Senses of Cinema World Poll 2018: my favourites

Jean-Luc Godard: Le Livre d'image (2018).

Never before have there been so many lists of the best films of the year. Particularly the compilation in Sight & Sound's end of the year double issue is amazing and well-edited with special thematic articles and essays.

The distinction of the Senses of Cinema World Poll 2018 collection of 160 lists, published yesterday, is its anarchic and unwieldy character. I have spent two days reading those lists, and it's mind-blowing. Certain titles stand out, being repeated on many lists, but even more interesting are the differences. The listings of rediscovered classics are also rewarding to study.

I sent my entry to Senses of Cinema two months ago, on 3 December 2018, and now that it has been published I copy it here. The films are in chronological order – in the order in which I saw them.

As a film viewer I am normally a heavy user. Ten films a week is my normal diet, in addition to which I watched ten dvd's a week when I had a five-year crash course in the dvd phenomenon. During a film festival my regular diet is around 40 shows (feature films or short film programmes).

Now I'm having a "less is more" period since seven years. Only in festivals do I try to watch films from morning till night, 30-40 shows per festival. Otherwise I watch less films than ever and spend more time digesting them than ever. It's gotten to a rhythm of two hours watching a film and ten hours digesting and writing. Some of the films I digest so thoroughly that I run out of time to write which is why I fail to incorporate the most important films in my blog! I keep being amazed how rich and rewarding the truly worthwhile films are when one takes the time really to study them. All the films below are such cases.

NEW

Machines (Rahul Jain, 2016). Documentary. Shot in India, the reality of labour and exploitation in global economy
Nokia Mobile (Arto Koskinen, 2017). Documentary. The inside story of the rise and fall of the Nokia community. Phenomenal call options for a tiny elite destroyed the common spirit.
G. J. Ramstedtin maailma / Eastern Memories [The World of G. J. Ramstedt] (Niklas Kullström, Martti Kaartinen, 2017). Documentary. The story of an explorer, linguist and diplomat in Mongolia, Japan, and Korea a hundred years ago. The way to the discovery of a foreign language through its spiritual essence.
Polte / Flame (Sami van Ingen, 2018). An experimental short. In the decayed footage of Teuvo Tulio's Nuorena nukkunut / Silja (1937) the fire is still burning.
The Post (Steven Spielberg, 2017). Steven Spielberg in his best form in a taut historical drama about the freedom of the press and being the sole woman in an all male panel.
Une saison en France / A Season in France (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2017). Mahamat-Saleh Haroun is one of the greatest masters of contemporary cinema. A work of rare dignity and humanity about an asylum-seeker's agony.
Le vénérable W. / The Venerable W. (Barbet Schroeder, 2017). Documentary. An exceptional and terrifying movie, an inside story about the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar.
M – a Film by Anna Eriksson (Anna Eriksson, 2018). An artist's film, a debut film, an independent film by a popular singer. A passion play, a work of body art, about the suffering of the flesh and the illusoriness of the image.
Ilosia aikoja, mielensäpahoittaja / Happier Times, Grump (Tiina Lymi, 2018). A new entry in the saga of the Grump, the one for whom everything was better in the past. A comedy with gravity. The memorial after a funeral destroys any remaining family spirit. The Grump starts crafting a coffin for himself. In the finale he crafts a cradle for his great-grandchild.
Vieras / Strange (Mox Mäkelä, 2018). A feature length artist's film by a pioneering conceptual artist. A sound play movie, abundant, generous, literate, hand-crafted, full of associations. A paean to life, not only human, but to all living things. Unwieldy and unforgettable.
BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, 2018). Spike Lee at his best. The approach can be compared with Ernst Lubitsch in To Be Or Not To Be. Well cast. Laura Harrier is one to watch.
Le Livre d'image / The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard, 2018). The poet's view gets darker. This cosmic poem of associations focuses on the maelstrom of violence and terrorism of our times.
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik, 2018). Granik's first fiction feature after Winter's Bone. The forest sense strikes a chord familiar to a Finn. The forest is the last refuge for the PTSD father whose daughter needs to break free from his nomad life.

OLD

K.S.E. Komsomol – Shef elektrifikatsii / K.S.E. Komsomol – Leader of Electrification (Esfir Shub, 1932). Non-fiction, no compilation. An industrial montage film with an avantgardistic approach in sound, including the theremin. (Our "Mothers of the Montage Film" retrospective dedicated to Esfir Shub and Nicole Vedrès.)
Scener ur ett äktenskap 1–6 / Scenes from a Marriage 1–6 (Ingmar Bergman, 1973). The 2002 restoration, part of the Bergman 100 touring show. Bergman at his most reduced and at his most emotionally powerful.
Slnko v sieti / The Sun in the Net (Štefan Uher, 1962). A Slovakian New Wave film set in Bratislava. Could be a double bill with Antonioni's L'eclisse.
Prästen i Uddarbo / The Minister of Uddarbo (Kenne Fant, 1957). A mix of Don Camillo and Bresson's The Diary of a Country Priest, a unique saga of Swedish Protestantism, starring Max von Sydow and with Ingmar Bergman as advisor in their annus mirabilis. (Ingmar Bergman Centenary).
The Patsy (Jerry Lewis, 1964). Jerry Lewis's last Paramount film, a nightmare comedy about the loss of identity, with Jill St. John as a center of sanity. The cosmic solitude. The Pygmalion narrative taken to metaphysical dimensions. (Jerry Lewis in memoriam).
La donna scimmia / The Ape Woman (Marco Ferreri, 1964). From Ferreri's greatest period, a constantly surprising saga of itinerant performers: a ruthless showman (Ugo Tognazzi) and his hairy woman (Annie Girardot). (Viva Erotica! festival, alerted by Olaf Möller).
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948). The Nitrate Picture Show. "About art worth dying for". Striking in the vintage print is the softness of the image and the subdued quality of the colour dreamspace. The 2009 digital restoration looks completely different with its loud and bright colour world.
Vechir na Ivana Kupala / The Eve of Ivan Kupalo (Yuri Ilyenko, 1968). 70 mm. Stunning Ukrainian psychedelia based on Nikolai Gogol's Dikanka stories, from the "Crazy Year 1968". (50 Years Ago).
Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968). A beautiful 50th anniversary restoration, a sing-along performance at the Big Top in Midnight Sun Film Festival. I saw this during the first run but now the surreal animation stands out more clearly. (50 Years Ago).
Seed (John M. Stahl, 1931). John M. Stahl was the discovery of this year. Melodrama taken seriously, interpreted with tact and restraint. The mystery of the wooden male protagonists in Stahl's 1930s films was illuminated by Imogen Sara Smith.
1898. Anno Tre: Vues scientifiques: science and science fiction. Curated by Mariann Lewinsky for Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, films by Londe, Doyen, Lumière, Breteau, and Méliès. Film programming of the highest order, startling associations from fiction to non-fiction, from medical records to surrealism.
Luciano Emmer: Goya: La festa di Sant'Isidoro (1950), Picasso (1954) and Leonardo da Vinci (1952). As recognized by André Bazin, Luciano Emmer was the first to truly understand the unique contribution of the cinema to art biography via a montage of the artworks themselves. Though the prints are woeful the Emmer inspiration remains exemplary. (Luciano Emmer retrospective at Il Cinema Ritrovato).
Monterey Pop (D. A. Pennebaker, 1968). 50th Anniversary Restoration in 4K. The manifesto of counterculture looks and sounds better than ever. Electrifying, mesmerizing, inspiring. (50 Years Ago).
Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977). The 2013 restoration of the Director's Cut. The burning oilfields, the Paris Stock Exchange, the Damascus Gate, and the perilous journey are even more potent images today than at the time of the first run. (Helsinki Film Festival at Savoy).
The Lincoln Cycle (John M. Stahl, 1917). This Benjamin Chapin vehicle grows into a marvellous parallel saga about the Lincoln family and the U.S. Civil War. Of equal grandeur as John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln. (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto).
Das alte Gesetz / The Ancient Law (E. A. Dupont, 1923). The 1984 restoration was distinguished but this 2018 restoration is a revelation. A masterpiece emerges. The story is the same as in The Jazz Singer, but this film is more rich and profound. We know Lotte H. Eisner's praise of the exceptional visual quality of this movie in L'Écran démoniaque, This restoration helps us understand why. (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, live cinema with Donald Sosin and Alicia Svigals).
The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932). The 2017 Cohen Collection restoration. James Whale's greatest horror film and the greatest haunted house film deserves this subtle restoration that does justice to the cinematography of Arthur Edeson and the incredible cast.
Godovshchina revoliutsii / Anniversary of the Revolution (Dziga Vertov, 1918). Nikolai Izvolov surprises the world with the reconstruction of Vertov’s first feature believed lost for almost a hundred years. It is a linear and and traditional compilation but the footage is stunning and mostly unseen. (Cinema Orion, event made possible by Birgit Beumers and Nikolai Izvolov).