A new year to recap. 2011 was a busy one, especially in the travelling department. I spent a third of the year on the road and went to many places I dreamed of going for a long time. Travelling is life, and this year I felt I lived life to the fullest.
Another long January week-end in Paris that’s getting to be a tradition.
A quiet week off in Perthshire with my surrogate Scottish family.
A weekend of Edinburgh adriftness, ken wha’ I mean.
48 hours of adriftness in Amsterdam’s cuteness.
A return to Rotterdam, the irritation from the Dutch illogicalities only made better with the many great films seen.
The joy of finally setting foot in Sweden with a week in Göteborg discovering Swedish animation.
48 hours of adriftness in classy Stockholm.
A return to Berlin, with enough time to absorb the coolness of Prenzlauerberg. The discovery of more great films.
A return to Austin for SXSW, a cool line-up of flicks and a lot of fun.
A long week-end in New York with the spring that gave me a new outlook on the city.
A 4th time in Cannes in a lovely studio, more films discoveries and a packed karaoke party.
A 15th edition of Fantasia that lasted a very long 25 days, each of them packed with fun and awesome people coming to town. In my opinion the best edition of the fest yet and the most rewarding for me. Onwards and upwards!
A 4th TIFF, but the quietest for me.
A 3rd trip to Busan, BBQ, Haeundae Beach, late-night aquarium bars soju drinking.
The amazing joy of finally setting foot in Japan. 5 days of adriftness in Kyoto’s stunning beauty, the breathtaking mountains and funny snow monkeys of Yudanaka, more adriftness in Tokyo’s bustling streets and surprisingly quiet parks, late nights in Shinjuku with friends. A life-changing 2 weeks.
An unplanned trip to Buenos Aires with its welcomed warmth, steaks and Malbec.
A week in LA I had been looking forward to for years. Feeling at home in Los Feliz, hanging with friends, plotting for the future.
And finally recharging with the sun, the beach and rare family time in Costa Rica.
In-between all of this, a bit of work (admittedly not enough) and quality time with my favorite friends in Montreal.
I will surely not have a lucky year like this again and I happily took it in!
For this year’s Top 11 best films (I really didn’t know which one to cut!), I won’t be listing the obvious titles we’re seeing everywhere. We all know BLACK SWAN is awesome, TRUE GRIT was great and RABBIT HOLE was the perfect role for Kidman. They were also the last ones out and we’ve forgotten what was released last January. So instead I’ll be listing here some of the films I loved and didn’t get much word out, because it only played in festivals or didn’t play in Canada yet. Outside of big commercial releases, these are the film I had the best time watching. They either ended up playing at Fantasia or I’m very upset they didn’t , especially the 3 films from Denmark.
EASY MONEY (Sweden): A very nice mix of Inaritu and Mann, a crime film with emotion and great acting. I can’t wait for the sequel. If this film doesn’t become cult there’s nothing to save us.
SUBMARINO (Denmark): Vinterberg’s last film got away from comedy to give us the bleakest film of the year, and also one of the best. There is no reason for that film getting ignored like it’s been.
R (Denmark): The film takes about the same starting point as A PROPHET but where one goes epic, the other stays close, with a documentary eye and an ending where all goes to crap.
BROTHERHOOD (Denmark): Mix-up BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and AMERICAN HISTORY X, can you guess it doesn’t end well?
THE SILENCE (Germany): Such an impeccable camera, such just storytelling, acting, editing. An interesting exploration of the psychology of a murder and of lasting grief.
OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL (UK): I knew nothing about Dr Feelgood, came out of the theatre and bought their records on iTune. A great music doc that goes personnal. On that note, LEMMY was pretty great too.
HEARTLESS (UK): A horror / fantastic film with a lot of heart and a very dreamy Jim Sturgess.
TONY (UK): Follows a very weird serial killer in London. A very small film with a big acting performance.
RUBBER (US / France): OK, maybe it’s a bit too long for what it is, but the opening sequence made me totally ecstatic. I’m now part of the cult of No Reason.
A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE (USA): A very interesting twist on the serial killer genre where the characters have depth, the mixed-up narrative keeps the attention up and the end has a good twist. Super-shaky-close-up camera alert though!
DREAM HOME (Hong Kong): An interesting mix of psychological drama and slasher film, with great darkly humorous and very gory sequences.
