Dustin's Top 10 Films 2012

A serious year 2012 in cinema it was: the global economical downturn churned out some of the most exciting films, especially in Europe where filmmakers seem to be reflecting on the collective state of identity crisis. On the other side of the pond, other than Paul Thomas Anderson's Master, there was no real grand experiment to be found. Quieter still, and curiously so, was the Asian cinema which lacked both substance and form.

Earlier in the year, my personal exploration took me to documentaries of Les Blank, silent gems, Powell & Pressburger, Japanese New Wave, more Godard, Portuguese Cinema, Raul Ruiz, Christian Petzold and Berliner Schule, Jose Luis Guerin and made me revisit Tarkovsky, Chytilova and Chris Marker. And what started out as a simple question if there was an adequate name to describe the current crop of shape-shifting postmodern cinema pulled me into the very depth of the cinematic rabbit hole, left me exhausted and confused and exhilarated at the same time. As I was reminded watching Film Socialisme, Sans Soleil, Fontainhas Trilogy, Tren de Sombras, Tabu, A Man Vanishes and Two Years at Sea that I am just scratching the surface of this great artistic medium. At the same time, I feel glad and relieved that there are so much more to explore.

Please Click on the titles for full reviews

1. Holy Motors - Carax


My interview with Leos Carax

2. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia - Ceylan


3. Amour - Haneke


My interview with Michael Haneke

4. Goodbye First Love - Hansen-Løve


My interview with Mia Hansen-Løve

5. Cosmopolis - Cronenberg


6. Two Years at Sea - Rivers


7. Barbara - Petzold


My interview with Christian Petzold

8. Tabu - Gomes


My interview with Miguel Gomes

9. The Master - Anderson


10. Faust - Sokurov


And others:

The Kid with a Bike - Dardenne
Wuthering Heights - Arnold
Skyfall - Mendes
Leviathan - Castraing Taylor, Paravel
This is Not a Film - Panahi
Oslo, August 31st - Trier
Dredd - Travis
I Wish - Koreeda
Almayer's Folly - Akerman
Found Memories - Murat

The Rat is the New Unit of Currency!

Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg

Faithful word by word to Don DeLillo's source material, Cronenberg breezes through the one day in the life of the master of free market Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson). Spending most of his screen time in an indistinguishable white stretch limo, surrounded by glowing screens of charts and numbers and the interior design straight out of Prometheus, Packer conducts his daily business there. The president is in town. The streets are packed, with cars, protesters and ordinary people you will barely see or hear. It is Packer's universe we are living in, not the other way around.

There is a tangible threat to Packer's life, according to his high-tech security team. But he really need to go across town to get a haircut. Dialog is stilted and encounters are stagey just like in many of the other Cronenberg films. He is betting against Yuan (whatever that means) and by the end of the film he would be penniless. His demeanor doesn't change- he doesn't get hysterical or have a sudden epiphany. Detached as ever, his death wish gets fulfilled in the hand of a former employee (Paul Giamatti) living in a squalid building.

Cronenberg brilliantly captures DeLillo's take on the hideous amount of wealth accumulated by the Wall Street types before the crash. Packer's glass kingdom is done in not by the global protest movement, but by him questioning himself 'what's all this for?' He needs constant physical act to feel something- screwing, being voluntarily tased , shooting through his own hand. Juliette Binoche shows up for a quicky, only to be told by him to make an offer to buy an entire chapel filled with Rotko paintings, Samantha Morton drops in as his chief theorist and Matthieu Amalric cameos as the world's greatest pieing activist. Pattinson is perfect as a dead-eyed 28 year old master of the universe and the rest of the casting, impeccable like everything else about the film- sound design, cinematography, etc. You can take Cosmopolis as the driest black comedy in years- it's hilarious. One of the year's best.