Amazon Theatricals:Amour (Michael Hanecke directs Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva) and Quartet (Dustin Hoffman directs Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay).
Video Librarian: (A)Sexual - A Minority No Longer Silent, Jason Becker - Not Dead Yet, The Boy Game, From Dust to Dreams - Opening Night at the Smith, Grrrl Love and Revolution - Riot Grrrl NYC, The Light in Her Eyes, Mama C - Urban Warrior in the African Bush, Patti Smith - Live at Montreux 2005 [Blu-ray], Strong!, World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements, Ike & Tina - On the Road: 1971-72, Lady Antebellum - Own the Night: World Tour, Let the Music Play - Story of the Doobie Bros., Joan Rivers - Don’t Start with Me,Playing for Keeps,Rust and Bone.
Endnote: British poster image from Artificial Eye.
Rather than a list of film scores or soundtracks, the following represents an assortment of music recommended for movie lovers such as myself. Some independent film fans prefer mainstream movie fare. Similarly, some art house aficionados prefer major-label music. There's nothing wrong with that; I just can't relate to it (and try to avoid giving the Man my money whenever possible). If you share my taste in movies, there's a good chance you might share my taste in music.Links lead toreviews and previews forLine Out.
The Tops: 1. Cate Le Bon - CYRK (The Control Group) 2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis (RVNG Intl.) 3.Tie: Neneh Cherry - The Cherry Thing and The Cherry Thing Remixed (Smalltown Supersound) 4. Niobe - The Cclose Calll (Tomlab) 5.Tie: Ty Segall - Twins and Ty Segall andWhite Fence - Hair (Drag City) 6. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Cobra Juicy (Rad Cult) 7. FRKWYS Vol.9: Sun Araw &M. Geddes Gengras Meet the Congos - Icon Give Thank (RVNG Intl.) 8. METZ - METZ (Sub Pop) 9. Django Django - Django Django (Ribbon Music) 10. Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber(Fat Possum)
Love what I heard (need to hear more): A Place to Bury Strangers - Onwards to the Wall (Dead Oceans), Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes (Warp), Royal Baths - Better Luck Next Life (Kanine), Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Mod- ern Love), and Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II (In the Red).
Top Reissues and Archival Material: 1. Various Artists - Listen Whitey!Sounds of Black Power 1967-74(Light in the Attic) 2. Sensations Fix - Music Is Painting in the Air (RVNG Intl.) 3. feedtime - The Aberrant Years ( Sub Pop) 4. Royal Trux - Accelerator (Drag City) 5. Golden Calves - Collection (Woodsist)
Note: Can's Lost Tapes box set set is on my wish list.
Love what I heard (need to hear more): Francis Bebey - African Electronic Music: 1975-82 (Born Bad), Michael Chap- man - Rainmaker (Light in the Attic), Alex Chilton - Free Again: The 1970 Sessions (Omnivore), Franco Falsini - Cold Nose (Spectrum Spools), Lee Hazlewood - The LHI Years: Singles Nudes &Backsides: 1968-71 (Light in the Attic), Patrice Sciortino - Chronoradial (Omni Recording Co.), Various Artists - Beat Frauleins: Female Pop in Germany 1964-68 (Grosse Freiheit), and Leslie Winer - Leslie Winer &c. (Wormhole).
Songs I didn't hate...at all: Maroon 5 - "Moves Like Jagger" and Gotye - "Someone That I Used to Know." A great melody is a great melody is a great melody. I don't care where it comes from.
Endnote: Awork in progress. More sounds and images to come.
Some of these films premiered in the US in 2011, but didn't arrive in Seattle until 2012, in which case I deferred to local release dates. Some missed the city altogether, in which case I caught up via DVD. I wrote about many for Amazon,Line Out, The Seattle International Film Festival, SIFFBlog,and Video Librarian (the links lead toreviews, though Rust and Bone and Amour haven't been posted yet, since theydon't open here untilJanuary).
If Laura comes at the trade from a different angle, Miss Bala serves as an inside-out response to Maria Full of Grace, which also centered on a sympathetic mule (and featured a strong central performance from another virtual unknown). From start to finish, Laura is neither action heroine nor passive victim, but rather stoic survivor.
7.House of Pleasures (Bertrand Bonello) 8.Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell) 9.Dark Horse (Todd Solondz) 10.Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
Second runners-up: 1. Tie:The Avengers(Joss Whedon) and Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard) 2. The Sessions (Ben Lewin) 3.Holy Motors (Leos Carax) 4.Looper (Rian Johnson)
Mostly for theboyfrom StephenKingLand.
5.Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg) 6.Flight(Robert Zemeckis) 7.For a Good Time, Call...(Jamie Travis) 8.Life of Pi(Ang Lee) 9.Chicken with Plums(Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud) 10.Magic Mike(Steven Soderbergh)
Also worthy of note:Anna Karenina,Before Your Eyes (Min Dit: The Children of Diyarbakir), Bonsái,Bullhead, Cirkus Col- umbia, Cloud Atlas, Coriolanus,The Dark Knight Rises,The Do- Deca-Pentathlon, Eden, Eye of the Storm,Goodbye(Bé Omid E Didar),The Hunger Games,In Darkness(W Ciemności),The Iron Lady, Policeman (Ha-shoter), Post Mortem, Rampart,Rebellion(L’Ordre et la Morale), Rent-a-Cat (Rentaneko), Roadie,Seven Psychopaths, Snowtown Murders,Sound of My Voice,The Slut,Summer Holiday (Boogie), Turn Me on Dammit!(Få Meg På, for Faen),V/H/S, We Need to Talk about Kevin,Your Sister's Sister.
Missed (or haven't seen yet):Arbitrage, Barbara*,Bestiaire, Chronicle,The Color Wheel,Consuming Spirits,Damsels in Dis- tress, The Day He Arrives(Book Chon Bang Hyang),The Deep Blue Sea,Footnote (Hearat Shulayim),Goodbye First Love(Un Amour de Jeunesse),The Grey, In Another Country(Da-reun Na-ra-e-seo),Keep the Lights On,The Kid With a Bike(Le Gamin au Vélo),Late Quartet,Les Misérables, The Loneliest Planet,Middle of Nowhere,Neighboring Sounds(O Som ao Redor),Oslo, August 31st,A Royal Affair(En Kongelig Affære),A Simple Life(Tao Jie),Sister (L'Enfant d'en Haut),Starlet,Zero Dark Thirty. Televisionnotables:Boardwalk Empire - Season Two,Downton Abbey - Season Two,Game Change,The Good Wife - Season Four,Revenge - Season Two, andVegas - Season One. * I caught a screening on Jan. 5. Adding to my Best of 2013 list.
They've done better: Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights), Bobby and Peter Farrelly (The Three Stooges), William Friedkin (Killer Joe), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), and Woody Allen (To Rome with Love...which I enjoyed in spite of myself).
Top documentaries:
Caught few of the big non-fiction films, butsawthe small ones most others missed.
1.5 Broken Cameras(Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi) 2.The Chilean Building(Macarena Aguiló) 3.The Boxing Girls of Kabul(Ariel Nasr) 4.Taken by Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis(Roddy Bogawa) 5.Paul Williams: I'm Still Here(Stephen Kessler) 6.Pink Ribbons, Inc.(Léa Pool) 7.Girl Model(David Redmon and Ashley Sabin) 8.Marley(Kevin Macdonald) 9.Bad Brains: A Band in DC(Benjamen Logan) 10.Chely Wright: Wish Me Away (Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf)
Missed (or haven't seen yet):Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,Beware of Mr. Baker,Brooklyn Castle,Bully,The Central Park Five,Detropia,The Gatekeepers,The House I Live In, How to Survive a Plague,The Invisible War,Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present,The Queen of Versailles,Searching for Sugar Man, This Is Not a Film, andUnder African Skies.
Reissues and rediscoveries: 1.World on a Wire / Welt am Draht(Rainer Werner Fassbinder) 2.A Man Vanishes / Ningen Jôhatsu(Shohei Imamura) 3. Tie:The Connectionand Ornette Made in America (Shirley Clarke) 4. Movie Orgy (Joe Dante) 5.La Vampire Nue / The Nude Vampire(Jean Rollin)
With live Demdike Stare score at this year's Decibel Festival.
Yes, I did see:Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Endnote: A work in progress. More sounds and images to come.
Amazon Theatricals: Playing for Keeps (with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel), Rust and Bone (Jac- ques Audiard directs Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts), and The Guilt Trip (with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand).
Video Librarian:Call the Midwife - Season One[two-disc set], Delete - The Art of Forgetting, Just Around the Corner, Produced by George Martin[Blu-ray], Liberal Arts, Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender[Blu], Gary Moore - Blues for Jimi[Blu], Sky- dancer, Words of Witness, I Am - SM Town Live World Tour in Madison Square Garden, So - Peter Gabriel [Blu], Chely Wright - Wish Me Away, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, John Cage - Journeys in Sound [Blu], Greg Allman - I'm No Angel, Paco de Lucía andGroup - Live at the Germeringer Jazztage, Half the Sky - Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
Endnote:Rust and Bone image from Sony Pictures Classics.
Video Librarian:Turn Me On, Dammit!, 17 Girls, Fela Kuti Double Feature - Documentary and Concert: Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense / Berliner Jazztage '78[two-disc set], Ben Lee - Catch My Disease, Sushi - Global Catch, Salt of Life, Hung - The Complete Third Season [two-disc set], Grey’s Anatomy - The Com- plete Eighth Season[six-disc set], Etta James - Live at Montreux [Blu], Happy Endings - The Complete Second Season[2-disc set].
