52 Films For 2012

Last year was my least successful endeavor so far. I managed a meager 28 out of 52 films, though in fairness many fell through simply for availability issues. Some I've carried over to this edition, but not many. However, there's a a reason for that, as I've decided to stick with a theme. I've reached a point in my movie knowledge where the glaring gaps simply aren't so glaring any more (that gigantic cinematic bible you may know as 1001 Movies to See Before You Die - I've seen some 830 of them). That's a sign that it's time to buckle down and start getting really good at something, so from here on out, my new year's lists will be increasingly specific. I toyed with the idea of some ridiculous genre (giallo, pre-code musicals, pink films) or even just a movement (German expressionism is where it's at) but given the availability nightmares I've been plagued with in years past, I settled for something slightly more accommodating.

East Asian Cinema

Specifically, that of Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with some being better represented than others. Needless to say, I've tapped many of the key auteurs, past and present, of the region, and found room for a few long over-looked titles. And I've still found a way to satisfy my genre fix, with the most essential categories: anime, samurai, wuxia, horror, and yes, pink films, all making appearances. And with that long-winded intro out of the way, here you kids go. 52 films for 2012. 

 

The Grandmasters
Red Beard (Kurosawa)
Stray Dog (Kurosawa)
I Was Born, But… (Ozu)
An Autumn Afternoon (Ozu)
The Empress Yang Kuei-Fei (Mizoguchi)
The Crucified Lovers (Mizoguchi)

The Classics
The Sword of Doom (Okamoto)
Crazed Fruit (Nakahira)
Blind Beast (Masumura)
Harakiri (Kobayashi)
The Human Condition (Kobayashi)
Tokyo Olympiad (Ichikawa)
An Actor’s Revenge (Ichikawa)

The Coolest Kid On The Block
Tattooed Life (Suzuki)
Story of a Prostitute (Suzuki)
Youth of the Beast (Suzuki)

Horror
The Face of Another (Teshigahara)
Chinese Ghost Story (Ching)
Kuroneko (Shindo)
Jigoku (Nakagawa)

Wuxia/Martial Arts
Come Drink With Me (Hu)
Dragon Gate Inn (Hu)
Killer Clans (Yuen)
Zu Warriors From the Magic Mountain (Hark)

Pink
Porno Jidaigeki: Bohachi Bushido (Ishii)
Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion (Ito)
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Ito)

Anime
Ninja Scroll (Kawajiri)
Ghost in the Shell (Oshii)
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (Miyazaki)
Pom Poko (Takahata)
Origin: Spirits of the Past (Sugiyama)

South Korea
Attack the Gas Station (Kim)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park)
Poetry (Lee)

Contemporary Favorites
Green Snake (Hark)
Once Upon a Time In China (Hark)
Tampopo (Itami)
Hardboiled (Woo)
Police Story (Chan)
The Actress (Kwan)
Ichi the Killer (Miike)
Visitor Q (Miike)
Zatoichi (Kitano)

Other Auteurs
Black Rain (Imamura)
Vengeance is Mine (Imamura)
A Brighter Summer Day (Yang)
Vive l’Amour (Tsai)
The River (Tsai)
A City of Sadness (Hou)
Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou)

Tristan's Annual Unsuccessful New Year's Res...

Now broadcasting to you from Chicago.

With that comes the promise of more frequent updates, as I suddenly find the doors of a more vibrant film scene wide open. But before any of that nonsense, it's list time, and lest we forget, lists are commonly found in one of two shades. Sure, everyone likes the masturbatory Type A list, in which you decree to the world exactly what they ought to be appreciating - opinions, after all, are what keeps this old internet of our spinning on its axis - but one man's Type A list is another man's B, the ever-dreaded, perpetually looming To-Do list. To-Watch-These-Movies in my case.

It's my annual tradition, the drafting of the list as sacred and sure as my inability to get to the bottom of it (not that I proceed in any sort of order). It's also not technically one man's Type A list, but many (with great thanks this year to Culturish's dws1982, who's brilliant top 200 can be found here). I once pulled from the canon, but I've expanded lately, and this year the lineup mostly plumbs the depths of the auteurs even further. As always, I suspect availability will stop me in my tracks more than once, but it's a bunch I'm personally quite excited about (especially for the chance to look further a Ozu, several years since we last met) and I'll report back during the year as I make a bit of a dent.

Here it is, 52 Films of 2011
1. Straight Story (David Lynch)
2. Awaara (Raj Kapoor)
3. Zazie dans le Metro (Louis Malle)
4. My Dinner With Andre (Louis Malle)
5. Brand Upon the Brain (Guy Maddin)
6. Archangel (Guy Maddin)
7. Barsaat (Raj Kapoor)
8. No Fear, No Die (Claire Denis)
9. I Am Curious Blue & Yellow (Vilgot Sjolman)
10. Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
11. Doctor Mabuse series (Fritz Lang)
12. Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles)
13. The Trial (Orson Welles)
14. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakage)
15. A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao Hsien)
16. Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao Hsien)
17. The Wind (Victor Sjostrom)
18. J’Taime, J’Taime (Alain Resnais)
19. Memories of Murder (Bong Joon Ho)
20. I Was Born, But… (Yasujiro Ozu)
21. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu)
22. Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood)
23. White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood)
24. Where Is My Friends Home? (Abbas Kiarostami)
25. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami)
26. The Death of Mr. Laszarescu (Cristi Puilu)
27. Pyassa (Guru Dutt)
28. Three Lives & Only One Death (Raul Ruiz)
29. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
30. Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
31. Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa)
32. The Spider’s Stratagem (Bernardo Bertolucci)
33. Before the Revolution (Bernardo Bertolucci)
34. The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci)
35. Tenenbre (Dario Argento)
36. Cronos (Guillermo del Toro)
37. Blood For Dracula (Paul Morrissey)
38. Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson)
39. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
40. The Kingdom (Lars von Trier)
41. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola)
42. Hedwig & the Angry Itch (John Cameron Mitchell)
43. Wonderland (Michael Winterbottom)
44. Crash (David Cronenberg)
45. Adoration (Atom Egoyan)
46. The Fall of the Roman Empire (Anthony Mann)
47. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray)
48. Violent Summer (Valerio Zurlini)
49. Mountains of the Moon (Bob Rafelson)
50. Europa ’51 (Roberto Rossellini)
51. Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tournier)
52. Le Doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville)