Another year, another December ritual of best-ofs. Is the high worth the pain at the cinemas? Mostly yes, 2014 has yielded a crop of films that excite, touch, baffle, entrance and stun us in many ways.
The Wind Rises.
The global trafficking of moving image means accessibility to movies has expanded beyond what our local cinemas pick for you — so I encourage you to go beyond the usual multiplex bills and taste the wide-ranging samples out there. Art, commerce, culture, politics, entertainment — cinema has many functions, and the best films are those that send quivers through your heart and a million sparks in your brain.
This is just another list. And yours is as good as mine. Happy New Year!
Goodbye to Language (Jean Luc Godard)
When a 84-year-old filmmaker has made a film like this, we know cinema is in fine health, at least in certain corridors of this vast mental asylum. Godard's 3D film is image as bliss, narrative as shards of coloured glass and philosophy as mischief (and vice versa). At this point in human civilisation, only fools would argue that film isn't art and Godard offers another startling, retina-burning proof, the most mind-blitzing experience of the year. The film was shown in Bangkok in November as part of World Film Festival of Bangkok.
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski has given us a heartbreaking story of a wound that can never be healed except by death. Set in post-war Poland, the beautiful black-and-white film is the story of Ida, a novice who's about to take her vows to become a Catholic nun in a rural church, when she stumbles upon a family secret and wartime tragedy that shakes the foundation of her faith in life. The film will be shown next month as part of Polish Film Festival in Bangkok.
Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
This adolescent drama, shown in wide release here, attempts to do what art is supposed to do since the times of Plato: to look at life and reveal its secrets and pains, its joys and banality, its beauty and tears. Linklater does that with casual charm and in the process, he also expands the possibility of filmmaking.
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello)
An exquisite, trippy, heartfelt biopic that manages to subvert the convention of the genre. The life of Yves Saint Laurent is a kaleidoscope of sensual feelings and erotic pitfalls, rather than the usual ups and downs of a tormented genius. It's still showing in some cinemas here.
The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)
Hayao Miyazaki's swansong animation The Wind Rises — about the life of a Japanese aircraft engineer on the eve of World War II — is a tale of heartbreak and hijacked dreams. It's a story of a young artist who watches in horror as his art, or what he believes to be nothing else but art, is exploited by a machine of terror that scorches the Earth and terrorises the world. It was released here and it's worth watching again.
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
This Argentinian film, about a European soldier lost in the wilderness of 19th century Patagonia, is such a marvellous experience since it shows that film is a medium that can lock up a history (or memories or dreams or nightmares) inside it, then release it in all the splendour of South American skies. It's not got a release date in Thailand.
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez)
This documentary film takes place entirely in a cable car going up and down a Nepalese mountain and the Hindu shrine of Manakamana. In its entirety, we watch faces — villagers, tourists, grandfathers, children, even goats — and in a strange, magical way, we become aware of every passing second, every slight register of emotion and of how cinema and reality play out the world's most complex relationship. It's not being released here.
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
What an inexhaustible film! (It was shown in wide release here).
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
Starring Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz, the film tells the story of a middle-aged French actress, her young American assistant and a rising teen star. Delicate and sensitive (and beautifully shot), the film discusses reality and performance, and how life is a long series of rehearsal for a play we're not even sure when the real show will arrive. It's not being released here.
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
Silly and subversive, The Lego Movie (it stars animated Lego characters and pieces) thrives on parody, riotous cuteness and a throwback to 1980s stoners' anti-chic. It was released here early in the year, and remains a perfect holiday movie regardless of your age and state of mind.
