The most important bosses

The subjective list of the best films of the year from the Russian Newsweek film reviewer, traditional for the New Year's issue, needs comments this time. Although some on our site swear that the movie season was bad, I would like to expand the list. So it's not such a bad season. Regrettably, we excluded "The Queen" and "Letters from Iwo Jima", although they did not make it into our top ten for 2006 either, as they only appeared in Europe and Russia in the spring. Both films were active participants in past premium races (including the Oscars) - and why should we hit the memories now? We put two films in 10th place at once, because for all their dissimilarity, they are not twins, but brothers. Other (not included in the top 10) favorites of the author of these lines: "Zodiac", "Paranoid Park", "Like tough cops", "Ghosts of Goya", "Love and other disasters", "Flint". With that and to the point.

10. "ANGEL"

UK-Belgium-France Directed by François Ozon

"DEATH PROOF"

United States Directed by Quentin Tarantino

What is this. Accordingly, the stories of a fashionable writer of ladies' novels, who survived both fame and oblivion, and - in another case - a maniac who suddenly turned out to be the object of hunting by his victims.

Pros. Both films are an homage (tribute) to movie girls. Both confirm the truth that the most violent feminist films are made by men - think Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise. Of course, Ozon and Tarantino could have been considered relatives before. Both love to interact with mainstream genres in a postmodern way. Both love heroes who behave like typical mass culture characters. However, Ozone remained the antipode of Tarantino. Tarantino's favorite source of inspiration is male genres, crime fiction. And for Ozon - women's reading. In addition, Ozone, unlike Tarantino, takes the topic of death seriously. Could it have been foreseen that Proof of Death and Angel, released in parallel, would turn out to be an ideological twin peaks - equal peaks of one movie mountain? That both films will speak out for the glory of a woman, declaring that she is the true hero of mass culture?

Resonance. "Angel" became the highlight of the "Berlinale-2007", but did not receive a single "bear", since Berlin is politicized. "Proof" was taken sourly by the world press. But on the main movie site www.imdb.com, the Grindhouse project, which combined Tarantino's film with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, was awarded (at the moment) 169th place in the top 250 best films of all time.

9. "THROUGH THE UNIVERSE"

United States Directed by Julie Taymor

What is this. A musical in which the characters express themselves in the songs of the Beatles. It is clear that since the Beatles, then a film about the 1960s is a portrait of the time and generation: hippies, counterculture, conflict between fathers and children, Vietnam, etc.

Pros. It is strange that no one before director Julie Taymor (who became famous for Frida in the early 2000s) had the idea to make a modern musical based on the hits of the Beatles. The songs of the Liverpool Four are carefully and lovingly covered. The gag is enough. Let it Be, for example, is stylized as a spiritual - a fat black woman sings with an incredible voice. But where the Beatles have a second voice - and then there is a second. Where the Beatles have a melancholic guitar - in the film, too, a guitar. Respect for the original source is the most complete.

Resonance. Our distributors decided to release the film in only one copy (although it is Hollywood), now they are biting their elbows - that's a crowbar.

8. "INTERNAL EMPIRE"

France-Poland-USA, directed by David Lynch

What is this. Lynch's classically twisted film, in which a famous actress gets a role in a Hollywood melodrama, but soon begins to feel like the former performer of the role (who was mysteriously murdered), then her character, then a Polish immigrant, or even a homeless woman from the city of Lodz.

Pros. It is reasonable to interpret the film along the same lines as the lynched Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Everything that looks most realistic in it is lies, the fantasies of the heroine. But in reality she, like Lenin, in Poland. Or in Los Angeles, where she managed to get over from the Polish bottom, but landed on the same bottom, where she plunged into unrealizable dreams of wealth, fame, happiness. Lynch always adored plots about a split mind.

Resonance. In Russia, the film gained cult fame.

7. THE SEASONS

Turkey-France, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

What is this. A love crisis in three chapters. The first after the "Alienation" (Cannes Grand Prix) work of Ceylan, who has the fame of "Turkish Antonioni and Tarkovsky".

Pros. The film amazes with traps-notions and psychological filigree: you can guess about the history of the relationship between the characters who accidentally met with a half-look. Anyone who considers Turkey a Muslim country will be surprised by the fact that the heroes (and they are intellectuals here) look and behave like uninhibited Europeans. A detailed, comical, but tough love scene is scandalous by the standards of not even Eastern, but Western cinema. The Four Seasons is another anti-male film on our list. He is about the fact that a woman is always mistaken when she believes that a man is returning to her. A man just loves sometimes to grieve for his former lovers, pinch old feelings, sob on his shoulder - and, having become nostalgic, fade completely. Ask me: what movie deserves the title of "Men and Women" of the 2000s? This.

Resonance. A number of prizes, including FIPRESCI at Cannes 2006. However, the film has recently entered the cultural sphere (and our extremely limited distribution).

6. "THE BIG BOSS"

Denmark-Sweden and other European countries, director Lars von Trier

What is this. A comedy about the owner of a dwarf but profitable company who invents for the employees-friends of the "most important" supposedly American boss, on whose behalf he makes unpopular decisions. Going to sell the company to the detriment of everyone, but for his own benefit, he is forced to present this main boss, for the role of which he hires an unemployed actor.

Pros. The comedy turned some of the Danish master's loyal fans against the film. They decided that "Boss" was a respite (before filming the third - after "Dogville" and "Manderlay" - part of the USA trilogy). But the movie is not as funny as it seems. Already because it is universal for the XXI century. topic: who benefits from such a training of staff members as the corporate spirit? It is clear to whom: the authorities. In addition, the most important boss is also a symbol of the Lord God. Therefore, von Trier entrusted the shooting of the film, as it were, to the Lord - he deliberately refused the operator, giving the scenes to the power of the computer. The iron mind, for some of its computer reasons, chose the angle of shooting and the level of sound recording. Do not be surprised that in some episodes the character's half of the head is cut off, then half of the torso is cut off - this is a computer, that is, the Lord directing it so ordered.

Resonance. See above.

5. "LIFE OF OTHERS"

Germany Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

What is this. About the revolution of feelings. Shortly before the unforeseen perestroika, the captain of the Stasi, the East German KGB, succumbed to her, given the task of eavesdropping on the conversations of a famous writer and his common-law actress wife: two potential dissidents.

Pros. What is most striking is that the picture is by no means political or even historical. It's a melodrama, which is what gives it its surprising appeal. But the genre can also be defined as a dramatic thriller. The point is not (as they sometimes write) that, eavesdropping and peeping, the captain of the GDR Gestapo began to be imbued with freedom-loving ideas and took the side of former enemies. The thing is, he didn't have a life of his own. And in the end, he was so carried away by the interesting life of others that it became his personal.

Resonance. The most titled Euro tape of 2006, which also came to the European public only in 2007, Among the awards: Oscar for the best non-English language film, Eurooscars for the best picture of the year, best male role, best screenplay, etc. Supreme No. 59 on the best list of all time at www.imdb.com.

4. "LOAD 200"

Russia, director Alexei Balabanov

What is this. About a maniac in a police rank.

Pros. It is clear that the film shocked many, it seemed to someone offensive in relation to the Soviet past (there has never been a tougher film in relation to it). But I am sure that he has revealed dark secrets in our society, the presence of which society would never otherwise admit to itself. Please explain to me (especially those who are inclined to explain the cruelty of morals by the pernicious influence of immoral cinema) why it was the USSR, where cinema was highly moral, that became the birthplace of the most crazy, bloody and ruthless geek maniacs - Chikatilo is not even the first of them. After all, there are dozens of them, and for many there are more than a dozen corpses. And in England, they are still horrified by the deeds of Jack the Ripper, who more than a century ago killed, it seems, six.

Resonance. Prize of the Guild of Film Critics of Russia at the Kinotavr festival, which caused a split in the guild. The most discussed film of the year on the site www.runewsweek.ru.

3. "BLACK BOOK"

The Netherlands and other European countries, directed by Paul Verhoeven

What is this. The Jewish heroine, who lost her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, joins the Resistance, repainting herself (even in the most intimate places) as a blonde Dutch woman.

Pros. The 68-year-old Hollywood maestro Verhoeven, having returned to his native aspen channels, made a film that is equally suitable for the definitions of “good cinema”, cinephilic and provocative. He encroached on the two holy of holies of modern European civilization: the theme of the Resistance to the fascist occupation and the theme of the Holocaust. According to the film, it turns out that the main anti-Semites were not fascists, but their own - local ones. Which became especially disgusting when they seized upon bread, circuses and power after the country was liberated by the allies. Terrible in face and body, Dutch aunts, and with them drunkards and prostitutes, torment normal people who accidentally fell into “collaborationists” people, just as guards in concentration camps did not torment them. The meaning of the film, it seems, is that the history (this time post-war) was once again written by the winners, lying about everything that spoiled their image.

Resonance. A number of awards in the Netherlands and the UK. High ranking on www.imdb.com.

2. "VICE FOR EXPORT"

UK-Canada-US Directed by David Cronenberg

What is this. About the Russian mafia in London. Not some riffraff near Moscow who rushed to the West in the criminal 90s, but about real thieves in law and intrigues inside their London branch.

Pros. Cronenberg fulfilled the culturological task. He was the first to make a serious typological study of the Russian mafia abroad. And thus, voluntarily or involuntarily, he mythologised it, finally putting it on a par with the long-mythologized goat nostra, yakuza, triads. It seems that he knows the situation with the Russian mafia in the West better than our politicians. In addition, Cronenberg continued in "Vice for Export" his favorite topic - the study of mutations. This film is about the mutation of the criminal world. About how the Eastern European thieves' world mutates in Western circumstances. The scene of the battle of naked Viggo Mortensen with two Caucasians dressed in leather, who came to cut him in the bath (Mortensen's hero was set up, passing off as another), can be included in a number of classics.

Resonance. The main prize - the audience's choice - at the #1 North American festival in Toronto, usually guaranteeing a path to the Oscars.

1. "4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS"

Romania Directed by Cristian Mungiu

What is this. Clandestine abortion in Romania in 1987, shortly before the fall of the Ceausescu regime, which gave long sentences for abortions.

Pros. Like “The Life of Others” (which is also about the exoticism of breaking the law in communist countries), “4 Months” is not a political picture. And not even very historical. No portraits of Ceausescu, no revelations of the regime. This is a film about the psychology of people placed by time and society in the proposed circumstances. "4 Months", like no other film, allows you to understand what kind of cinema is in demand in Europe today. The film must be honest: no lies, no off-screen music, the impression that you are spying on reality. There should not be the slightest approximation in the details. Better naturalism than conventionality. And the film must be smart. The cleverness here is that you do not immediately understand: the true victim of the situation is not the one who has an abortion, but her friend. She will not be jailed, no. But her life is broken forever.

Resonance. Film-triumphant Cannes-2007. Winner of two main prizes of the Eurofilm Academy (for the best film of the year and the best director). France-Presse predicts that this particular film will receive an Oscar on February 24, 2008 for the best non-English language picture.

WITH NEW FILM!

10 most anticipated premieres of 2008

"MONSTRO" (Cloverfield) is one of the most conspiratorial projects of recent years about a mysterious monster that destroys New York. Judging by the commercials, almost everything was filmed by amateur cameras of people who were going to celebrate a birthday and did not really understand what kind of war of the worlds had begun in the city. The ideologist of the project is the same J. J. Abrams, who also produced Lost. We have an exit (in all cases we give approximate dates) - January 24th .

No Country for Old Men is the latest film by the Coen brothers, which premiered at the last Cannes Film Festival. After the strange films of recent years such as "Intolerable Cruelty" and "Killers of the Lady", the Coens have taken a step towards their trademark - a thriller in the spirit of "Just Blood" and "Fargo". Despite the crazy ratings of American moviegoers (on www.imdb.com the film reached 15th place in the list of the best tapes of all time), for some reason its release in the world rental was slowed down. We have an exit on February 7th .

"99 FRANKS" (99 francs) - it is difficult to predict whether this is a masterpiece, but in any case, the first film adaptation of the novel by "a great connoisseur of Russia", a notorious French stalker Frederic Begbeder. We have an exit on February 14th .

Magnolia creator Paul Thomas Anderson's ThereWill Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis is potentially one of the biggest Oscar hits of the year and will inaugurate the Berlin Film Festival in February. Naturalistic epic of the first oil production in America based on the novel by the classic Upton Sinclair. Day-Lewis once again - after "My Left Foot" and "Gangs of New York" - for the sake of a spectacular role, mutilated his ideal male appearance beyond recognition. We have an exit on February 21st .

"Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barberof Fleet Street) - what comments are needed here? New Tim Burton, again with Johnny Depp in the main male role and director's wife Helena Bonham Carter in the main female. Screen version of the Broadway musical about a barber with a straight razor in his hand. Judging by the commercials, something between Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" and "Corpse Bride" (even though the second is a puppet cartoon). We have an exit on March 6th .

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the scariest thing about the long-awaited sequel to Indiana Jones, 19 years since the previous episode. The lead actor, Harrison Ford, was then only 47. Before watching, it is also frightening that filming was postponed at least twice during the 2000s, moreover, due to the fact that the producer of the film (not anyone, but George Lucas) considered the script "the worst". However, the director (not anyone, but Steven Spielberg) regarded him as "the cutest". We have an exit on May 22 .

"SPEED RACER" (Speed ​​Racer) - would hardly promote this movie, reminiscent of a humorous interpretation of the computer racer Need for Speed. But the directors are the creators (by the way, not great for me) of The Matrix, the Wachowski brothers. You wanted more Wachowskis? Anjoy! We have an exit on May 29 .

"GAME" is another film about the game, in this case, clearly more relevant for both the Russian movie fan and our football fan. A film about “hit-and-run”, shot not by anyone, but by the always unpredictable Alexander Rogozhkin. His release on the eve of the European Championship, where our foolishly landed, will certainly attract additional attention to football. We have an exit on May 29 .

“PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS” (Wanted) is the American debut of the creator of our two “Patrols”, as well as “Irony of Fate. Continuations ”Timur Bekmambetov with Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. The fate of the film about members of a secret society related to the murders is already amusing because Universal recently moved its premiere from spring to a higher-grossing summer. That is, considered it a potential hit. Here is the irony of fate! Our exit is June 26th .

"INHABITED ISLAND. FILM FIRST" . The year will traditionally end with a super hit of domestic production, designed to take all the money out of the pockets of a drunken bored population during the long New Year holidays. This time the hit will be the first part of the adaptation of the famous novel by the Strugatskys, which is carried out by Fyodor Bondarchuk. Our exit is January 1, 2009 .

MARKET IN THE MARKET

Feelings from what is happening in our film production and distribution are more negative than positive

Summing up the domestic film year, let's talk about the problems that are important not so much for film professionals as for viewers. Conclusions-reflections-observations are accompanied by signs (+) , (-) and (=) . The latter is used if it is difficult to assess the consequences.

(+) Despite everything - and even the indifference of the owners of cinemas - we continue to shoot auteur films. This is not about fringe art house, but just about smart, traditional, conceptual dramas that, as it seemed a couple of years ago, would soon disappear as a class. In 2007, there appeared “Cargo 200”, “Exile”, “Alexandra”, “Flint”, “Putin” (so, it seems, after the premiere at the MIFF and not finding a distributor), “Nothing Personal”, “Traveling with Pets ”, “Swallows Have Arrived”, “Mermaid”, “Simple Things”, “Separation” - let's add more commercial, but also quite author's “Vise”, “7 booths” and “12”.

(+) For once, two of our films - "Expulsion" and "Alexandra" - were selected for the competition program of the Film Festival No. 1 in Cannes. In January, as many as five of our films - what a sensation - will be released in Paris, ranging from "Day Watch" to - which is funnier - the documentary "Riot. The Litvinenko Case”, which, clearly, was not elected for commercial or even aesthetic reasons.

(=) But talking about any serious change in the attitude towards our cinema in the world, and even more so, the return of fashion for it is at least ridiculous. The same Berlin festival - No. 2 in Europe - throughout the 2000s pointedly ignores our cinema as unnecessary. Only one representative of our cinema got into the nominations for numerous prizes of the European Film Academy - they were awarded in early December: cameraman Mikhail Krichman for his work on "Exile", but he did not receive anything either (however, we note for fairness that the films presented in Venice , including Mikhalkov's "12", will be considered by the Euroacademy only next year - it has such seasonal oddities).

(–) Domestic films began to lose in the domestic market as well. Our second-row producers sawed the bough they were sitting on for a long time and diligently. The public has heard so often in recent years that the main blockbuster of the year awaits it (if only we knew what a blockbuster is: it’s not a genre, it’s a film that turned out to be a hit at the box office), and so often stumbled upon rubbish that it began to be disappointed in my own cinema. An example of a hack of the year is "Code of the Apocalypse". For the first time since 2004 (in 2004–2006, Night Watch, 9th Company and Day Watch consistently won), the highest-grossing film of the year is not Russian, but Hollywood - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It is followed by "Shrek the Third" and "Wolfhound". Among the 25 major hits of the year, only eight are domestic. The situation will obviously be corrected by “The Irony of Fate. Continued ", but with her a special case.

(–) The branch on which they sit is also actively sawed by the owners of cinemas. We are talking about boorish ticket prices, which are starting to cut off from the cinema halls the audience that goes to the cinema in our country - the young one. Recently, a group of acquaintances of students - about eight people (moreover, from wealthy families) - went on a Saturday afternoon to a well-known Moscow multiplex, saw that the price was 300 rubles, turned around and left. Is it called a market? After all, these eight more will not go to that multiplex. According to the market it would be to make tickets half the price. Eight people would pay money, and even, I guess, they would buy popcorn. And in what country in the world have you seen tickets for daytime sessions for $12? What about evening prices? How about going to the movies together? The most democratic type of leisure - cinema - is beginning to turn into an elite one in our country.

(–) The developed public is cut off from cinemas even more actively. This is a blatant violation of the consumer rights of moviegoers. The main European film of the year "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days", which won almost all possible prizes, was released only in two halls: one - in Moscow, the other - in St. Petersburg. It is not available to any other cities, even university ones. Even Ben Affleck's film "Gone Baby Gone" - and he will not be seen outside the capitals. So pour then, gentlemen, film businessmen, crocodile tears that you are being robbed by pirates. Pirates have everything, and much cheaper.

(–) As a result, we have a fake growth of the film market. Growth is obvious - but only in y. e. Last year, viewers left $400 million plus at the cash desks of roscinemas. More than $550 million will be left in this. But the spectators themselves have not increased in the halls. The growth was only due to the ongoing construction of new halls, the increase in ticket prices and the depreciation of the dollar. The funny thing is that growth is also due to additions. With whomever of the leading producers you talk, everyone in private conversations assures that most of the data on the rental of domestic films (made, of course, by other producers) for advertising purposes are greatly exaggerated.

In conclusion, there are two paradoxes that are also related to the market. Dangerous and funny.

(–) It seems that it is the cinema that will begin to actively spur a new cold war - through the hands of those producers who will try to take the audience with a patriotic phrase and pick up the idea that there are only enemies around. They us "Stealth" and something else, we them - "Mirror Wars", "Reference Point" and all the same "Code of the Apocalypse".

(=) Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov found himself in an interesting market situation. His "55" and "Letter of Four" surprisingly eclipsed in the minds of the public the film "12", released just the day before. Soon, you see, it will be necessary to explain to the new generation of moviegoers that Nikita Sergeevich is, in fact, a serious and authoritative director.

TOP TEN

The readers of the magazine publish their personal lists of the best films of 2007 at the film forum of the site www.runewsweek.ru. Here are some of the top lists already published

ZZZ (no seats): Inland Empire, Death Proof, Lives of Others, Land of Plenty, Die Hard 4, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, The Prestige, Goodbye Baby, Goodbye”, “The Biggest Boss”, “Like tough cops”.

Stringer : 10. "The Bourne Ultimatum". 9. "Like tough cops." 8. Proof of death. 7. "Planet of fear." 6. "Shoot 'em." 5. "Zodiac". 4. "Pirates of the Caribbean-3". 3. "The biggest boss." 2. "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days." 1. "Cargo 200".

Enki: 10. "Fountain". 9. "Ellipsis". 8 "Simple things". 7. "Ratatouille". 6. "The Biggest Boss". 5. "Comrade President" (documentary film of the RTVi channel). 4. "Two in one." 3. "Artist". 2. "Exile". 1. "Alexandra".

hunter : 10. "Planet of fear" / "Proof of death." 9. "My Fuhrer." 8. "Hairspray." 7. "Life in pink." 5–6. "Transformers" and "Pirates of the Caribbean-3". 4. "Irina Palm will do it better." 3. "Like tough cops." 2. "Vice for export." 1. "Ratatouille".

Trefle (no seats): Ratatouille, Transformers, The Prestige, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Gangster, BMovie Honey Plot, Queen, Election Day, 300 Spartans "," Ghosts of Goya.

Aureliano : 10. "Planet of Fear". 9. "Like tough cops." 8. "Zodiac". 7. "Vice for export." 6. "Inappropriate person." 5. "Fountain". 4. "Waiter". 3. "The biggest boss." 2. "The lives of others." 1. "Black Book".

APOLLO : 10. "Catch the wave." 9. "Prestige". 8. "Pirates of the Caribbean-3". 7. "Like little children." 6. "Transformers". 5. "Cargo 200". 4. "Simple things." 3. "The Bourne Ultimatum". 2. "Zodiac". 1. "Fountain".

Arzt: 10. "Lions for lambs". 9. "Gangster". 8. "Mist". 7. "Like little children." 6. "Like tough cops." 5. "Planet of fear." 4. "Zodiac". 3. "Vice for export." 2. "Inland Empire". 1. "Letters from Iwo Jima" / "Flags of our fathers."