50 greatest films & videos of the 2000's

frame enlargements from Robert Breer's What Goes Up

Here is my favorite 50 films made between 2000-2010.

One film per film-maker. In a very arbitrary order of preference:

  1. What Goes Up (2003) - Robert Breer
  2. Three Times (2005) - Hou Hsiao-hsien
  3. The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (2000) - Stan Brakhage
  4. Un Lac (2009) - Philippe Grandrieux
  5. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) - Jonas Mekas
  6. Poetry and Truth (2003) - Peter Kubelka
  7. Glider (2001) - Ernie Gehr
  8. Corpus Callosum (2002) - Michael Snow
  9. Miami Vice (2006) - Michael Mann
  10. Worldly Desires (2005) - Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  11. 'R Xmas (2001) - Abel Ferrara
  12. Yi Yi (2000) - Edward Yang
  13. Chats perchés (2004) - Chris Marker
  14. Ten Videos: 3 (2006) - Kyle Canterbury
  15. Le silence de Lorna (2008) - Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  16. Va savoir (2001) - Jacques Rivette
  17. The Decay of Fiction (2002) - Pat O'Neill
  18. The Legend of Nile (2009) - Eytan Ipeker
  19. L'arrotino (2001) - Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub
  20. Two Lovers (2008) - James Gray
  21. Sobibór, 14 octobre 1943, 16 heures (2001) - Claude Lanzmann
  22. Kedma (2002) - Amos Gitai
  23. A Talking Picture (2003) - Manoel de Oliveira
  24. Süt (2008) - Semih Kaplanoğlu
  25. İklimler (2006) - Nuri Bilge Ceylan
  26. Le Temps Qui Reste (2005) - François Ozon
  27. Still Life (2006) - Jia Zhang Ke
  28. Zodiac (2007) - David Fincher
  29. 30 Days of Night (2007) - David Slade
  30. Grizzly Man (2005) - Werner Herzog
  31. Ohio Postcard (2009) - Ekrem Serdar
  32. The Host (2006) - Bong Joon-ho
  33. Lachrymae (2000) - Brian Frye
  34. Eureka (2000) - Shinji Aoyama
  35. Breaking News (2004) - Johnnie To
  36. Vicdan (2008) - Erden Kıral
  37. Où gît votre sourire enfoui? (2001) - Pedro Costa
  38. Songs from the Second Floor (2000) - Roy Andersson
  39. EVO (2002) - Oliver Hockenhull
  40. La fille coupée en deux (2007) - Claude Chabrol
  41. Ten (2002) - Abbas Kiarostami
  42. The New World (2005) - Terrence Malick
  43. The Edge of Love (2008) - John Maybury
  44. Engulfment (3) (2009) - Adam Rokhsar
  45. Russian Ark (2002) - Alexander Sokurov
  46. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) - Tsai Ming-liang
  47. La frontière de l'aube (2008) - Philippe Garrel
  48. Tatil Kitabı (2008) - Seyfi Teoman
  49. Buffalo Postcard (for Ekrem) (2009) - Can Eskinazi
  50. Orchard (2004) - Julie Murray

Comments

Anonymous said…
Interesting: 20 of the 50 I've never seen nor am very sure I will. Of these 20, 6 are by filmmakers that I don't think, from what I've seen, would ever be included in any list of mine. And then, only 6 or 5 of the 30 I've seen would be the one I would have chosen for 2000-2009 by that filmmaker. Therefore a mystery: Is L'arrotino the Straub film you like best or think is the best in the period?
Miguel Marías
Yoel Meranda said…
Hi Miguel,

Sorry it took me a while to respond to this...

I'm just discovering Straubs, "L'arrotino" was the first one that really moved me, so at the moment it is my favorite Straub-Huillet film, along with "Il Viandante"... I'm sure Pedro Costa's doc (also included in the list) helped me appreciate these much more. Now I should give Straub-Huillet films another look. I would really like to read Pavese's texts before seeing the films...

What Straub-Huillet would you choose for 2000-2009, and which one is your favorite in general?

I hope Robert Breer isn't included in the 20... You should at least see the films... Other than Rossellini, I don't think there is anyone greater.
Anonymous said…
Sorry, Yoel, but the few Breer films I've seen did not provoke my enthusiasm, rather a mild interest or curiosity, and they're not easy to get. They seemed to me quite un-Rossellinian...
I'm afraid my favorite Straubs are yet "Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach", "Von Heute auf Morgen", "Sicilia!", "Nicht versöhnt", "Le Genou d'Artemide", "Klassenverhältnisse", "Dalla nube alla Resistenza"... for the period in question, it would be "Le Genou d'Artemise", "Operai, contadini", "Quei nostri incontri", I think, although I like almost every Straub-Huillet film I have seen very much. Perhaps the two which leave me colder are the very interesting "Corneille-Brecht" and "Itinéraire de Jean Bricard"...
Miguel Marías
Elif Ozgen said…
I don't know where to find Breer, so I'll start with Three Times. I like your lists and posts about films, they raise one's curiosity and appetite... Did you know that Bilgi University does not have a single Jacque Rivette film in its collection?
Yoel Meranda said…
selam elif,

¨three times¨ isn't a bad one to start with at all. i think you will also enjoy his ¨cafe lumiere¨.

i think rivette is very underrated in turkey, or perhaps not enough known, although people seem to know a lot about new wave, truffaut, godard, etc. to me, rivette is far better than almost all other new-wavers.
Filmvirus said…
Fantastic list you have here. I think you like to search for something unique in the film medium something similar to my interest. To see such names as Grandriex, Straub, Apichatpong, Edward Yang, Pedro Costa, and Tsai Ming Liang and some experimental works. That's rare. I also found the title of your blog, way of seeing, a worthy nod to J Berger. He should be pleased.
Yoel Meranda said…
Thanks a lot Filmvirus! It's very hard to find people who like both Grandrieux and Straubs.

It also makes me very happy that you think John Berger should be pleased with the title of my website. I personally wouldn't go that far. But also, I should add that, although the title of his book was in my mind while titling the website, there were other things in my mind too.

I wrote more about this here: http://waysofseeing.org/about.html
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