your favorite films from the past decade

right, but Yuko is from Tokyo, and I'd like to watch a few of those with her, it's a Japanese-specific thing (as I'm sure you can understand, since your wife is also Japanese). no one's expecting greatness, just the best few from this specific area.

Well then...The most of the first wave of Japanese horror ( Ringu, Jun-On, Cure ) are really good..

Keiko hates the whole bag, so I have to see these things catch as catch can...


Cure's really good.

Lust, Caution [2007 Ang Lee]

I wholly agree with this one as well.

three times- hou hsiao hsien
still life- jia zhangke
the wayward cloud- tsai ming-liang
exils- tony gatlif
nobody knows- hirokazu kore-eda
the sun- aleksandr sokurov
notre musique- jean-luc godard
syndromes and a century- apichatpong weerasethakul
gerry- gus van sant
beau travail- claire denis (not this decade, but only ten years old and i couldn't come up with another movie that i know i felt super strongly about)

three times- hou hsiao hsien
still life- jia zhangke
the sun- aleksandr sokurov
beau travail- claire denis

I would second these as well, but I don't think they are available from Deep Discount.

And if we're going back to the end of the 90s, I have to put in another plug for Cronenberg's much-maligned eXistenZ.

Three Times I already have, thanks.

And if we're going back to the end of the 90s, I have to put in another plug for Cronenberg's much-maligned eXistenZ.

jesus, I hated this. I was so excited for it too.

Sokurov, all I've seen is Mother and Son, which I enjoyed quite a bit. the only DeepDiscount options are Father and Son or Russian Ark, which should I go with? the synopsis of Russian Ark has always put me off in the past, but maybe that's unfair.

Russian Ark is a one trick pony IMO. Really impressive that they pulled it off, but talk about style over substance. I can't imagine re-watching it (my usual criteria for ownership) but it was cool to see once.

(and eXistenZ is by far the worst Cronenberg I've seen. I was a fan (not a big fan but a fan nonetheless) up to that one and I've pretty much refused to watch any of his films since)

Sokurov, all I've seen is Mother and Son, which I enjoyed quite a bit. the only DeepDiscount options are Father and Son or Russian Ark, which should I go with? the synopsis of Russian Ark has always put me off in the past, but maybe that's unfair.

I haven't got around to seeing Father and Son, but I think it's in a similar vein to Mother and Son. Russian Ark is more of a curious hybrid: part historical re-enactment, part fantasy, part ambitious technical exercise. Basically, a camera moves continuously through the Hermitage in St. Petersburg in a single 90-minute take. There's little narrative per se, although there is a narrator; it's more of a pageant of pre-revolutionary Russian history, with rooms full of people in period costume. Primarily interesting from an architectural/spatial/ornamental point of view, i.e. closer to the logic of some 'experimental' films. If you think that sounds tedious, then viewing it will probably be so as well. But it would certainly make my top 10 of the 2000s, if this were a poll.

I won't reignite the Cronenberg debate.

yeah, I'll further investigate Father and Son, thanks.

father and son is interesting as a part of sokurov's body of work which is interesting and unique in general. but i would go raving up and down town about it. i saw Russian Ark well after the hype had gone (and i think that had kept me away at first, fwiw), and i don't find it to be a one trick pony, personally. it is an interesting historical/art historical/narratological exercies on a few levels... all told, i'd still take the Sun, or Moloch probably... another few i thought of mentioning were Distant by Nuri Bilge Ceylan or Kippur by Amos Gitai, but i am not so confident about those. Eloge de L'Amour by Godard is also quite good... as far as films that scream for repeat viewings, Code Unknown jumps to mind for me, but i reckon that one is probably already familiar to Jon....

And if we're going back to the end of the 90s, I have to put in another plug for Cronenberg's much-maligned eXistenZ.

Not maligned in many of the important journals and certainly not maligned by me. It's spawned a number of articles, including one by preeminent film scholar Teresa de Lauretis. A list may be found on the bottom of the link below:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/cronenberg.html

father and son is interesting as a part of sokurov's body of work which is interesting and unique in general. but i would go raving up and down town about it. i saw Russian Ark well after the hype had gone (and i think that had kept me away at first, fwiw), and i don't find it to be a one trick pony, personally. it is an interesting historical/art historical/narratological exercies on a few levels... all told, i'd still take the Sun, or Moloch probably... another few i thought of mentioning were Distant by Nuri Bilge Ceylan or Kippur by Amos Gitai, but i am not so confident about those. Eloge de L'Amour by Godard is also quite good... as far as films that scream for repeat viewings, Code Unknown jumps to mind for me, but i reckon that one is probably already familiar to Jon....

Moloch is really, really good, I think.

I also quite like one of the Elegies, "Elegy of a Voyage", I think it was about getting on a train and going to Brussels to visit a Breughel museum. some such like that, it was seen as part of a very heavy film festival schedule.
A few other winners from past film festivals here...

Gustav Deutsch's Film Ist is very good, but you may know that already, if you carry Index dvds. Tcherkassky's 'Cinemascope Trilogy' also.

'Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth' by Sinisa Dragin was excellent, in a grim way.

I really liked Seijun Suzuki's 'Pistol Opera' but can understand if it's not to everyone's tastes.

Assassination of Jesse James seconded. I didn't expect to like it but everything that I thought I'd dislike about it (cowboy film, lengthy, Brad Pitt) are actually its greatest assets.

I have to admit that both Ringu and The Eye (originals, not remakes) scared the bejesus out of me but I did go and see Ringu not even realising that it was meant to be a horror film...

'Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth' by Sinisa Dragin was excellent, in a grim way.

he was awarded the first prize on belgrade auteur film festival few years ago. i was skeptical at first but it turned out be a really harrowing experience.

I thought Songs From the Second Floor and Underground were both fantastic.
Also: Saddest Music in the World and Host
All the Kiyoshi Kurosawa films I've seen I've loved
Cure, Bright Future, Charisma, Seance, Pulse Dopppleganger
and just recently watched Retribution wich kind of retreads Cure.

Also, The Gleaners and I, Jupiter's Dance, Amorres Perros, American Splendor, and Cyclo.
Sorry, I sorta strayed from the original intent of the thread.

All the Kiyoshi Kurosawa films I've seen I've loved
Cure, Bright Future, Charisma, Seance, Pulse Dopppleganger
and just recently watched Retribution wich kind of retreads Cure.

I found Retribution disappointing, though I loved Cure and Charisma and Doppleganger, Retribution:Cure::Existenz:Videodrome

thanks for all of these, I researched a bunch and ordered a few (cure, pulse, syndromes and a century), and will revisit this thread in the future. I'm also excited for the paradjanov box, but that's not really applicable here.

I found Retribution disappointing, though I loved Cure and Charisma and Doppleganger, Retribution:Cure::Existenz:Videodrome

I was rather disappointed for the same reason.
I think his new film, Tokyo Sonata sounds very promising though. It was nice to see him get away from supernatural elements in Bright Future.

"syndromes and a century"

don't know if i mentioned it before myself, but this one is fantastic. Saw it in a theatre though & i suspect it has more impact there. One advice for watching conditions: cranck it up

If you havn't seen this people, why don't you reward yourself:
Jupiter's Dance:
"Kinshasa's ghettos are filled with poverty but also with a remarkable amount of talent. People of every age use music to transcend their environment. Jupiter Bokondji, leader of the band Okwess International, takes the audience on a musical tour of Kinshasa, Congo's capital. Along the way, he introduces viewers to the city's musicians -- young and old, hip-hop, blues and griot singers -- and relates his own struggle to escape his surroundings."
It's a documentary if you were wondering, and that's a rather straightforward netflix description.