Here is a list of some of the more noteworthy films of the past year (left column). Not all of these films were made in 2006. Some were made in 2005 and some were released in 2005– I saw them in 2006.
I would suggest that 2006 was the greatest year in film ever.
This is not the same thing as saying that 2006 was the year in which some of the greatest films of all time were made. Not quite. But I am saying that 2006 may have featured more terrific films than any time since the late 1960’s and early 1970’s (if you grouped them together).
In fact, I’ll go further. I think there were more terrific films in 2006 than in any other year ever. That’s not really all that illogical: there are more films being made around the world today than ever before. There should be more good films.
I probably see more films every year than anyone else I personally know. For the first time I can ever remember, I simply cannot get out to see all of the interesting films. Maybe I’ll catch up with some of them on DVD this summer, when, traditionally, the more junky Hollywood spectaculars dominate the Cineplex’s. For right now, there are four or five new films (Volver, King of Scotland, Good German all come to mind) that I haven’t had time to see yet, but are still playing. And what about “Monkey Warfare”? And “Partition”. And …. you see what I mean?
Are audiences getting more sophisticated? Are film-makers getting better? Probably both. Twenty years ago nobody in North America– except for some university students– would even have seen a movie like “The Death of Mr. Lazerescu”, a rather depressing foreign film in which there are no chases, no violence, no gratuitous nudity or sex, and no action. It’s a beautiful film. I gave it a chance, though it started very slowly. Apparently a lot of other people did too. Or how about “Pan’s Labyrinth”, which has become something of hit, even though it is subtitled. Or a documentary like “51 Birch Street” or “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”?
It’s a terrific time to be a film fan.
Best Films of 2006:
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
51 Birch St.
The Death of Mr. Lazerescu
Babel
Friends With Money
Borat
History Boys
Pursuit of Happyness
Little Children
Sleeping Dogs Lie
Marie Antoinette
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima*
Stranger Than Fiction
Thank You For Smoking
Scoop
Matador
Devil Wears Prada
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Departed
The Queen
United 93
Shopgirl
Transamerica
Squid and the Whale
Prairie Home Companion
Bamboozled
Cache
Volver*
An Inconvenient Truth
Notes on a Scandal*
Good German*
Last King of Scotland*
The Prestige*
Partition*
* I’m trusting the reviewers on these ones– I haven’t seen them yet.
Note: April 2008– I have since seen all of these films asterisked above. Oddly, none of them were nearly as good as I had hoped. “Partition”, in fact, was quite awful.
Best Films Of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s:
- The Godfather
- The Sting
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Midnight Cowboy
- The Graduate
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Clockwork Orange
- Taxi Driver
- Patton
- Last Picture Show
- French Connection
- Deliverance
- Papillon
- M*A*S*H
Then came Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977) which proved that massive productions based on inane plots and special effects could pack them in…