My Year at the Movies—2007
By Marilyn Ferdinand
Now that my good friend and collaborator, Roderick Heath, Esq., has seen fit to write one of those bloody year-end wrap-ups—third in my rogue’s gallery of things I wish reviewers would stop doing FOREVER (Top 10 movie lists and using Word. Word. Word. in titles take the top spots)—and slave as I am to the laws of symmetry, I am forced to do the same. Rod, I’ll get you for this—and YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO!!!
Actually, I’m kind of relieved that Rod’s in Oz fighting the good fight to see all the blockbuster shlock Hollywood can wad up, grease with spit, and throw in the moviegoing public’s general direction. Saves me the bother of trying to “keep up." I’ve already passed the threshold of “I’ll do exactly as I please" in life, but this blog creates in me a strange and unfamiliar sense of obligation. How I fulfill it is to defy the fanboy/rom-com tastes of the younger generation and insist, if they’re going to read my blog, that they get a little “cul-chah" and stop ruining their hearing with overloud action films.
Upon perusing the movie index of films released in the United States in 2007, thoughtfully provided by The Numbers, I see that I only viewed six relatively mainstream movies, three of which happened to be on cable at the same time I was numbly sitting on my living room couch looking for something light to distract me. I was disappointed in all of them, most especially the idiotic The Bourne Ultimatum (seen at a second-run house—thank god I didn’t pay full price!), of which I expected so much more. Paul Greengrass, I’m begging you, stick to what you so brilliantly know (United 93) and never go near a blockbuster again!
Specifically, I spent most of 2007 going to film festivals. It’s an easy thing to do in Chicago, which has a film festival about every 12 hours. Even having missed the Silent Summer Film Festival, the Chicago Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, and the Polish Film Festival in America—all of which I wanted to attend—I still managed to gorge on about 35 films at Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival (now officially Ebertfest), the European Union Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and the Chicago International Film Festival. A handful of the films I saw this year may show up at a theatre near you in 2008. Some, such as the awesome 2007 Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, & 2 Days, sold out at the CIFF, have already shown in arthouses in select cities, unseen by far too many people. OK, so a movie about an illegal abortion isn’t exactly a date night dream, but, people, some day you’ll have to breathe air outside the shopping mall!
All right, that’s not entirely fair. I like to escape real life, too. There were some great films out there that celebrated the notion of happiness and escapism that didn’t require you to check your brains and humanity at the door. One of the best movies of the year—and one, I might add, that many people who look at movies for a living just didn’t get—was Black Book. What a treat it was to watch a Hollywood movie of the kind Hollywood doesn’t make anymore—full of the finest melodrama, genuine intrigue, high production values, and star-quality leads doing their best to entertain us. While Hollywood was remaking musical films like Hairspray, Ireland’s can-do film industry gave us Once, certainly the most heartwarmingly human, musically accomplished film of the year. One of the funniest films of the year was a little Estonian film called Men at Arms. It is so knowing about the trials and eccentricities of small, powerless countries while giving audiences a Monty Pythonesque entertainment of the highest order. It’s everything Borat wanted to be but failed at miserably. Hopefully, it won’t end up as marginalized as its little nation—but I’m not holding my breath.
My film year wasn’t all about watching and commenting on films. I got a chance to interact with my fellow Internet film fans by participating in something I’m proud to say film bloggers invented—the blogathon. Flickhead hosted the Luis Buñuel Blogathon, and I contributed a review of The Young One (La Joven) to it, my first blogathon ever. I had so much fun reading all the contributions that when Gautam Valluri hosted the extraordinary Double Billathon over at Broken Projector
When I covered the nonappearance of Bela Tarr at a Facets special event, I even got bitch-slapped for misattributions by the renowned film educator David Bordwell in my comments section. It was one of the few, but, happily, growing number of comments Ferdy on Films has garnered. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks.
And speaking of which, I could go on and on about some of the great and small film-related moments I had this year. If you’ve been reading Ferdy on Films, you know what they were for me and Rod. What I’d like to know is what was YOUR 2007 film year like?
Happy 2008, film geeks! l
10 Comments:
At December 27, 2007 8:54 PM, Pat said…
2007 for me: I spent a lot less time in the multiplexes. I saw more out-of-the-mainstream movies. I took full advantage of my Netflix membership to fill in the gaps in my foreign film experience.
Thank you for hating the "Bourne Ulitimatum"! I'm so tired of hearing how great it was - at the end of it, I felt like I'd been run over by a truck repeatedly for two hours. (Where can I get information about the Ebertfest? I'd like to experience that in 2008.)