2008: Catastrophe
In a year where I felt mostly disconnected from the moving pictures I took in (though I admittedly missed a significant amount of the Crucial stuff), the ones that stick with me the most were composed by the ever eloquent (and, in this case, extremely concise) Jean-Luc Godard. I emphatically second Nathan Lee’s assertion that UNE CATASTROPHE, a minute-long trailer JLG produced for this year’s Viennale, is the movie of the year:
Other movies that struck me as exceptionally beautiful this year (in no particular order): FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (2007, Hou Hsiao-hsien), ASHES OF TIME REDUX (1994/2008, Wong Kar Wai), and THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS (2007, Jacques Rivette). HORIZONTAL BOUNDARIES (2008, Pat O’Neill) and HOLD ME NOW (2008, Michael Robinson) were my favorite experimental shorts.