HERE ARE MY TOP RATED FILMS OF 2007 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
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Jia Zhang-Ke "Still Life" (China)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Syndromes and a Century" (Thailand)
Tsai Ming-Liang "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" (Taiwan)
Charles Ferguson "No End in Sight" (United States)
Julia Loktev "Day Night Day Night" (United States)
Abderrahmane Sissako "Bamako" (Mali)
Alfonso Cuarón "Children of Men" (United States)
Michael Arias/Himaki Ando "Tekkonkinkreet" (Japan)
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun "Dry Season" (Chad)
Chris Marker "The Case of the Grinning Cat" (France)
Guy Maddin "Brand Upon the Brain!" (live orator/orchestra version) (Canada)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder "Berlin Alexanderplatz" -Rereleased (Germany)
Shohei Imamura "Vengeance is Mine"/"Profound Desire of the Gods"/"History of Postwar Japan" - Rereleased (Japan)
Though not consistent enough to warrant whole-hearted inclusion in the list above, these two films are deserving
of a significant notable mention. Distinct for their sprawling long-duration narrative delivery, convoluted storytelling,
inventive use of DV and the conflicting/disorienting mix of pure cinema 'magic' and seemingly random instances
of 'missing the mark' when the aim is set this high:
Richard Kelly "Southland Tales" (United States)
David Lynch "INLAND EMPIRE" (United States)
And again this year, the unseen films by a few directors of note that never made it over here distributed stateside.
I suspect a number of these would have made the list, if I actually had a chance to see them:
Cristian Mungiu "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (Romania)
Andrei Zvyagintsev "The Banishment" (Russia)
Carlos Reygadas "Silent Light" (Mexico)
Paz Encina "Paraguayan Hammock" (Argentina)
Danièle Huillet/Jean-Marie Straub "These Encounters of Theirs" (France)
Ye Lou "Summer Palace" (China)
Respect and appreciation to the Northwest Film Forum and SIFF (both the festival and the new theatre) for bringing
many of these to the states, and making Seattle one of the major cities in the country for catching the best in global
film as an aspect of the urban cultural experience!
