The year got off to a divisive start with Mel Gibson's fourth film as director. Apocalypto. This ultra violent and unrelenting Mayan jungle thriller. set at a time before Jesuits rowed ashore. divided opinion as to whether it was just another work of fundamentalist revisionism or Mad Max Goes to Machu Pinchu. I'm still not sure; all I know is that I still feel guilty for loving it.
Elsewhere. Michel Gondry warmed the cockles of this diseased heart with his inspired and deeply lovely The Science of Sleep (pictured). which spread some welcome whimsy in the Gallic firmament. Writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08 East of Bucharest proved that the Romanians are still the Kings of comedy . . . and tragedy. Davids Lynch and Cronenberg extended their extraordinary visions with digital feature Inland Empire. a long but ultimately fascinating investigation into the creative process and Eastern Promises. an underworld thriller. awash with cocks. blood and visceral ambivalence.
David Fincher showed how it should be done with his seamlessly executed serial killer policier Zodlac. while mad. bad Paul Verhoeven returned with fantastic wartime thriller Black Book. Zhang Yimou's Lear-esque epic Curse of the Golden Flower proved yet again that this Chinese filmmaker is now working in a league of his own.
Some old hands didn‘t let film fans down this year. I loved the gruesome detail of Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn. the literary conundrums of Mira Nair's underrated The Namesake. the deadbeat pessimism at play in Aki Kaurismaki's The Lights in the Dusk and the stifling heat of redundant hope in Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart.
As for the year's best film. I'll take my cue from Jim Morrison whose notion that 'the appeal of cinema lies in the fear of death' informs German Stasi thriller. The Lives of Others. Kelly Reichardt‘s Old Joy. Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Carlos Reygadas' masterful Silent Light. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Climates and of course. Todd Haynes' remarkable semiotics of cinema chowdown I’m Not There. (Paul Dale)
58 THE LIST ‘3 Dec :00 Q. 5
Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Paul Dale
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Terence Fisher's fantastic 1958 Hammer horror classic in this new lovingly restored print, which marks the
film‘s 50th anniversary.