Rania’s Top Ten for the 00s- But wait! There’s more!
The discipline of limiting one’s top ten films in such a fertile decade is the challenge that makes it interesting. For the indieWIRE & Industry Top Tens of the Decade I kept going over my list that started with about 50 films and cut and cut and cut ruthlessly. I’m happy with my final list, yet when I see who was left off– and it really comes down to filmmakers more than individual films in this case– I’m kind of horrified. I mean, what? No Gus van Sant? No David Lynch? No Sally Potter? No Alexander Payne? No Wes Anderson? Here is the list, really a snapshot of my opinion during the time I wrote it:
1. The Son by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
2. The Beat That My Heart Skipped by Jacques Audiard
3. Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro
My interview/feature with Guillermo del Toro on Pan’s Labyrinth
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Michel Gondry
My interview/feature with Michel Gondry on Be Kind Rewind
6. The Intruder by Claire Denis
7. Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
8. Moolaadé by Ousmane Sembene
9. Bright Star and In the Cut by Jane Campion (Love– chaste and carnal, from the female perspective. Boys, watch and take notes.)
10. The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
My interview/feature on Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on The Lives of Others
Others key filmmakers from the decade for me were: Werner Herzog, Doris Dörrie, Laurent Cantet, Arnaud Desplechin, Costa Gavras, Agnès Varda, Danny Boyle, Ken Loach, Michael Winterbottom, Stephen Frears, Lucrecia Martel, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Atom Egoyan, Mira Nair, Tim Burton, John Sayles, Chris Smith, Tom McCarthy, Michael Almereyda, Jonathan Nossiter, Spike Jonze, Sophia Coppola, Joe Berlinger, Michael Moore, Errol Morris…..
