28 September 2009

Skandies: Best Films of the Decade, #17



Ghost World (2001, Terry Zwigoff)
originally placed: #4, 2001.

14 comments:

Victor said...

Remember when I said "I don't think I'll see any more CON films."

Just shoot me now, please.

Victor said...

And, of course, how could I have forgotten the virtual certainty of THE NEW WORLD placing.

Just disembowel me now, please.

msic said...

Take heart, Victor. Your boys Haneke and Lars are coming up soon.....

Anonymous said...

At this point it seems all but sure that all five top Skandie films from 2001 will make the list. Good job 2001. Although I would only pick this and Memento.

Nictate said...

This reveal made my day. Wicked cool.


"I can't relate to 99% of humanity."

msic said...

(Y'know, I mentioned Haneke, but looking through old stats, it's possible his consistency might hurt him here. Is there a true consensus favorite among CACHE, LA PIANISTE, and CODE UNKNOWN? If I were a bettin' man, I'd wager that CODE's wider availability on DVD since its KimStim micro-release will have seriously boosted its rep and chances. But we shall see.)

On with the countdown....

Victor said...

... took the words out of my mouth.

I'd bet against Haneke placing a film in the Top 20, partly because as you say there's not really a consensus. But also, only CACHE made the Top 5 at the time anyway, so I don't think he's THAT well loved.

He'll have to get a lot of "pure-auteur" votes and they tend to split evenly. I went with LA PIANISTE, but my relative egalitarianism on points means it won't help much. Best chance of "Haneke" placing is almost certainly in performance -- Isabelle Huppert in LA PIANISTE.

Ryan said...

Based on my impression of the recent literature on Haneke, Code Unknown has kind of emerged as the consensus Haneke masterpiece, though folks touting Code Unknown seem to think that their enthusiasm for the picture is distinctly minoritarian. In any case, I'm guessing CU would finish higher than Cache, even if the latter finished runner-up for its year.

And if I had to guess, I'd say the severe Austrian doesn't make the cut. As for #17, I imagine that the Skandies will provide Ghost World with its best finish out of all of the legit decade polls that will be taken in the next six months. Good job Skandie voters on this one.

Victor said...

I don't know if this is related to the fact you mention, Ryan. But confining ourselves to Haneke's three consensus-best 00s films (I like TIME OF THE WOLF more than most do, FUNNY GAMES and WHITE RIBBON less, but I think we can say that much) -- CODE UNKNOWN is the only one to offer anything vaguely resembling anything in the neighborhood of catharsis or hope.

Ryan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ryan said...

CODE UNKNOWN is the only one to offer anything vaguely resembling anything in the neighborhood of catharsis or hope.

Good point, Victor. The two most common criticisms of Haneke are: one, he's a misanthropist with a very narrow view of human motivation; two, he's a chilly formalist who makes arid, over-determined narratives with no room for interpretation. It's easy to see how Code Unknown, the most open, ambiguous film in his oeuvre and certainly the warmest and most behaviorally "realistic", would appeal to those who are put off by his other movies.

(I happen to think Code Unknown is the first Haneke to demonstrate world-class filmmaking and a thoughtfulness that was lacking in his earlier films, but I still prefer the more rigorous, argumentative Cache, which just missed the cut for my top 10 of the decade.)

md'a said...

Victor, I was so so tempted to move this down to #18 just so it would be three CONs out of three for you. It took much restraint.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Mike, out of curiosity, what number would this film receive on the 100-point scale? Doing a search on your site reveals that it's one of the few high-rated films of the decade that hasn't received a retroactive point value yet. (The other, it seems to me, is The Emperor's New Groove.)

md'a said...

I can't be sure without rewatching it, but probably somewhere around 86 or 87.