This Critical Eye Mists Over

1997’s Best Films

For me, 1997 was a good year for films, not because better ones were churned out in general (I don't do trend analysis), but specifically because awards finally brought to better light two directors who deserve the attention: Shohei Imamura and Abbas Kiarostami, co-winners of the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Awards and citations in hand, at last the programming powers-that-be could now justify bringing these two directors’ films to screens (near me, at least).

Thanks to arthouse theatres and cinémathèque retrospectives, I consider myself fortunate to have seen the bulk of Imamura’s and Kiarostami’s films, most uncommonly good. I admit that I was not in awe of the films for which they won (THE EEL and TASTE OF CHERRY respectively, solid but not as impressive as runner-up Atom Egoyan’s THE SWEET HEREAFTER). I'd like to think that both directors were recognized not for current works but for career achievements since they stunning careers indeed; their films would have populated my best of the year list had I not limited myself to films released this year.

My favourite Imamura at the moment would be his first Cannes prize winner THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA (1982). Imamura successfully conveys the scatological urges of a mountain village struggling for survival. This is another world; the film opens with the corpse of a baby deemed a burden, but the reaction is not of grief but outrage that it was not abandoned elsewhere. With poor harvests and starvation worries accompanying winter's approach, there is honour to be had in the traditional sacrifice: carrying the elderly up to Narayama to die.

Iran, it seems to me, is the current darling of the arthouse foreign film scene thanks to Mohsen Makhmalbaf (A MOMENT OF INNOCENCE and GABBEH) and Kiarostami. My favourite Kiarostami of the moment? AND LIFE GOES ON (1992), part of a trilogy of films including WHERE IS MY FRIEND’S HOME (1987) and THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES (1994). The gentle humour of earthquake survivors is a slow infectious tonic: unfazed by loss, unconcerned with the grand reasons why, they are eager instead to get a hold of a working television for the soccer championships. The final scene of the tiny car puttering up a hill is touchingly reminiscent of The Little Engine That Could.

"I coulda been a contenda!" | Films unseen but popping up on other "best of 1997" lists: THE APOSTLE, LA PROMESSE, SUNDAY, ULEE'S GOLD. (Don't you wish film distributors knew a whit about synchronism?)

Limbo | Again, no thanks to the vagaries of film distribution, the following contenders were excluded because they were 1996 releases: MABOROSI (Hirokazu Kore-eda) and PARADISE LOST: CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky).

To the list!

10. THE ICE STORM (Ang Lee): Thanks to THE ICE STORM and other movies, notably THE SWEET HEREAFTER, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and PONETTE, the idea of summarizing 1997 as "The Year of Ensemble Acting" flitted around in my head briefly (sadly for these films, however, acclaim for individual performances cancelled out everyone else's chances award-wise).

THE ICE STORM undeservedly bore the brunt of Oscar ignorance. With its eye on two families, it is an acute observation of a moment in American history when there seemed to be no moral compass. Sounds vaguely contemporary....

9. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (Curtis Hanson): Exhilarating with its quick pace and labyrinthine twists. Corruption, prostitution, blackmail, drug-dealing, tabloid journalism - was there a vice that wasn't included?

8. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE (Iain Softley): A tight and thoughtful adaptation of the Henry James novel.

7. SICK: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FLANAGAN, SUPERMASOCHIST (Kirby Dick): Masochism as a premise may attract the curious but SICK's gleeful supermasochism pretty much ensured a limited audience. A shame, really. For Flanagan, masochism was not destruction but control and definition, and he countered his illness with loads of humour and creativity.

6. In IRMA VEP (Olivier Assayas), a remake of a classic turns to chaos, part of it a giddy navel-gaze into what went wrong with French cinema from French film critic-turned-director Assayas.

5. THE SWEET HEREAFTER (Atom Egoyan) had me thinking how Canadian it seems with all those Canucks, snow and sense of community on-screen, but I digress. When a lawyer mines a town's grief, its residents lose their sense of collective healing.

4. A MOMENT OF INNOCENCE (Mohsen Makhmalbaf) is a maddening conflation of cinema and life. As both director and actor here, Mohsen Makhmalbaf recreates an occasion in his youth when he stabbed a policeman for his gun. Amazingly, Makhmalbaf was assisted in this task by this same policeman. As both of their stories unfold, the result is a revelation of their moments of innocence, when Makhmalbaf fell under the sway of ideology and the policeman fell for a girl in collusion with Makhmalbaf.

3. MOTHER AND SON (Alexandr Sokurov) is easily one of the most distinctive film experiences of recent years, a shimmering document of the last hours shared between a dying mother and her son.

2. UNDERGROUND (Emir Kusturica) is a breathtaking film. Physically, it grabs the eyes with its characters' twitchings to an omnipresent band. Guilty of outrightly brilliant scenes: a freshly-bombed zoo, a flaming wheelchair circling around an upside-down crucifix, an island of dreams breaking free. Perhaps unpolished filmmaking, but oh-so sprawling and ambitious.

1. Those who criticize KUNDUN (Martin Scorsese) for lacking a narrative best look again, and to do so would be pleasure indeed. Who expected Scorsese to turn out as a disciplined Greenaway?

Honourable mentions:

As a student of art history, I often (am forced to) think about the catalytic effect of conflict on art. Like UNDERGROUND, PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME (Srdjan Dragojevic) was born out of war and the source is apparent in the madness of its humour. The title comes from a veteran soldier's observation that the torching of the pretty (enemy) villages results in pretty flames.

THE OTHER SIDE OF SUNDAY (Berit Nesheim) was one of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Oscars and is my favourite of the batch. It is the warm coming-of-age story of a young girl and her friendship with a lovelorn secretary. PRISONER OF THE MOUNTAINS (Sergei Bodrov) follows closely.

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (Jay Roach) was this year's snicker-fest for me. Mike Myers goes for the gusto and most of the time he connects. FACE/OFF (John Woo) is gung-ho fun with manic performances by both Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. Woo remains the elite action film choreographer.

French-film wise, after last year’s bonanza of terribly good films that finally washed up upon American shores such as THIEVES, NELLY AND M. ARNAUD, RIDICULE and LA CÉRÉMONIE, 1997 was sure to be a mild disappointment. Numbers aside, IRMA VEP and PONETTE (Jacques Doillon) were this year's winning films from France.

THE WINTER GUEST is a competent directing debut from actor Alan Rickman. It derives most of its strength from its acute dialogue and its performances, especially real-life mother and daughter Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson. Their exchange captures the cadence, the liveliness of dialogue between familiars.

Notable re-releases | Thanks to CONTEMPT (Jean Luc Godard, 1963), I have finally come to understand the appeal of Brigitte Bardot. In CinemaScope, nonetheless, the naked Bardot asks which part of her body is most admirable. This, and more, are parts of Godard's denunciation of Hollywood crass. More importantly, CONTEMPT is about the disintegration of love.

Hopefully you caught the restored DAS BOOT (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981) in all of its large screen glory. All the better to soak in that claustrophobic atmosphere.

Great moments in film, 1997 edition.