Here we go. I’ll reserve a more complete intro for the final part on Wednesday, but a quick word on the compilation of the list that will unfold over the next five days. When, several months ago, I began the long, occasionally maddening but not altogether unpleasant process of sifting out the best films of […]
Guy’s top 50 of the decade: #41-50
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:48 pm · January 2nd, 2010
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And the lists just keep on coming
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:08 pm · November 16th, 2009
Between now and December 31, we’re probably going to read more “best ____ of the 2000s” lists than we know what to do with. But we like lists, don’t we? And this only happens once every 10 years. Let’s not get blasé already. So with the floodgates already open on “films of the decade” talk, […]
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Searching for Oscar meaning in IMDb’s top 15 of the millennium
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:02 am · August 19th, 2009
Over at IMDb there is a new feature called “The Power of Film” (lofty title, that), which has listed out the top 15 films of the millennium as voted on by IMDB users, i.e., fans, the public, regular folks. The IMDb top 250 is an ever-changing mish-mash of high-,middle- and low-brow entertainment that always makes […]
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Oscar nominations that made me cheer
Posted by John Foote · 3:37 pm · November 16th, 2008
Over the years I have been watching and studying the Oscars in earnest, since about 1974 (age 13). It has always been a nice surprise when an unexpected actor, director or film made the cut to the final five. It’s a special kind of high. I remember reacting with surprise and genuine happiness when Giancarlo […]
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Is ‘Gomorrah’ this year’s ‘City of God’?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:02 pm · November 12th, 2008
Since May, based on nothing but a gut feeling following the film’s Cannes reception, I’ve been predicting that Matteo Garrone’s astonishing “Gomorrah” would score nominations for Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing — in addition to a Best Foreign Language Film nod. (Garrone has recently slipped from my Best Director predictions, but he’s still […]
Foreign film watch: 67 entries, but how open is the race?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 1:08 pm · October 17th, 2008
Since my last update on the Best Foreign Language Film race, a further ten latecomers have entered films, bringing the number of entries to a record 67. (The full, updated list is here.) The new names in the derby are Afghanistan (“Opium War”), Albania (“The Sorrow of Mrs Schneider”), Azerbaijan (“Fortress”), Egypt (“The Island”), Georgia […]
REVIEW: “Gomorrah” (****)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:07 am · October 2nd, 2008
The title “Gomorrah” is at once metaphorically apt and tonally misleading. In referencing the Biblical city destroyed by God for its sinfulness, Roberto Saviano’s best-selling non-fiction posited its own setting, Naples, as some kind of present-day equivalent. A city ruled and consequently ravaged by the Camorra, the notoriously brutal crime syndicate that has reportedly been […]
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Garrone on ‘Gomorrah’: “It’s not real, but it’s true.”
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:23 pm · September 30th, 2008
Viva Italia, is all I have to say. In the past 48 hours, I’ve been lucky enough to see the two films that have widely been heralded as marking a renaissance for the Italian film industry, a world cinema titan that had been lying dormant for a couple of years. No more. One of them […]
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‘Gomorrah’ is in — do we have a frontrunner?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:50 am · September 24th, 2008
Well, as speculated a few hours ago, Italy has announced their submission for Best Foreign Language Film. And, to the surprise of precisely nobody, they have gone with Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” — the sprawling, breathlessly acclaimed portrait of Naples mafia life that was arguably the breakout hit of May’s Cannes festival. (It received the runner-up […]
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