Cinema: the BEST of 2006

Here is the list (in alphabetical order) of the best films I saw in 2006. I have not chosen ‘one' best, it’s already difficult to select these among so many interesting ones. Curious, when I compared the films I saw with those of the Box office in France and the USA for 2006. Out of the top 30 films in France, I only saw 5 films and only three out of the top US 30… That makes me happy…

Best of 2006

Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu, USA/MEX
Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee, USA
Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón, UK/USA
Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney, USA
Jarhead, Sam Mendes, USA
El Laberinto del Fauno, Guillermo del Toro, MEX/ ES/ USA
Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, USA
Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola, USA
Me and you and everyone we know, Miranda July, USA
Odete, João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal
Renaissance, Christian Volckman, France (animated film)
Sangre, Amat Escalante, México
La science des rêves (the science of dreams), Michel Gondry, France
Shooting dogs, Michael Caton-Jones, UK/Germany
Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchel, USA
The Squid and the whale, Noah Baumbach, USA
V for Vendetta, James McTeigue, UK/ USA/ Germany

Other films worth mentioning:

Adam’s Apples, Anders Thomas Jensen, DK
An inconvenient truth, Davis Guggenheim, USA
The Black Dahlia, Bran de Palma, USA
Bubble, Steven Soderbergh, USA
Chromophobia, Martha Fiennes, UK/ France/ USA
Le clan, Gaël Morel, france
A Costa dos Murmúrios, Margarida Cardoso, Portugal
C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean-Marc Vallée, Canada
Ça rend heureux, Joachim Lafosse, Belgium
Elementarteilchen (Les particules élémentaires), Oskar Roehler, Germany
Los fantasmas de Goya, Milos Forman, España
L’immeuble Yacoubian, Marwan Ahmed, Egypt
Inside Men, Spike Lee, USA
Match Point, Woody Allen, UK/ USA/ Lux
Munich, Steven Spielberg, USA
Paris je t’aime, various, France
Prête moi ta main, Eric Lartigan, France
The road to Guantanamo, Michael Winterbottom & Mat Whitecross, UK
Romance and Cigarettes, John Turturo, USA
Romanzo Criminale, Michele Placido, Italia
Quinceañera (Echo Park L.A.), Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland, USA
Syrianna, Stephen Gaghan, USA
Thank you for smoking, Jason Reitman, USA
Transamerica, Duncan Tucker, USA
13 Tzameti, Gela Babluani, France/ Georgia
Truman Capote, Bennett Miller, USA
Tsotsi, Gavin Hood, South Africa
20 Centímetros, Ramón Salazar, España
Vers le sud, Laurant Cantet, France/ Canada
Volver, Pedro Almodovar, ES
Le voyage en Arménie, Robert Guédiguian, France
Where the truth lies, Atom Egoyan, Canada/ UK

The biggest deceptions of 2006

Borat, Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen, USA
Dans Paris, Christophe Honoré, France
Memoirs of a Geisha, Rob Marshal, USA

Still to be seen…

Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali, USA, France / Lady Chatterly, Pascale Ferran, France / Silent Hill, Christophe Gans / Something Like Happiness, Bodhan Slama, Czech Republic and Germany / A scanner Darlky, Richard Linklater, USA / Water, Deepa Mehta, Canada and India / L’homme de sa vie, Zabou Breitman, France / Elsa y Fred, Marcos Carnevale, Argentina and España / Oublier Cheyenne, Valérie Minetto, France / Brick, Rian Johnson, USA, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, Thomas Clay, UK / Moartea domnului Lazarescu (The death of Mister Lazarescu), Cristi Puiu, Romania / The departed, Martin Scorcese, USA / Montag, Ulrich Köhler, Germany / Laitakaupungin valot (Les Lumières du Faubourg), Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, Germany, France.

Some final notes

2006 confirmed the strength and creativity of of north-american independent films, like Little Miss Sunshine, Me and you and everyone we know, The Whale and the squid, Shortbus, among others. It also confirmed the freshness and force of Mexican cinema and directors such as Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón (see previous post). It was also the year of confirmation and of the spotlight for two of my favourite actresses, Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson. They don’t stop and it will be difficult to catch up with all the films they’re doing… In particular Natalie has come from more independent production to mainstream cinema. As for the guys, the year of Clive Owen, of course, and let’s not forget three other excellent actors, quite present, Zach Braff (pitty we don’t get to see many of his films here…), Gael Gracia Bernal, excellent in Babel and The science of dreams, and finally Greg Kinnear.