The Cinéaste's Progress from This List to That Which Is to Come (He Hopes)


Once upon a time, I used to play a coy, rather pointless game w/r/t my annual top ten list -- dramatically "unveiling" it sometime in January, as if most everybody who reads this site didn't already have a pretty good idea of what it was gonna look like. Instead, I now publicly revise the sucker as I go along, so that the whole affair becomes a suspenseful Journey Toward Aesthetic Nirvana. Or something.

Here, then, is what my list would look like if (god forbid) I were forced to make it today:


THE "PURE" LIST (2011 premiere)

01. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)
02. Margaret [extended cut] (Kenneth Lonergan, USA)
03. The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, USA/Germany)
04. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin, USA)
05. The Minister (Pierre Schoeller, France/Belgium)
06. Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico)
07. House of Pleasures (Bertrand Bonello, France)
08. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, USA)
09. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies, UK)
10. Mildred Pierce (Todd Haynes, USA)


THE "POLLS" LIST (2011 commercial release)

01. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)
02. Margaret [extended cut] (Kenneth Lonergan, USA)
03. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
04. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Italy/Belgium)
05. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin, USA)
06. The Arbor (Clio Barnard, UK)
07. Shit Year (Cam Archer, USA)
08. House of Pleasures (Bertrand Bonello, France)
09. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, UK/Thailand/France/Germany/Spain)
10. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, USA)