Top 10 Best Films Seen in 2006 |
 Dec 31 2006, 02:34 AM
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Scribbulus Everchanging Inks Changer  Posts: 1,303 Joined: 7:33am January 28, 2005 Location: Manila, Philippines  |
Unlike other Top 10 of 2006 lists, this one lists down all the best movies I've seen for the first time in 2006, regardless of the original year of release instead of the usual best of 2006 lists which other critics/film geeks do which lists down only 2006 films.
Instead of ranking according to preference, I shall rank them in alphabetical order and also post the review I wrote about the film. Here goes: AGUIRRE WRATH OF GOD Directed by Werner Herzong Wow! Just wow. I downloaded this movie via BitTorrent due to it's annoying habit of being unavailable in video or DVD locally anywhere and my being unable to attend the special screening of it sometime ago. Wow, just wow. Some of the most stunning on-location shots are in this film. I watched this movie via my computer screen, I really, really felt I was there. Compelling portrait of madness, obssession and the absurdity of colonialism. Klaus Kinski gives a superb performance too. An insanely great film. CACHE Directed by Michael Haneke An amazing film! My favorite film from Michael Haneke so far (I've seen Funny Games and The Piano Teacher). Daniel Auteil and Juliette Binoche play a married couple who receives a series of mysterious videotapes of their house. The film offers no easy answers and is very much infuriating, nerve-wracking and bewildering all at once. Technically, it's a thriller but don't expect a thriller in a convential sense. Superb. THE DEPARTED Directed by Martin Scorsese It's no GoodFellas but it's pretty darn close. Tense, gripping adaptation of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs which actually manages to have an even DARKER ending than the original (if memory serves me right) something that I have mixed feelings about. Great performances by the cast (though Wahlberg is at times annoying). This is without a doubt, Martin Scorsese's best film of the 00's. THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski An extraordinary, dream-like motion picture about two women named Veronique, one Polish, the other French who look strikingly the same living parallel lives from one another. Irene Jacob plays both parts outstandingly. An absolutely spell-binding film that further cements Kieslowski in my list of favorite filmmakers. LATE SPRING Directed by Yasujiro Ozu Another quiet, understated family drama from one of Japanese cinema's true masters. A widower pretends to be interested in remarrying in hopes to get his devoted daughter to finally leave home and get married. Like with the few Ozu films I've seen, it takes a while to get used to the slow pace, the different cultural sensibility and the seemingly mundane themes but once you're in, you'll be moved by this beautifully shot and acted slice of life piece Japanese style. LE SAMOURAI Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville A quiet hitman gets caught between the police and his duplicitous employers in this engrossing French thriller, masterfully directed by Melville. His use of very sparse dialogue and images to grip the viewer is nothing short of amazing. OPEN CITY Directed by Roberto Rosselini The DVD version of this film which I watched doesn't have the best picture and best sound. Plus it isn't properly subtitled (almost half of them missing). But still, the power and beauty of Rosselini's neo-realist masterpiece comes through very clearly. Very moving with some stunning piece of acting. Superb. OUT OF THE PAST Directed by Jacques Tourneur Gangsters. B&W photography. Double-crossing femme fatales. Ingenious plot twists. All the ingredients of a great film noir is here. Robert Mitchum gives a great performance as a "private detective" working for a gangster boss and gets himself entangled in a web of deceit and intrigue when he falls for the wrong woman. Gripping, absorbing. A classic in every way. THE SEVENTH SEAL Directed by Ingmar Bergman FINALLY!!! I've seen a bunch of Bergman but oddly enough not his most well-known and popular. Until this year. Though I do not consider this my favorite Bergman film (Persona holds that title still), I do agree with the consensus that this is indeed a masterpiece in the history of world cinema. Lots of very haunting, indelible images and great performances. WAGES OF FEAR Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot This is one nerve-wracking film! Four men, two trucks filled with volatile nitro glycerine, rocky, unstable roads = a formula for a genuinely thrilling, even thought provoking character study cum thriller. Some really, really genuinely edge of your seat stuff here. |
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Dec 31 2006, 02:58 AM
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Daily Prophet Photographer Posts: 864 Joined: 10:54pm August 23, 2005 Location: Wizarding Wireless Network |
I'll give you my 2006 list once I watch Dreamgirls, Miss Potter, The Good German , and Notes on a Scandal. I've only seen two of your movies. How sad!
This post has been edited by LilaViseckBrious: Dec 31 2006, 03:07 AM --------------------   "Severus...please..." |
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Jan 1 2007, 04:25 PM
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Wizard Artist Posts: 2,924 Joined: 1:36pm August 4, 2006 Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe  |
L' Armee' des ombres: (Army in the Shadows). Jean Pierre Meville. (1969)
So far, this has been one of the best films I have seen about the resistance fighters in France during World War II. It has a completely different pace and delivery of visual information. There is a point in the film where the captives are told to run while the Germans start to shoot them in an semi-open Bunker – with one of the main characters barely escaping with his own life. The film showed the sacrifices that people were willing to do during the war to protect the resistance movement, or even their own lives. That also meant having to kill some of it’s own members to protect many people’s lives. The ending still upsets me to no end. It’s bold. Strangely poetic at moments and other times you feel you haven’t been spared a bullet. That you have split seconds to make decisions that could either safe your life, or kill many countrymen you love. ___________________________ C.S.A. The Confederate States of America. Kevin Wilmont (2004) I caught this at a Film Festival in Amsterdam. It’s a fake documentary showing what would have happened if the south won the civil war: What if slavery was still in effect today in America? The whole film is like watching an evening of TV in an Altered universe. It’s disturbing – because it’s using only source material, and visual references from Americana Stereotypes of the marketing of Black images. That is the point they show people at the end of the film that many of the products and ideas are still in fact in production in the United States today – and never questioned nor changed. I also thought the altered story was quite amusing. What if there was no New York today, and that it had been destroyed during the war. It’s one of those films that make you talk about racism, and if we have in fact actually developed true civil rights for all people. ____________________________ The Day of the Locust. John Schlesinger. (1975) For years I have looked for a DVD of this film. I finally found it this year. It’s a film Hollywood would like buried and forgotten about. It’s a social satire on the whole film business, and the way people will trade their real life for the fake illusions of stardom and fantasy. The ending still gives me chills. You won’t look at a Hollywood film the same way if you really understand the lies and illusions that mask the visual medium. I loved the opening with all the extras walking down the banister – and you saw all the camera crews and technicians. Then all the sudden they disappeared – and the illusion continued as if you were in the castle at a fine ball. Disturbing as hell. ____________________________ Death of a President. Gabriel Range (2006) Controversial documentary style film about an Assassination of George Bush: what would happen to the U.S.A? I thought it was bold and daring. Many people thought the film was in poor taste, but America never questions assassinations in other countries. Politics should always be under the scrutiny of the public, and not the other way around. I have followed political cartoons and satires for years. This one was shot that it was so believable. Since we have had several real assassinations in The Netherlands the past few years, I know what happens with the media and the mindset of people. I still think it’s one of the most important films of 2006. _____________________________ D.O.A. Rudolph Mate (1950) Another classic film I waited to see till this year. I love Film Noir. I like the cinematography, and the beautiful shadows of the Black and White Footage. The storyline of a man trying to find the person who murdered him while he still has a few hours to live still holds up after 57 years. ______________________________ Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. Directed by Julian Jarrold. (TV) (1999) This was my first purchased BBC Drama on DVD this year. It’s now one of 10 favorite films. It’s a hard story – but it’s filmed in a gothic way that if some of the characters were actually living people – or ghosts. The film reflected in some ways my own harsh life. That no matter what you do, you will always be considered by what you came from. This also got me back into watching BBC Mini-Series – which I did not realize how much I did enjoy until this year. I was impressed with the style and set design of this Film. Charlotte Rampling was incredible in this film. _______________________________ Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Tom Tykwer (2006) This film made me feel like when I first saw Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. It was so visually loaded with sensory visual information. So I perceived something completely different out of this film than the film being about a story of a murderer. I saw it as a picture of how we murder our own passions, our senses: The genuine ability to reach out to people and love everyone around us. How we will trade and spend for the expensive illusion of lost love and youth. It’s now one of my favorite films of 2006. I am still trying to find all the words to describe what this film made me feel. _______________________________ Pride and Prejudice. Joe Wright. (2005) This one made me fall in love with Jane Austen. I always thought it was girl stuff – so I neither read any of the books or saw any of the films based on her work. For some strange reason I was really attracted to the film trailer of it – but I did not want to see it in the theater. I wanted the DVD of it. Why? Because I cried beautiful tears from what this film made me feel inside. That isn’t what I exactly like the public to see out of me. I felt so alive seeing this film. Lizzy’s dream she had of standing on a beautiful cliff gave me such a gift of freedom in my heart. I loved how the camera roved around through the houses, and the ball. _______________________________ Rashomon. Akira Kurosawa (1950) I waited years to see this treasure. I love the Black and White cinematography of it. It’s a film that makes me question a person’s take on what they see, or don’t see depending on how much of reality they can accept within themselves. That it does take at times many perspectives to see a true picture – but even all the points could still not give the full story. This is a film I will see over and over to marvel at how he was able to achieve the mastery of language, film, and communication within a tone that even you questioned what you saw. ________________________________ Why We Fight. (2005) Excellent Documentary about the Military money machine, and how the American economy is now based off of war making: Not a film for people who don’t want to question war policies. _________________________________ Cheers, Helyx  We tend to not get the films when they normally come out in Holland. Most times the films are on DVD by the time they hit the Theater Screens, unless it is a big budget film. This post has been edited by helyx: Jan 2 2007, 10:32 AM |
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Jan 3 2007, 08:38 AM
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Being Eaten by the Pea Soup Posts: 23 Joined: 8:18am January 3, 2007 Location: singaporeeeeeee |
The only film that really impressed me in 2006 was V for Vendetta. The Departed was pretty good as well but it's basically a remake of the Chinese film Infernal Affairs.
-------------------- It does not end with Deathly Hallows.
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Jan 3 2007, 05:03 PM
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Shopping for a New Firebolt Posts: 801 Joined: 11:16pm June 27, 2006 Location: Middle-size town, TX |
Haven't really seen that many movies this year, and certainly no artsy independent films, but I might as well throw an arbitrary ranking on them.
1. Stranger Than Fiction - Will Farrell as you've never seen him before. Very funny throughout, and meaningful at the end, with an ending that the characters themselves choose to pursue rather than it just happening. 2. Casino Royale - Daniel Craig was cold, athletic, and failed horribly at being vulnerable (although that kinda makes sense for the character). Eva Green was the best Bond girl I've ever seen, and those first two action sequences carry most of the movie (the "first kill" and when he chases the most athletic man ever, seriously). 3. Silent Hill - Really captured the style of the game, although they had to make the story a tad simpler (though still odd and creepy enough). Thankfully not one of those "disgusting" horror films, as most of the gore scenes are concentrated and "tactfully powerful" compared to other films. Probably in the top 3 movies (if not the best) based on a video game. 4. A Prairie Home Companion - I was a fan of the radio show, so I had to see this. The main plot is simple, and most of the dialogue is about nothing at all except the characters memories, but it's a very "peaceful" movie I guess. Some of the music is boring, although the singers are talented, but some of them are fantastic (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly especially). Making "Guy Noir" the main character was a smart move. 5. Mission Impossible 3 - Nothing too spectacular, but "solid" throughout, with the usual plot-twists that still boost your adrenaline even if you see it coming. Even had a few scenes where they basically winked to the camera and said "see, we could've made this convoluted and overly complicated, but we're keeping it sweet and simple." 6. The Prestige - Good acting (except for Johannson, sorry), good plot, twists and turns, entertaining enough. 7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Very, very entertaining, excellent special effects, but not complete without the 3rd film. 8. Invincible - Football fans will like it. I liked that they showed the actual footage from the person and games they recreated in the movie. Has some good lines about important sports can be to a person 9. X-men 3: The Last Stand - New characters had style and some depth, but the plot was changed too drastically to what the original storyline was. Good effects, decent fight scenes. 10. Flyboys - Cheesy, but good-natured. Great fight scenes with great special effects that are still a little too short to appreciate fully. Cute love story dealing with language issues. The text at the end was like an obnoxious person who knows what really happens and ruins your hopefulness. Others: Eragon (way too short, made itself into SW: Ep. 4 w/dragons even though it shouldn't be), Crank (heavily R-rated, last scene makes no sense), The Hills Have Eyes (goes a little too far, only good part of the movie is the dog) -------------------- "It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist.... Maybe that's all family really is, a group of people who miss the same imaginary place." ----Andrew Largeman, Garden State
Suite #13 for PoA/Chamber #13 for GoF/Chamber #29 for OotP  |
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Jan 5 2007, 04:36 AM
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Kibble Boy/Girl at the Magical Menagerie Posts: 297 Joined: 2:49pm June 11, 2005 Location: omaha, nebraska |
I don't know the directors and I don't want to look them up. Not in any order.
Igby Goes Down Great little coming of age tale that I watched today. I know it's not 2006 anymore, but I want it on this list, ok? Has one of the Culkin's in it. Kieran? Thumbsucker Another great little coming of age tale. I'm into those types of stories. Especially the ones that are both happy and sad at the same time. This one is a bit lighter than Igby Goes Down. Based on a book that I can't seem to get my hands on. Brick This film is absolutely amazing. Modern, teenage film noir. It's the darkest detective story featuring high school kids (but you'd never know it.) It's almost as if it's in a parallel universe, yet so believable. If you pick any movie off of this list to see, let it be this one! SLC Punk! Didn't see it for the first time in '06, but I watched it again in 06 with a group of friends but it was the first time I really watched it so closely and meaningfully (I was going through a thoughtful time) and I almost started crying while watching it (the ending!) It was so embarassing. Me, group of friends, I started choking up! It's a little insight into the punk rock scene in Salt Lake City in the mid-late 80's. Very interesting, very funny. Stars Mattew Lillard and that dude that plays Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore. Christopher something? Squid and the Whale I really don't remember all that much about this film, just that it was thoughtful and comes to a pretty good conclusion. It's slow-paced (Into that stuff sometimes) and is about a family going through a divorce. Funny in an offbeat way. Serious themes, but most of the humor is in the seriousness, I guess. Requiem for a Dream This film is dark and depressing. It made me want to kill myself in the end. It was very well done, however. Made by the guy that made Pi. Darren Arfronsky or something. Stars Jared Leto, who portrayed Harry (based on the book) perfectly. Barefoot in the Park This film really kills me. It's an ancient romance movie based on a play by Neil Simon. It's so funny and slightly cheesy in some ways but that's really most of the humor. Seriously, give this one a try if you enjoy anything to do with romance or newlyweds or anything. It'll be a new favorite, I guarantee it. This film does not fit on this list, but it is. TRY IT. Layer Cake Starring Daniel Craig. About drug crime in Britain. Very interesting, highly entertaining, extremely awesome. The ending is so sudden and insane you just sit and stare. Possibly make a face like this:  Rules of Attraction This is a film that tells a few stories, all wrapped up together. It stars James Van Der Beek from Dawson's Creek and he's tolerable as long as you completely forget about Dawson's Creek. It also has Ian Sommerhalder from LOST. I'd check this one out if you like films like Brick and Thumbsucker and Garden State. About Schmidt It's set in Nebraska, where I live and have lived forever, so it was awesome seeing all of this stuff on film. It was made by Alexander Payne who is from Omaha and also made Election and Sideways which are both pretty awesome themselves. I had this on VHS for a few years but never watched it until my parents told me they thought it sucked because it was too slow. This was a red flag in my mind for a good movie. They ALWAYS say that about my favorite movies. ): -------------------- "It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road." -Holden Caulfield
The Plug Collector < my wizard rock outfit |
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Jan 6 2007, 03:27 PM
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Rat Spleen Restocker at the Apothecary Posts: 486 Joined: 12:15am August 3, 2006 Location: Sleepy Hollow |
1. Pirates of the Caribbean 2
2. Four Brothers 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 4. X-men 3 5. Eragon 6.Pride and Prejudice 7. RV 8.Presige 9.Sense&Sensibility 10. Love Actually -------------------- |
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Jan 6 2007, 05:08 PM
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Daily Prophet Photographer Posts: 864 Joined: 10:54pm August 23, 2005 Location: Wizarding Wireless Network |
I love your list wasps. A lot of angst filled movies.
-------------------- "Severus...please..." |
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Jan 6 2007, 05:13 PM
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Kibble Boy/Girl at the Magical Menagerie Posts: 297 Joined: 2:49pm June 11, 2005 Location: omaha, nebraska |
angst from all stages of life.
-------------------- "It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road." -Holden Caulfield
The Plug Collector < my wizard rock outfit |
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Jan 6 2007, 09:05 PM
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Hiding in the Iron Maiden at Borgin and Burkes Posts: 316 Joined: 2:28pm October 25, 2006 Location: On my way to McGonagall's office to enjoy a nice biscuit. |
I'm not really into the intelligent movies for the most part. Occasionally I'll like one, but not usually. Here are some recent movies I just saw that I enjoyed
The Pursuit of Happyness- One of the best movies I've ever seen. Period. Click- So happy!! So sad!! So funny!! POTC 2- Really good, though long!! Darn, for some reason I am drawing a blank....I'll probably be back with more later!!! Sort of off topic- have you seen the previews for Reign Over Me? This movie looks unbelievable!!! Look up the trailer if you haven't seen this yet!!! -------------------- "No, I think I'll just go down and have some pudding and wait for it all to turn up.... It always does in the end." -Luna Lovegood
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