Pick of 2012?

OK, so I have been busy, exercising exit skills from my two parishes, retiring,  moving home and country, and spending the second half of the year living 50 minutes from the nearest cinema.     

So I have not yet seen Argo,  The Master, Rust and Bone, Amour, The Life of Pi. The Hobbit,  7 Psychopaths or Quartet. 

Nor have I seen any of these BFI top films of the year,   Tabu,  Beasts of the Southern Wild,  The Berberian Sound Studio, Moonrise Kingdom,  Beyond the Hills,  Cosmopolis,  Once upon a time in Anatolia, or This is not a film.

On the other hand I have managed to catch (listed in no particular order)

Anna Karenina, The Bourne Legacy,  Brave, Coriolanus, Hope Springs,  Shadow Dancer,  The Hunger Games, Looper,  Skyfall, Prometheus, Pirates -  an Adventure with Scientists,  Chronicle,  Great Expectations, A Dangerous Method, Hugo, The Artist, Puss in Boots,   The Dark Knight Rises,   and  The Avengers Assemble.   

I think all of these have much to commend them, and I have omitted a few others that seem to have had little to commend them.  

And what a varied bunch they are.  

Four literary adaptations;  Tolstoy treated with verve and confidence in Anna Karenina, a first rate Shakespearean Coriolanus,   a workmanlike Great Expectations, an honest and respectful  teen trilogy opener of Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games;  

three sf movies, Chronicles, Looper and Prometheus, each of which revisited old tropes, be they found footage, time travel or the Alien world; 

three children’s movies that also appeal to adults, in Brave, Pirates and Puss in Boots; 

two great action flicks,  Skyfall  hitting the heights and Bourne Legacy offering a new direction and star,  

two films about film-making,  Scorsese’s Hugo, and The Artist – an Oscar wining black and white silent movie!

An intelligent and informed British political thriller,  Shadow Dancer;

a typical – and typically good - British ensemble comedy, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (is that right?);  

an engaging treatment of mature married love – and its difficulties, in Hope Springs,

and two block-buster comic book franchise movies The Dark Knight Rises and Avengers Assemble, each of which honoured their respective heritages.  

I guess you will have seen most of these, but maybe Shadow Dancer deserves special mention.     Concerning  IRA moles run by MI5 in the 1990’s, this is  adapted by Tom Bradby, who was ITN’s News Correspondent in Belfast between 1993 and ‘96,  from his own novel.  It has the same informed darkness as his Red Riding TV trilogy, directed by  James Marsh, who also helms this movie.      This has an outstanding cast, starring Andrea Riseborough, (so brilliant in TV’s  The Devil’s Whore, set during the English Civil War), Clive Owen and Gillian Anderson (who now seems to have made Britain her home again), plus Aiden Gillen  (The Garde),  Domhnall Gleeson, (Anna  Karenina), and Brid Brennan (a stage and tv actor previously used by Marsh in Red Riding).   It rings true to the horrific history of the Troubles, in which everyday Irish domestic life was played out against a constant backdrop of potential violence that could, and did, so easily and unexpectantly explode, and where even family loyalties were often under deadly questioning.       Sadly, this film is still relevant today, as the British government’s involvement with ‘extra-legal’ activities in these years is comes more into the light.     I recommend it.

The observant will notice that I have not commented  A Dangerous Method,  the Freud/Jung story centering on their relationship with each other and with Sabina Spielrein,  starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Kiera Knightley.   That is simply because I am still puzzled by it,  questioning its accuracy and therefore its integrity.   The director, David Chronenberg, does not always fill me with confidence, despite his many remarkable films, including Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, eXistenZe, Videodome, The Fly, and Spider.      Must see again.

But please note, in this Olympic year, how many great British movies were released,  plus  those using major British talent in front of the camera, directing, or in the production teams.    Skyfall, of course, and Prometheus,  Anna Karenina, Coriolanus,  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Pirates,  Great Expectations,  Brave, and   Shadow Dancer.

And let’s name check  some of the leading British actors seen on screen this year and not mentioned above; Judy Dench, Daniel Craig,  Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson,   Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave,   Emma Thompson, Billy Connelly,  Helena Bonham-Carter, Robbie Coltrane,   Rachel Weitz,  Hugh Grant,  Imelda Staunton,  Trevor Hiddleston, Christopher Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman,  Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Martin Freeman,  Ian McKellen, Maggie Smith,  Tom Wilkinson, Carey Mulligan….. honestly,   the list just goes on and one.

Apart from those mentioned above I really want to catch up on the following Britflics,

Dreams of a Life, Carol Morley’s requiem for Joyce Vincent 

My Week with Marilyn

Nine Muses, Akomfrahs meditation on immigration – and The Odyssey

Patience, (after Sebal’s The Rings of Saturn)

Shame,

Best Laid Plans,  (Of Mice and Men, but in Nottingham, directed by David Blair, who shot  TV’s The Lakes, The Street, and The Accused, sadly without a Jimmy McGovern script, but with Maxine Peake, who is reason enough for me!)

Trishna,  (Hardy’s Tess, set in India)

Wild Bill 

We Are Poets;  a documentary about the Leed’s project Young Authors   going to Washington  for the Brave New Voices slam-fest

The Angels’ Share,  Ken Loach

Man with the Jazz Guitar, Bio of Ken Sykora,  musician and radio eccentric

In the Dark Half

Now is Good

The Sweeney

Twenty8k

Sinister

Ginger and Rosa, by Sally Potter,

Cockneys vs Zombies,  which is, I am told, exactly what it says on the tin, plus Honor Blackman and Richard Briars.   What’s not to love?

And, just released,  McCullin,  a pictorial biography of Don McCullin, the brave and brilliant war photographer.

Outstanding DVD re-releases of the year? 

Little Big Man

Silent Running

Dark Star

Lawrence of Arabia

Rumble Fish

Pasolini’s  Gospel

Carlos Saura’s Flamenco trilogy,  Blood Wedding,  Carmen, and el Amor Brujo

The DevilsThe Conformist
Bob.

And the BBC’s  Hollow Crown,   terrific Shakespeare, fabulous casting and filming.

So here’s to 2013!  Happy movie going to you all.

Bob