2019

The order and the categorization of the movies are very arbitrary. I don't believe there are any linear value systems to judge what's most beautiful so putting all these different movies in one hierarchical order is very much an injustice to them all. Moreover, I saw most of the movies only once and in many cases it's the first time I see that specific director's work so I might be making a lot of hasty judgements. This isn't meant to be a list of the best movies made in 2019, but a list of the new films that are still in the festival circuit or in theatres that I've seen in 2019. I'd like to think of it as a diary of sorts, which is partly why I rarely go back and change my lists for previous years, even if I feel I was completely wrong about it at the time, nor do I add movies to my previous lists. I keep the movies I was involved with out of the list. So, here it is, the new movies I liked in 2019:


Great
  • It Must Be Heaven / Elia Suleiman
  • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu / Céline Sciamma
  • Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit (Heimat is a Space in Time) /  Thomas Heise

Very Good
  • When it is Still / Anna Kipervaser
  • Ad Astra / James Gray
  • I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians / Radu Jude
  • Yaz Kış Demeden (Come Rain or Shine) / Zeynep Güzel
  • Monrovia, Indiana / Frederick Wiseman
Good
  • Les Indes Galantes / Clément Cogitore
  • Between My Flesh and the World’s Fingers / Talena Sanders
  • Chained for Life / Aaron Schimberg
  • Une rose ouverte / Warda (An Open Rose) / Ghassan Salhab
  • Resonance / Itay Marom
  • Landscape Hovel Picture Fun / Micah H. Weber
  • Ne Croyez Surtout Pas Que Je Hurle (Just Don't Think I'll Scream) / Frank Beauvais
  • Gulyabani / Gürcan Keltek
  • ciała bez ciał w kosmosie (bodies without bodies in outer space) / Rafał Morusiewicz
  • Ash Is Purest White / Jia Zhang Ke
  • Running in Circles / Ei Toshinari & Duy Nguyen


Memorable Screenings of Older Films (in a very arbitrary order of preference)
  • Land of the Pharaohs (1954) / Howard Hawks (beautiful 35mm print at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Fuji (1973) / Robert Breer (if my memory serves well, it's a pale 16mm print at the Light Cone screening at Studio des Ursulines)
  • Cheyenne Autumn (1963) / John Ford (gorgeous 70mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Les Vampires (1915-1916) / Louis Feuillade (mediocre DCP restorations at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Chelsea Girls (1966) / Andy Warhol (gorgeous 16mm double projection performance at Cinémathèque Française)
  • <--> Back and Forth (1969) / Michael Snow (beautiful 16mm at the Light Cone screening at Cinéma des Cinéastes)
  • People Will Talk (1951) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (saw it twice at gorgeous 35mm projections at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Vertigo (1957) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 1996 35mm restoration at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Water Sark (1965) / Joyce Wieland (beautiful 16mm at the Light Cone screening at Studio des Ursulines)
  • All About Eve (1950) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (saw it three times at gorgeous 35mm projections at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Lola Montès (1955) / Max Ophuls (beautiful 35mm print at Cinémathèque Française)
  • The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (gorgeous 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Flaming Creatures (1963) / Jack Smith (beautiful 16mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Notorious (1946) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • I Confess (1953) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Rebecca (1940) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • 5 Fingers (1952) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Trouble Every Day (2001) / Claire Denis (beautiful 35mm projection at Le Grand Action)
  • The Wrong Man (1956) /  Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful but what seemed to me low-contrast 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française) 
  • The Lady Vanishes (1938) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Suspicion (1941) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • La mujer sin cabeza (Headless Woman) (2008) / Lucrecia Martel (gorgeous 35mm print at Cinéma Les 3 Luxembourg)
  • Je, tu, il, elle (1974) / Chantal Akerman
  • Frenzy (1972) / Alfred Hitchcock (beautiful 35mm projection at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Sabotage (1936) / Alfred Hitchcock 
  • Men in War (1956) / Anthony Mann
  • Chronographies (1982) / Jean-Michel Bouhours (16mm at the Light Cone screening at Luminor Hôtel de Ville)
  • Julius Caesar (1953) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz 
  • No Way Out (1950) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Escape (1948) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Somewhere in the Night (1946) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz  
  • La Comédie du bonheur (1940) / Marcel L'Herbier
  • Tonsler Park (2017) / Kevin Jerome Everson
  • The Time That Remains (2008) / Elia Suleiman
  • The Island of St. Matthews (2013) / Kevin Jerome Everson
  • Dragonwyck (1946) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Daisy Kenyon (1947) / Otto Preminger (low-contrast 35mm print at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Wind Across the Everglades (1958) / Nicholas Ray
  • Rat Life and Diet in North America (1969) / Joyce Wieland (beautiful 16mm at the Light Cone screening at Studio des Ursulines)
  • Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz 
  • Perceval le Gallois (1978) / Eric Rohmer (nice DCP restoration at Cinémathèque Français)
  • Le F.H.A.R. (Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire (1971) / Carole Roussopoulos
  • Quality Control (2011) / Kevin Jerome Everson
  • Spicebush (2005) / Kevin Jerome Everson
  • Cinnamon (2006) / Kevin Jerome Everson
  • The World (2004) / Jia Zhang-ke 
  • Strangers on a Train (1951) / Alfred Hitchcock
  • Shadows (1959) / John Cassavetes
  • Carol for Another Christmas (1964) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • The Late George Apley (1947) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • A Letter to Three Wives (1949) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • La Battaglia di Maratona (1959) / Jacques Tourneur
  • Sleuth (1972) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Rose-France (1918) / Marcel L'Herbier (beautiful 35mm print at Cinémathèque Française)
  • Waiting for Sancho (2008) / Mark Peranson
  • LIP : Monique (1973) / Carole Roussopoulos
  • Une simple histoire (1958) / Marcel Hanoun (beautiful 35mm print at Cinéma L'Archipel)
  • La Marquise d'O... (1975) / Eric Rohmer (nice DCP restoration at Cinémathèque Française)
  • The Long Goodbye (1972) / Robert Altman
  • The Trouble with Harry (1955) / Alfred Hitchcock
  • Ears, Nose and Throat (2016) / Kevin Jerome Everson
  • The Skin Game (1931) / Alfred Hitchcock
  • There Was a Crooked Man... (1970) / Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Black Mirror - Metalhead (2017) / David Slade
  • Bandersnatch (2018) / David Slade 
  • American Gods Episodes 1-3 (2017) / David Slade 
  • Le Capitaine Fracasse (1942) / Abel Gance
  • IFO (2017) / Kevin Jerome Everson  
  • Peggy's Blue Skylight (1964) / Joyce Wieland (beautiful 16mm at the Light Cone screening at Studio des Ursulines)
  • Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (2006) / Eric Rohmer (beautiful 35mm print at Cinémathèque Française)

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