For the purists out there, I want to be clear that many of these films were actually released in 2007, but I didn’t get a round to viewing them until 2008. My apologies to the purists. For Seattleites, many of these titles have yet to surface in our city, and trust me when I say I’m trying incredibly hard to get them seen here. In the meantime, here’s what you might call my adulterated top 10 list for 2008:
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In The City of Sylvia – José Luis Guerín (coincidentally opening today at Anthology Film Archives in New York)
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Liverpool – Lisandro Alonso
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La France – Serge Bozon
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Import/Export – Ulrich Seidl
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Summer Hours – Olivier Assayas
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Hunger – Steve McQueen
- Medicine For Melancholy - Barry Jenkins
- When It Was Blue – Jennifer Reeves
- Man On A Wire - James Marsh
- Wall-E – Andrew Stanton
The rest of the NWFF staff will post their lists soon, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear from our audiences. Please contribute your own top 10 lists in the comments section.
Tags: Hunger, Import/Export, In The City of Sylvia, José Luis Guerín, la france, Lisandro Alonso, Man On A Wire, Medicine For Melancholy, Steve McQueen, Summer Hours, Wall-E, When It Was Blue
December 13, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I’m curious, how many of those have screened in Seattle?
December 14, 2008 at 9:24 am
How about an Ulrich Seidl retrospective? I don’t think any of his films have played in Seattle before. Lisandro Alonso, ditto. Jennifer Reeves as well! The Time We Killed is so great, but no one’s ever seen it. Anyway, looking forward to as many of these as you can bring!
December 14, 2008 at 10:08 pm
All of these played for at least a week in Seattle this year, except SYLVIA (which had just two screenings at NWFF) and WENDY AND LUCY (which has opened in NY, but not in Seattle). I haven’t seen the new films by Eastwood and Fincher. Lisandro Alonso’s new film is brilliant – he is one of the world’s greatest directors – yet none of his four features have played Seattle.
Glenn’s top ten:
1. ASHES OF TIME – Wong Kar-wai
2. FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON – Hou Hisao-hsien
3. PARANOID PARK – Gus Van Sant
4. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS – Cristian Mungiu
5. IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA – Jose Luis Guerin
6. A CHRISTMAS TALE – Arnaud Desplechin
7. WENDY AND LUCY – Kelly Reichardt
8. ALEXANDRA – Alexander Sokurov
9. MY WINNIPEG – Guy Maddin
10. WOMAN ON THE BEACH – Hong Sang-soo
December 15, 2008 at 11:46 am
These have screened in Seattle:
In The City of Sylvia – José Luis Guerín
La France – Serge Bozon
Man On A Wire – James Marsh
Wall-E – Andrew Stanton
And we’re opening Medicine For Melancholy in February.
And here’s an interesting list from Art Forum, who asked John Waters and Stuart Comer, the curator at the Tate for a list:
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=21496