Cinematheque Ontario's Best 10 films of the Decade

These best 10 films of the decade from Cinematheque Ontario prove that the art film is not dead.  But be forewarned that not all the films selected will to your agreement – at least quite a few were not to mine.  As they say, that is what keeps the world going round. 

The films range from the commercially animated Japanese feature SPIRITED AWAY to David Lynch’s MULLHOLLAND DRIVE to artsy Apichatpong Weerasethaku’s films.

For the complete list of films in this BEST OF THE DECADE program, showtimes, venue and ticket pricing, check the cinematheque’s website at: http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca

This article will be updated and re-posted every fortnight to include capsule reviews of more films in this series.  The series runs from January 21 to February 23rd 2010.

Capsule reviews:-

4 DAYS, 3 MONTHS AND 2 DAYS (Romania 2007) *****
Directed by Cristian Mungiu

The action takes place in a small Romanian town one day in 1989 during the last months of communist rule.  That day is when Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) decides to get an illegal abortion - 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS before the baby is due.  Director Mungiu tells much in a single scene.  Mungiu is fond of placing his camera on a tripod and have his actors act out their lines within a single shot.  Take the first, set in Gabita’s dorm.  The untidy room tells much about her and her best friend, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) as much as the poverty surrounding them.  Also, snow can be seen falling through the room’s window, which sets the grim and pessimistic state of affairs.  If characters move, Mungiu follows behind with the camera handheld.  Very little tracking is used, as Mungiu spends his time setting up the props and staging a scene.  4 MONTHS is a complex layered and occasionally powerful film revealing more during the second viewing.  (Screening: Thursday, Feb 18th, 7pm)

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (USA /Germany 2005) *****
Directed by David Cronenberg

Director David Cronenberg in top form with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, a character study involving the pains a human being has to endure to effect a genuine change in life for the better.  Tom Stall’s (Viggo Mortensen) life takes a different course when he becomes the local small town hero after thwarting a robbery in the diner that he runs.  Being then on the national news, he is visited by a sinister Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) who believes him to be someone else who had wronged him in the past.  Carl demands revenge at all costs.  Cronenberg knows how to play scenes and how to manipulate the viewers’ emotions. The robbery and fight scenes are executed with skilled precision – not seen since the old Don Siegel films.  Aided by powerful performances, particularly by Viggo Mortensen (in his best role) and Ashton Holmes (as the son, Jack), Cronenberg’s film comes close to perfect in achieving all its goals.  And the film is a real nail-biter!
(Screening: Thursday Feb 4th, 9.15pm)

BLISSFULLY YOURS (Thailand 2002) ***
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

An odd film, not only because the opening credits (or would it be better to call them middle credits) occur midway through the film, but for director Weerasethakul’s personal and uncompromising story-telling technique.  His three main characters, an illegal Burmese called Min, his girlfriend Roong and her older friend Om seek and search for love and sex.  There is a lengthy sex scene and an erotic kissing scene, left untouched, courtesy of the censorship board.  Nothing much occurs in terms of the story, but much can be read in the Thai way of life through the story’s events.  For example, the medical practices, factory policies and rural way of life are intriguing.  The director sits his camera still, while the characters movie in and out of the frame.  Once he sets it on a vehicle, with the result of the picture jumping up and down and the truck hits bumps on the road.  A curious, slow but watchable piece for reason of the director’s weird look at his characters and events!
(Screening: Tuesday Feb 2nd, 7pm)

COLOSSAL YOUTH (JUVENTUDE EM MARCH) (Portugal/France/Switz 2006) ***
Directed by Pedro Costa

Slow, ponderous and a challenging film to watch, primarily because director Costa tells his story in largely seemingly disconnected vignettes.  Often the characters speak out to the screen or to each other while not looking at each other in the face.  The protagonist of the piece is Mr. Ventura, a poverty stricken ex-labourer Cape Verdean immigrant who, at the beginning of the film is lamenting the disappearance of his wife.  In the neighbourhood of Lisbon’s Fontainhas neighbourhood, he visits the various children he supposedly fathered.  If all these do not make much sense, perhaps it is not Costa’s intention to be.  Low budget, but at times beautifully shot (the broken buildings often looking like objects in an oil painting), in long, static takes, Costa’s meditative film showcases the poverty, suffering and lost youth of his subjects. 
(Screening: Sunday Feb 7th, 7pm)

SILENT LIGHT (STELLET LICHT) (Mex/Fr/Neth/Ger 2007) **
Directed by Carlos Reygadas

The opening sequence in the film SILENT LIGHT of a starry night making way to dawn and the ground tells it all.  It is a long, almost silent 6-minute start that will leave many in the audience already yawning, just like one of the children in the next scene having breakfast to the sound of the tick-tock of the clock’s pendulum.  The film centres on a Mennonite family living in Mexico.  The father falls for another woman and the drama (besides the drama of me doing stuff while seated to keep awake) concerns how the family copes in their own Mennonite way.  The characters speak in the rare German dialect of Plattdeutsch.  SILENT LIGHT is an intensely personal and needless to say, slow ponderous film running a long 140 minutes.  It has its pleasures no doubt.  I could myself sit outside at dawn for hours watching the sun rise every morning and feel ecstatic at the beauty of nature.  But I do not do it.  In the same way, the pleasure derived from SILENT NIGHT will only be experienced by a small minority of cineastes.  I could not sit still watching this film myself.  But don’t get me wrong.  Certain slow movies are necessary to make a point - for example Jacques Rivette’s 4-hour LA BELLE NOISEUSE.  But spending say 4 minutes to have a character walk or drive to his destination is too much.  It seems wicked that Reygadas is forcing his audience to sit through his extremely long takes in order to be fascinated.  The result in my case is distraction and boredom.  If this is my cup of tea, I would not wait and hour to drink it.
(Screening: Sunday Jan 24th, 7pm)

SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (Thailand 2006) **
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Described by critics as lyrical, poetic, enchanting, a quiet masterpiece and the best 10 of the decade, SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY is a movie whose beauty and charm surely escapes me.  For one, Weerasethakkul’s film is extremely slow paced, personal and occasionally impossible to figure out.  Besides dozing off a few time, I also noticed a similar fate befalling on the fellow critic next to me while I glanced to my right. For one, the aerobics segment at the end is completely out of place as is the visible boom on the top of the screen during the driving segment.  Most of this film is set in the rural hospital with the bare plot involving the courtship of two doctors.  The film is a bit autobiographical as the two doctors represent his parents who also met in a hospital.  As in the other director’s films, his odd sense of humour is present, though the dead-pan humour can be quite bewildering.  One healing sequence involves hypnosis after the practitioner has downed some booze that was hidden in a prosthetic limb.
(Screening Thursday, Jan 21st 7 pm and Tuesday, Jan 26th 9.15pm)