Film Shapes

Here are the ten best films that I watched in 2012. This follows on from the mid-year report and as you'll note, there have only been a few changes from that list (see pic below for one example). Once again, this list is made up of films that I watched in the past year - new or old, first time viewings or repeats. In the future I may settle on only first time viewings. 1. Blade Runner 2. Casablanca 3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 4. There Will Be Blood 5. Delicatessen 6. Vertical Ray of the Sun 7. The Descendants 8. The Apartment 9. The White Ribbon 10. Rise of the Planet of the Apes And here are the duds. 1. Mighty Joe Young 2. I Come with the Rain 3. Invictus 4. Wedding Crashers 5. John Carter 6. A Christmas Carol (2009) 7. Young Sherlock Holmes 8. The Spanish Apartment 9. Me and Orson Welles 10. The Iron Giant

I've been thinking recently about some of the films that are hovering around the gate to my favourite films paddock. The top ten that sits to the right of this post shall remain sacrosanct (though some films have crept in or out over my lifetime) but I sometimes happen upon a great film that has the temerity to challenge them. Here are some of those crackers in no particular order: Tell No One ( Ne le dis à personne) This 2006 French thriller has so many attributes, it's hard to know where to start. From the word go we're gripped, due in no small part to the lead, Francois Cluzet. He's a bit like a middle-period Dustin Hoffman (think Tootsie or Rain Man ), in looks and intensity. Cluzet is the perfect piece of casting in a film with countless great performers - Kristin Scott Thomas, Jean Rochefort and Gilles Lellouche all shine in parts of varying length or importance. After an initial, important back-story, the pace doesn't let up with the different thread...