Legacy Recordings

Typically I share my “Top 10 Film” list with friends around the middle of January.  But this year I was tardy.  It’s not that I was late in compiling the list — that was no problem.  It’s just that I never got around to typing and sending it out.   

In the wake of the Oscars, several folks have asked me what I thought about last night’s telecast.  And more than one has remarked, “Why didn’t you send out your Top Films list this year?”  So with the blush of Oscar fever still rosy on my cheeks, I’ve decided to cave in to pressure and present my top cinematic picks from calendar year 2007.  The astute among you will notice that the film at the top of my list, The Lives of Others, received precious little fanfare this year.  That’s because it won the Oscar for best foreign language film LAST YEAR.  The film, however, didn’t reach most U.S. screens until January 2007, which, in my book, makes it eligible for consideration on my list for 2007.

Now a few random thoughts about last night’s Oscars. 

I was quite pleased with the winners.  Daniel Day-Lewis deserved the statue for Best Actor.  I was equally pleased about the wins for Javier Bardem, Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton.  The Best Picture and Best Director awards for Joel & Ethan Coen were right on the money.  I was disappointed that No Country For Old Men failed to win for Best Cinematography; I found it much more evocative and haunting than There Will Be Blood.  I thought Tilda’s dress was striking and futuristic – down with the fashion police who attacked her for it!  I’m glad the Academy allowed Marketa Irglova, who shared the Oscar for Best Song (“Falling Slowly” from Once), to return to the stage and express her uplifting views on working in the independent film sector.   And how could you not be happy for Diablo Cody?  Talk about a rags to riches story — Oscar gold with her first screenplay!  I’m looking forward to the next installment of her monthly column in Entertainment Weekly, in which she will hopefully take us behind the scenes on her big Oscar night.

So now, without further procrastination, are my own personal picks for the year’s best.

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2007

“The Lives of Others” (Florian Henckel von Dommersmarck)

“No Country For Old Men” (Joel & Ethan Coen)

“There Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas Anderson)

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Andrew Dominick)

“Control” (Anton Corbijn)

“Eastern Promises” (David Cronenberg)

“Margot at the Wedding” (Noah Baumbach)

“Death Proof” (Quentin Tarantino)

“Paranoid Park” (Gus Van Sant)

“Zodiac” (David Fincher)

ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME: “Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead” (Sidney Lumet), “The Savages” (Tamara Jenkins), “La Vie en Rose” (Olivier Dahan), “Brand Upon the Brain” (Guy Maddin), “Southland Tales” (Richard Kelly), “This Is England” (Shane Meadows)

BEST DOCUMENTARY:  “No End In Sight” (Charles Ferguson).  RUNNER UP: “Helvetica” (Gary Hustwit)