Anne-Marie and I saw our final film of 2007 on Saturday, Sweeney Todd, and then had our discussion of the best movies we saw during the year. We each come up with a top five from films we saw in theaters during the calendar year. We limit the list to five to reflect the fact that we see only a fraction of the movies that professional critics review in a year (for the record, we saw thirty four films last year). My final list followed the top fifteen I submitted to PopMatters. Here are my final selections for the best films of 2007, in order seen from least to most recent:
- Children of Men
- Once
- Persepolis
- My Winnipeg
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
For me, these annual lists are about the year just past, and my experience and reaction to seeing a film, usually for the first time, in a theater. I do not try to select those films that I believe will necessarily be classics or notable or even memorable beyond the first screening.
The contingent nature of this list is probably most evident in the cases of Persepolis and My Winnipeg, both of which we saw at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), both in premiers, North American for Persepolis, World for My Winnipeg, and with filmmakers in attendance. Guy Maddin provided live narration for Winnipeg. It would be impossible for me to entirely divorce the circumstances of these viewings from the films themselves (in fact, in our post-Sweeney Todd discussion at the Fox and Firkin, we both wondered how professional critics process these aspects of moviegoing). They were the highlights of the movie year as far as overall experience goes.
None of this is to suggest that either film is unworthy of being on the list independent of TIFF. Persepolis is a delightful adaptation of the books, which I adore. Marjane Satrapi and collaborator Vincent Paronnaud manage to work within the spirit of the novels, largely black-and-white, spare artwork, while adding depth and dynamism. My Winnipeg, somehow, manages to be both highly personal and still the most accessible work by Maddin that I've seen.
Once is an unique and passionate film. Technically far from perfect, the performances, the music, and unexpected turns in the narrative make it a joy.
Children of Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford were the two exceptional films I saw in 2007. Children of Men was the first movie we saw this year, and none surpassed it in intelligence, craft, or importance. Especially with the presidential election heating up and immigration and "security" emerging as defining issues, more people should see this film than have or did. It speaks directly to the folly of trying to purify the nation-state of Others in the name of safety and prosperity, but also to the willingness of others to resist such efforts. Jesse James is a beautiful, literate, impeccably designed, and skillfully acted film. In a year that also saw fairly self-conscious attempts to pay homage to 70s era American cinema - Zodiac, American Gangster - Jesse James felt the most like a movie that would have been truly at home in that period. I can hardly believe that it is director Andrew Dominik's second feature.
We limit ourselves to films we saw in the theater, but I also reflect in movies I saw on DVD at home for the first time, and those that I program for Western Oregon's Tourn??es Festival.
On DVD, Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels (1995), Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel (1948), and Christopher Petit's Radio On (1979) would have all received consideration for the top five had I seen them during a theatrical release (thoughts on Drunken Angel are forthcoming in PopMatters). From the Festival this year, Christopher Marker's Chats Perch??s would have also merited consideration. Like Once and My Winnipeg, Chats Perch??s is a singular work. Gently biting, wry, and steeped in Situationist politics, the film is thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining.
I have a list of the films we saw in the theater on Spout, as well as one for those I watched on DVD this year. Anne-Marie's personal top five is here.
Originally posted on:
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