the films of 2003

[devi]

I'm back. I'm still alive, albeit in a vegetative state. This week I have mostly been sleeping, sleeping, partying at the very hospitable zandev's, sleeping and eating. And I'm supposed to be in a fit state for work tomorrow. Yeah right.

2003 was a year of stuffing information into my head. Not just having to familiarise myself with several A-level syllabi either. I spent a lot of it devouring films (largely thanks to living next to Archway Video, the best video shop in the world, no contest) and books (largely thanks to verlaine and Upminster Library). I haven't written a review of the year, but I did keep lists of all the books I read and films I saw. Looking back on them now, they're a diary of sorts.

So, in no particular order -


X2
Matrix Reloaded
12 Angry Men
Memento
Straw Dogs
The Five Obstructions
Run Lola Run
Happiness
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry
Adaptation
State & Main
Igby Goes Down
The Werkmeister Harmonies
Bullet-Proof Monk
O
Moulin Rouge
Goodbye Lenin
10 Things I Hate About You
Intacto
Belleville Rendezvous
Spirited Away
Festen
Waking Life
Queen of the Damned
Open Your Eyes
Badlands
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Taking of Pelham 123
Daredevil
The Fisher King
Strangers on a Train
28 Days Later
Arsenic and Old Lace
Battle Royale
8 Women
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Irreversible
City of God
Dark Water
Kill Bill
Charlie's Angels 2
The Spanish Prisoner
Harold and Maude
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Gangs of New York
Return of the King


Favourites: Goodbye Lenin, Spirited Away, Christie Malry, Battle Royale, Fisher King, Belleville Rendezvous. I find I have less to say about the ones I liked than the ones I hated. Odd that.
Least favourites: Queen of the Damned (like a Vampire LARP done very, very badly). Once Upon A Time In Mexico (dozens of people get shot. So what?). Badlands (Bonnie & Clyde on tranquillisers), Daredevil (just a bit lame).
Biggest disappointments: Matrix Reloaded (dull, dull, dull. I loved the first one and feel cheated). Moulin Rouge (sound and fury signifying nothing).
Most surprising: The Fisher King (I always confused this with My Cousin Vinny. Instead it was a lovely story of magic realism in New York). X2 (soooo much better than the first one). Straw Dogs (is that what all the fuss was about?). Ferris Bueller (why hadn't I seen this before?)
Weirdness award: The Werkmeister Harmonies (town thrown into chaos by some circus midgets and a dead whale, for no adequately explained reason. I didn't understand the plot any better than Matt did despite his having slept through half an hour of it). Runner-up: Waking Life.
Images that have stuck in my mind: The bit with the blindfolds in the forest in Intacto. Bruno the dog's dreams in Belleville Rendezvous. The Coke banner in Goodbye Lenin. Waltzing in Grand Central Station in The Fisher King. The train crossing the sea in Spirited Away. The boy floating away into the sky in Waking Life. The hair/tap incident in Dark Water (ugh).

(Edit: I forgot 'most phobia-inducing'. Since seeing Irreversible, with its infamous subway rape scene, I am scared of subways. I found a pair of ripped-up tights in one recently. Brrrr.)

Now books.