Now that my graduate classes are wrapped up for winter break (ok, my year-end critique is this coming Monday, but I’m done enough), I’ve already begun looking forward to the new semester, year, decade in art and film. I really have no idea what lies ahead in 2011 and beyond, so I’ll stick to the coming year, 2010, in highlighting what’s on tap.
Michael Snow
If you live in or near Toronto, and have any interest in experimental cinema and video art, the 1st quarter of 2010 is going to snack you upside the head. The Power Plant on the Harbourfront will, on December 10, open an exhibition of the last 10 years of Snow’s video work, called Recent Snow: Projected Works by Michael Snow. The exhibition will run until the Spring. Corresponding with the exhibition, their will be screenings in the early Winter months of Wavelength and La Region Centrale, on film!, at the Drake Hotel and TIFF Cinematheque, respectively.
Also in Toronto, the Bell Lightbox will open in the summer, greeted equally in skepticism and absurd promise and excitement. It is just as likely to further tarnish an already unstable Toronto International Film Festival, or it could help propel the festival to the forefront of all festival experiences, providing a hub that rivals the Croisette.
Speaking of:
Cannes and Beyond
It’s looking likely that I’ll get to make it out to Cannes this year (hopefully, there will be some coverage here). As a bonus, there are some damn fine-looking films on tap for this year. Here are my most anticipated for the festival, and for the year in general:
Top 3
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Weerasethakul) – my most anticipated film of 2009 returns to take the top spot of ’10. Anyone who has seen Phantoms of Nabua will understand this sentiment, and anyone who has also seen Letters to Uncle Boonmee knows that I’d be crazy to have this film any lower.
Certified Copy (Kiarostami) – A return to narrative filmmaking after nearly a decade of (quality) experimental projects, starring one of my favorites: Juliette Binoche. I don’t care how much this project may sound like an arthouse cliche, there is zero reason to believe that this film will be anything other than perfect.
Tree of Life (Malick) – another holdover from last year’s anticipated list (did anyone actually think, though, that Malick would spend less than 18 months editing it?). Shameless prediction: these first 3 films will be in my Top 20 of the Oh-Tens.
The Rest
The Turin Horse – (Bela Tarr): I’m realizing that I’m not really that huge a fan of Tarr (yet I still haven’t seen Satantango, so whatever), but there are always 2 or 3 extended sequences in his films that trick me into thinking that I love him wholeheartedly. Hopefully this (last?) film of his will have more like 4 or 5 of those.
L’Illusioniste – (Sylvain Chomet): Briefly showed up in the 2009 program for the Toronto festival, only to be removed almost instantly without mention from anyone. Stills are gradually leaking out every couple of months, looking sexy, and it’s bound to show up this year. Likely the last new material we’ll ever see with Jacques Tati’s creative input involved.
Meek’s Cutoff – (Kelly Reichardt): One of my favorite contemporary filmmakers, this 19th century western has to be one of the most interesting out-of-left-field projects of the year.
The Strange Case of Angelica – (Manoel de Oliveira): Somehow I have few concerns that de Oliveira will make ten films this coming decade. I don’t think his current output is as challenging as it was in the 70s and 80s, but I’m Going Home and Eccentricities are gems without question.
Rabbit Hole – (John Cameron Mitchell): not much to say about this one that isn’t said in the filmmaker’s and the lead actress’s names and a rave review of the stage play on Variety. Mitchell is hit more often than miss (and the hits are solid hits), and Kidman is due for a comeback. That still frame above makes me think of Solondz a bit.
The Age of Tattoo – (Jia Zhang-ke): I don’t even know if this is actually what Jia is currently working on, but I want to see another building shoot into space.
Poetry – (Lee Chang-dong): director.
True Grit – (Joel & Ethan Coen): directors.
Aurora – (Cristi Puiu): The 2010 Romanian film of choice for sure. Realism.
Untitled Dracula Project – (Albert Serra): Serra tackles the oldest myths and fables around, yet when I hear something like ‘Serra to helm Three Wise Men/Dracula project,’ it sounds like the most original idea in the biz. Can’t wait to see some lost, aimless, hungry vampires.
Jekyll and Hyde – (Abel Ferrara): It will star Forest Whitaker. And 50 Cent.
Hopefuls (Doubtfuls) for 2010
Untitled Master Project– (Paul Thomas Anderson): Just read about this today actually. Sounds like There Will Be MORE Blood, but who cares, to the top of the Unlikely For 2010 list it goes.
Untitled Sci-Fi Project – (Lucrecia Martel): I think Martel is off of the El Eternauta project, which I think is good based on the blockbuster-ish descriptions I’ve heard of the intended production. Good news is that she still intends to dabble in some fantasy. Bad news is I don’t think she’s finished writing it yet. Either way, there will be a new Martel film on the big screen in two years, three years max, which, as I’ve learned from a recent retrospective of her work at the TIFF Cinematheque, is Awesome news.
Abel Cain/King Shot – (Alejandro Jodorowsky): Another filmmaker who I want to like much more than I do. I find that his films are way too consciously cult-y, and this sounds like the ultimate ‘what kind of film does my cult following hope that I would make if I were to make one right now’ free-for-all. Lynch’s involvement has me hanging on.
I think that’s it.