streets by night. A young Czech woman does odd jobs by day, takes care of her daughter by night and plays piano when she gets a chance. Guy meets girl, and they work together to put together a demo disc that he can take to London in hope of landing a music contract.

Won the Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Falling Slowly"). Won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. Won the Audience Award (World Cinema - Dramatic) at Sundance. Shot in 17 days. The song "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" was filmed during a spontaneous moment during filming. It was never meant to make it into the film but Carney liked it so much he kept it in.

"Periodically — about twice a year, by my calculation — someone tries to breathe new life into the movie musical by putting together a lavish song-and-dance spectacle like the ones they used to make, full of big numbers and bigger emotions ... Against this trend, Once, a scrappy, heart-on-its-sleeve little movie directed by an Irishman named John Carney, makes a persuasive case that the real future of the genre may lie not in splashy grandeur but in modesty and understatement. " - A.O. Scott

[Boner M]

Interesting how The Departed's stock has fallen since coming #2 in the previous '06 consensus.

[Spinal]

#4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/pan_wideweb__470x3102.jpg

Pan's Labyrinth

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Country: Mexico/Spain

In post-Civil War Spain, rebels still fight in the mountains against the fascist troops. The young and imaginative Ofelia travels with her pregnant and sick mother to the country to meet and live with her stepfather, a sadistic and cruel Captain. During the night, Ofelia meets a faun that tells her she is a princess from a kingdom in the underground.

Won three Academy Awards including Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Makeup. Also nominated for Best Foreign Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score. The English subtitles were translated and written by Guillermo del Toro himself. He no longer trusts translators after having encountered problems with his previous subtitled movies.

"What makes Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth so powerful, I think, is that it brings together two kinds of material, obviously not compatible, and insists on playing true to both, right to the end. Because there is no compromise there is no escape route, and the dangers in each world are always present in the other." - Roger Ebert

[Grouchy]

The English subtitles were translated and written by Guillermo del Toro himself. He no longer trusts translators after having encountered problems with his previous subtitled movies.
Hahah!

I love this movie, but I think it's unfair that it ranks so high when Devil's Backbone, which for me is the director's masterpiece so far, wasn't even mentioned on the 2001 list.

[Spinal]

#3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/DF-486.jpg

The Fountain

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Country: USA

A conquistador in Mayan country searches for the tree of life to free his captive queen; a medical researcher, working with various trees, looks for a cure that will save his dying wife; a space traveler, traveling with an aged tree encapsulated within a bubble, moves toward a dying star that's wrapped in a nebula; he seeks eternity with his love.

Instead of using CGI, Aronofsky chose to do the special effects for the film by using micro-photography of chemical reactions on tiny petri dishes. Warner Brothers had already invested 20 million dollars in the canceled version of the film (that was to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) before they agreed to finance the new, cheaper version. The first version of the script was turned into a graphic novel illustrated by Kent Williams.

"Whether the expressionistic grandeur of the film's golden-hued cinematography and many graceful touches—such as its linking of burning stars with blazing lanterns and the firmament debris that rains around Tom's intergalactic craft like tears—overshadows nuttier moments involving gooey tree sap and shrieking Mayan savages is the question liable to dominate discourse about the sure-to-polarize The Fountain. To these eyes, it does so strikingly, and definitively." - Nick Schager

[Spinal]

#2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/inland-empire-dern1_1166001774.jpg

Inland Empire

Director: David Lynch

Country: France/Poland/USA

An actress's perception of reality becomes increasingly distorted as she finds herself falling for her co-star in a remake of an unfinished Polish production that was supposedly cursed.

Won a Special Award from the National Society of Film Critics for Best Experimental Film. Won the Future Film Festival Digital Award at the Venice Film Festival. Not originally intended to be a feature film. Lynch would simply come up with an idea and - utilizing the versatility and ease of using DV cameras - would film it, creating a series of seemingly unrelated scenes. As time progressed, he began to see how the stories were connected, and continued filming scenes until he had the finished product.

"Mulholland Drive, possibly the greatest work of American film art since Altman's Nashville, is an impossible act for Lynch to have to follow, but the bug-eyed director—pupils dilated and imagination tripping in almost inconceivable directions—has made the Atlas Shrugged of narrative avant-garde films, compulsively watchable and insanely self-devouring ... Inland Empire is totally fucked up ... " - Ed Gonzalez

[Spinal]

#1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/cofmen.jpg

Children of Men

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Country: Japan/UK/USA

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

Nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. Won two awards at the Venice Film Festival including Outstanding Technical Contribution for cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. In the scene where Miriam is taken off the bus at Bexhill, the camera pans by several cages with prisoners in them. One of the prisoners seen is the infamous 'hooded man' from the Abu Ghraib prison torture pictures. He is seen in the exact pose as the real pictures.

"Children of Men may be something of a bummer, but it’s the kind of glorious bummer that lifts you to the rafters, transporting you with the greatness of its filmmaking ... Mr. Cuarón’s speculative fiction is a gratifying sign that big studios are still occasionally in the business of making ambitious, intelligent work that speaks to adults ... Children of Men doesn’t announce its themes from a bully pulpit, with a megaphone in hand and Oscar in mind, but through the beauty of its form." - Manohla Dargis

[Spinal]

1. Children of Men (83)
2. Inland Empire (55.5)
3. The Fountain (44)
4. Pan’s Labyrinth (40)
5. Once (39)
6. Syndromes and a Century (36)
7. The Departed (32)
8. Brand Upon the Brain! (27.5)
9. The Lives of Others (26.5)
10. Paprika (25.5)

Near misses:
Marie Antoinette (25)
United 93 (24)
The Science of Sleep (22)

[Mysterious Dude]

Lynch would simply come up with an idea and - utilizing the versatility and ease of using DV cameras - would film it, creating a series of seemingly unrelated scenes.
Least surprising trivia ever.

[Pop Trash]

If this were RT, The Prestige would totally make the top five. I think it's overrated so good job Match-Cut!

[Spinal]

Fairly awesome top 10. I'm always surprised by how many people love The Fountain, but I'd like to revisit it at some point along with Pan's Labyrinth. I have no interest in taking in a second viewing of The Departed.

[Pop Trash]

Fairly awesome top 10. I'm always surprised by how many people love The Fountain, but I'd like to revisit it at some point along with Pan's Labyrinth. I have no interest in taking in a second viewing of The Departed.
Me too but I'd include The Departed as well (which I quite liked but it's receded in my mind since 2006) I loved Pan's Labyrinth when I saw it in the theaters but I wonder if it holds up to multiple viewings. I'm surprised by The Fountain love myself considering the prof. critics mostly slagged it. But I quite liked it and I think it will be remembered more than a lot of films from this year.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Wow. I single-handedly knocked United 93 out of the top ten and replaced it with Paprika and/or The Lives of Others with that last edit I made. I kinda rule.

[Hugh_Grant]

Wow. I single-handedly knocked United 93 out of the top ten and replaced it with Paprika and/or The Lives of Others with that last edit I made. I kinda rule.

:frustrated:

[MadMan]

Children of Men as #1? Excellent.

[Kurosawa Fan]

:frustrated:

I'm not happy about United 93 losing a spot (it's my #6 after learning that Paprika and The Lives of Others were '06), but I like the other two films better, obviously.

[Grouchy]

Children of Men as #1 is the way to go.

I don't like Marie Antoniette or The Science of Sleep, so it's good for me that they missed the list. It's even better that that fuck-up Babel is completely out of the question.

I'll have to see The Fountain.

Where's Exiled? Where the hell is Exiled?

[Spinal]

Where's Exiled? Where the hell is Exiled?

10.5 points

[Grouchy]

I spit on you, MatchCut. I SPIT ON YOU AND RAPE YOUR SHENANIGANS.

[Ezee E]

I spit on you, MatchCut. I SPIT ON YOU AND RAPE YOUR SHENANIGANS.
That's not going to get Exiled any points dude.

[Grouchy]

That's not going to get Exiled any points dude.
What part of "I'll rape your shenanigans" didn't you understand?

[SirNewt]

Me too but I'd include The Departed as well (which I quite liked but it's receded in my mind since 2006) I loved Pan's Labyrinth when I saw it in the theaters but I wonder if it holds up to multiple viewings. I'm surprised by The Fountain love myself considering the prof. critics mostly slagged it. But I quite liked it and I think it will be remembered more than a lot of films from this year.


Agreed, I very much enjoyed the Departed and The Prestige but haven't thought about them much since 2006 (has it really been 2 years?). "The Lives of Others" at number nine, however, is unacceptable.

[Yxklyx]

That colorized Brand Upon the Brain! shot is very bizarre.

[trotchky]

t's even better that that fuck-up Babel is completely out of the question.

Word.


I'll have to see The Fountain.

Yes, do this.

Meanwhile, I'll have to see Exiled. :sad: