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112. Danish director Susanne Bier’s “Hævnen” (In a Better World) (2010): The...
“Surprisingly endearing and thought-provoking” is what I consider Susanne Bier’s Hævnen (In a Better World) to be. To appreciate this Bier offering adequately, it might be useful to note that the lady...
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113. Centenarian Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira’s “O Estranho Caso...
One is never sure if any hundred year old can walk or even talk coherently. When you see a feature film made by a '102+ '-year-old that can make the grade to enter the 2010 Cannes official Un certain...
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114. Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Loong Boonmee raleuk chat”...
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is no ordinary movie. It contains a mix of age old wisdom and modern politics, the latter hidden cleverly to avoid the wrath of the Thai censors. It presents...
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115. Russian director Aleksei Popogrebsky’s film “Kak ya provyol etim letom”...
For the entire duration of this captivating film that won the Golden Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the Best Film award at the London Film Festival, the viewer sees merely two individuals, one...
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116. Indian filmmakers Girish Karnad and B. V. Karanth’s “Vamsha vriksha”...
Often important movies lean on great literary works to make an impact. Girish Karnad and B.V. Karanth’s Vamsha vriksha, made in black and white on a shoestring budget, is one such example. Vamsha...
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117. Chinese director Quan’an Wang’s “Tuan yuan” (Apart, together) (2010): A...
There is every likelihood that a casual viewing of this film will lead many viewers to categorize the movie as just another ordinary love story. And there is a strong possibility for a viewer to even...
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118. Indian director Ashim Ahluwalia’s documentary feature “John & Jane”...
Documentaries have a discrete charm of their own, especially when they are well made. When this writer lists his 10 favourite movies, one of the 10 is a documentary: a ten-part, 7.5 hour feature...
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119. French director Claire Denis’ “L’intrus” (The Intruder) (2004):...
The Intruder begins with an opening quote "Your worst enemies are hiding inside, in the shadows, in your heart." As the film rolls on you realize this film is not a regular movie that you come across....
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120. Romanian director Cristi Puiu’s “Moartea domnului Lazarescu” (The Death...
No Romanian film that this writer has seen has been as honest, as gripping, and as well crafted as Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr Lazarescu. It bolsters the credibility of Romanian cinema, which has...
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121. US director Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” (2011): An exquisite...
Terrence Malick has made only five feature films to date, all made in the US. The five films have won a solitary Oscar (for Nestor Almendros's cinematography in Days of Heaven), although many of his...
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122. Canadian director Sébastien Pilote’s debut film feature film “Le...
If there is one director who has made his presence felt with a debut in 2011, it is Sébastien Pilote from Canada. Few have heard of him, and even fewer have seen his first feature film The Salesman....
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123. Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s “Jodái-e Náder az Simin” (Nader and...
Iranian cinema has made impressive strides in recent decades and Nader and Simin: A Separation is undoubtedly the crowning achievement of Iranian cinema in 2011. It is not often that any film wins...
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124. Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s “Elena” (2011): The third riveting...
Andrei Zvyagintsev is one of the most interesting among active filmmakers today. He has only made three feature films. Each of those three films is built, to put it in literary terms, on the scale of a...
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125. Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da” (Once...
Turkish cinema made an impact on the world map in the early Eighties essentially because the honest nationalist realism of the Kurd actor/screenplay-writer/director Yilmaz Güney was blooming and...
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126. Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s “Hanezu no tsuki” (Hanezu) (2011): The...
Naomi Kawase is arguably the most interesting active Japanese director today. Her cinematic themes are intrinsically correlated with Asian traditions and these aspects that weave into her films’ plots...
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127. Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s “Bé omid é didar/See you later”...
The overall impact of viewing the Iranian film Goodbye reminds you of another unrelated film from USA. Way back in 1964, Hollywood produced a film called The Pawnbroker. It was directed by the late...
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128. Russian director Alexander Sokurov’s German film “Faust” (2011):...
Alexander Sokurov’s Faustis a complex film. It is also an amazing film dealing with the good and the evil in each of us. There are sections of the film that can be revolting to a viewer and there are...
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129. Chadean filmmaker Mahamet-Saleh Haroun's “Un Homme Qui Crie” (A...
“Be careful not to cross your arms over your chest, assuming the sterile attitude of a spectator, because life is not a spectacle, a sea of pain is not a proscenium, and a screaming man is not a...
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130. Korean filmmaker Chang-dong Lee’s “Shi” (Poetry) (2010): Learning to...
Good Korean cinema often involves very little verbal talk. The visuals often do the talking, which is not common for movies made in most parts of the world. Chang-dong Lee’s Poetry is one such example...
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131. U.S. director Arthur Penn’s “The Missouri Breaks” (1976): Re-evaluation...
The Missouri Breaks deserves more attention than it has received over the years. Apart from the fact that it contains one of the most darkly comic lines ever used in cinema "You know what woke you up?...
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