HERE ARE MY TOP FILMS OF 2006 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
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Lucile Hadzihalilovic "Innocence" (France)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien "Three Times" (China/Taiwan)
Cristi Puiu "Death of Mr. Lazarescu" (Romania)
Jean-Pierre Melville "Army of Shadows" (France)
(Rereleased classic noir from '69 with new print/subtitles
and given the Criterion treatment)
Yoji Yamada "Hidden Blade" (Japan)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan "Climates" (Turkey)
Mikio Naruse "Flowing"/"When A Woman Ascends the Stairs"/
"Repast"/"Sound of the Mountain" (Japan)
(Late 50's/Early 60's tokyo dramas - first time in the west
subtitled and given the Masters of Cinema treatment)
Bong Joon-ho "The Host" (South Korea)
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang "Invisible Waves" (Thailand)
Michel Gondry "Science of Sleep" (France)
Victor Erice "Spirit of the Beehive" (Spain)
(Another rerelease, this rarely seen Spanish film from the 70's
gets the new print and Criterion treatment as well)
Pedro Almodovar "Volver" (Spain)
And there were a number of films I've been anticipating from a handful of rather exceptional directors that have yet to see stateside release/ distribution - that I'm pretty darn sure would have otherwise made the list had they shown. So here are those in the 'Not Seen but much Anticipated' category:
Tsai Ming-Liang "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" (Taiwan)
Jia Zhang-Ke "Still Life" (China)
Abderrahmane Sissako "Bamako" (Mali)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Syndromes and a Century" (Thailand)
A couple of you have asked and yes, the docus should have been included on there. So Here'r those as another sublist:
James Longley "Iraq in Fragments" (US/Iraq)
Davis Guggenheim "An Inconvenient Truth" (US)
(Less for the delivery than its profile and overall message)
Spike Lee "When the Levees Broke" (US)
Hubert Sauper "Darwin's Nightmare" (Austria/Tanzania)
