So, what are pyjama girls really like?

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• From Bristol to Dublin: Maya Derrington, director of the Pyjama Girls. Photograph: Eric Luke
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In this section »

• A flame of love never quenched
• On the wings of the Fringe
• Poets on the edge at Picnic and guerrillas in the midst of Tuam
• Oil rigs, dungeons, churches - do strange venues make better gigs?

DONALD CLARKE

They have been caricatured much in the media in the recent past, but a new documentary film looks sympathetically at the lives of working-class girls

THE SENSITIVE viewer could be forgiven for approaching Maya Derrington’s Pyjama Girls with caution. Over the last few years, the wearing of pyjamas outside the house has, for too many mainstream media outlets, become synonymous with social exclusion and loss of self-respect. To listen to the middle-class gripers on the radio, you’d think the donning of terry cotton nightwear is akin to horse theft or benefit fraud.

Happily, Maya’s fine documentary could not be less patronising. A young mother, originally from Bristol, Derrington admits that the initial spur was, indeed, a desire to document the current tendency for working-class girls to keep the jammies on all day. But, as work progressed, the picture developed into a genuinely touching, unusually warm study of two teenage Dublin girls from Ballyfermot. Lauren Dempsey and Tara Sallinger come across as noisy, troubled, smart and an absolute hoot. The film is resolutely on their side.

“I did begin with a fascination for this pyjama phenomenon,” Maya says. “But then, on another level, I was genuinely fascinated with life in the flats. I used to walk past Charlemont Street flats and wonder about the contrast between me walking to work in TV and these snippets of life that I would catch. I wanted to step over this boundary that frightened me. I wanted them to think of me as a person also.”

Initially researching in Basin Street Flats, near Dublin’s James Street, Maya and her team assembled a series of short interviews on the pyjama issue. A few citizens seemed interested, but drifted away as the project progressed. Then, after moving operations several kilometres to the west, Maya bumped into Lauren and Tara.

“We initially had completely different main subjects,” she says. “But we said we’d do a bit of filming with Tara and Lauren because they were interested in talking to us. What we encountered reminded me so much of my own teenage years. They have this love-hate thing. But they give each other so much support. That’s something we don’t give kids credit for.”

You get the sense that the film-makers have delicately tip-toed around certain sensitive issues. Lauren’s mother, who has had serious problems with drugs, is, for instance, an invisible, though unavoidable, presence in the film. We meet Lauren’s grandmother – another raucous character – but the generation in between is conspicuous by its absence.

“We could have had the mother in,” Maya says. “I did meet her and, yes, she was wearing pyjamas. But actually it was important to me that she was an invisible character. She represents a missing generation of parents – my generation, really – that is, the much-documented drug generation. It was important to me that she was notable by her absence.”

While watching a fly-on-the-wall documentary, the viewer is never quite sure to what extent the film-makers are interfering with the action. Surely, the very presence of a camera will cause the subject to behave differently. Extroverts will show off. Introverts will crawl even deeper into their protective shells. Derrington explains that the project took two years to complete. Nonetheless, I can’t imagine that Tara and Lauren ever entirely got over the novelty of being movie stars.

“That’s a good question. You never really know what influence you are having. It was usually just two of us with a small camera, and I do believe that people eventually forget about you. If you are quiet and unobtrusive, you’d be amazed by things that happen in front of you.” And, of course, a movie camera is now a household object. Following advances in mobile phone technology, most teenagers now have such an object in their hip pockets.

“That’s right. Young people today are so engaged with the technological side of the media that they are not even aware of a camera being there. Tara and Lauren are constantly documenting their own lives.” Spend some time with Derrington, and you understand how she gets people to open up. Amiable and unpretentious, she comes across as the sort of person who would be equally happy chatting to a duke or a doorman.

Her route from Bristol to Pyjama Girls is an unlikely one. Derrington studied English at Goldsmiths College in South London – alma mater of Damien Hirst and many of the other “Young British Artists” – but admits that, a scrappy student, she always felt herself “too cool for school”. Following graduation, she worked in the Soho offices of Bloomsbury Books. After two years, she decided, however, that a change of scene was in order. Why Dublin? “It really was completely random,” she says. “Me and my sister decided to do something different. I had been over to Dublin for a weekend recently and we flipped a coin to decide whether we’d move to Dublin or Belfast. This is simply how it worked out.” How bizarre. As things transpired, Derrington found her feet fairly rapidly. She took a job in Arthouse – that ill-defined, now defunct multimedia edifice in Temple Bar – and soon secured work on television documentaries. One of her earliest associates was Nicky Gogan, busy producer and director, and, in 2006, they joined forces with Paul Rowley to form the innovative company Still Films. Among the company’s earliest work was Rowley and Gogan’s Seaview, an eccentric study of the holiday resort turned asylum-seekers’ capmp in Mosney, Co Meath.

Pyjama Girls , playing commercially at the Irish Film Institute, looks set, however, to nudge Still Films’ profile that bit further into the spotlight. Made on a skimpy budget, the picture is never likely to compete with Toy Story 3 on the box-office chart, but it tells a strong, often sad, story that should appeal to a mainstream audience.

Mind you, some fusspots will worry about the whole concept of presenting images of working-class life to a largely bourgeois audience. Is there a danger of the film being seen as vehicle for inter-class tourism? “I suppose I wilfully wanted to draw people in who want to know why people wear pyjamas at all hours and to answer some of their outrage,” she muses. “Then my intention is that they will actually see these engaging characters and sympathise with them. But I really have been surprised by people who come out of the film and find it hard to be sympathetic.” Really? The picture seems so generous to its subjects and, for all their occasional bolshiness, Tara and Lauren come across as decent, engaging people.

“Well, that’s what I’d hoped. But some people felt intimidated. They had flashbacks to scary situations in buses. They identified them as the scary girls on the buses. It’s mainly men who react that way. Women identify with them much more easily. But I read one online review that was outraged the film wasn’t a voice-overed documentary about the pyjama thing. What can you do?” Such criticisms can probably be ignored. But Maya does acknowledge that some viewers may, quite reasonably, object to the film-makers’ decision to subtitle the entire picture. This is a very tricky issue.

We pour scorn on Americans for occasionally subtitling Irish, Scottish or Northern English pictures. Yet, whenPyjama Girls opens in the IFI, the mode of presentation will imply that many punters cannot understand a dialect spoken hundreds of yards from the cinema.

“Initially I was very against it,” she says with a wince. “The whole film works a lot better without it. But, basically, the feedback we were getting was that people plain couldn’t understand it. I could understand it. But even some people from Dublin couldn’t understand it. But obviously there is an offensive element to subtitling.” I get the sense that this issue caused a real brawl in the offices of Still Films.

“We only had the budget for one print and if we were to have any chance of getting it out there internationally, we basically had to subtitle it. We had a long debate, during which we all switched sides many times. It was so hard.” Showing the film to snooty men who have experienced (bless them) scary incidents on buses was one thing. Unveiling it before punters unfamiliar with the Dublin argot must also have been frightening. But I would imagine that the tensest screening was that for Lauren and Tara. The two girls do not appear to be backwards in coming forwards.

“That was the most nerve-wracking bit of the process,” she agrees.

“And I made sure to show it to them before anybody else. The things that troubled them weren’t the things that we thought would trouble them. It was: ‘No. I look awful in that shot.’ But I was impressed they were able to laugh with the film. At the end they were surprised and said ‘You know what? That’s actually quite a good film.’” Quite right too. They should put their quote on the poster.

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Pyjama Girls opens at the Irish Film Institute on August 20th

Cenas marcantes de filmes são recriadas em Lego

Compartilhe66

Usuários do Flickr, site de compartilhamento de fotos, publicam grupo com reproduções da cultura pop

por Redação Galileu

Várias cenas clássicas e marcantes do cinema foram recriadas com peças de Lego. Um grupo do Flickr, site de compartilhamento de fotos, reúne mais de 200 imagens produzidas por artistas amadores que reproduzem cenas da cultura pop.

Veja alguns exemplos abaixo:

Cena de "Querida, encolhi as crianças"

Cena clássica de abertura dos filmes do James Bond

Cena de "Psicose" que entrou para a história

"Pulp Fiction", de Quentin Tarantino

A famosa cena do corredor de "O Iluminado"

‘Pânico 4’ tem sua primeira imagem divulgada

Foto mostra personagem de Courtney Cox e vilão Ghostface.
Filme de terror tem previsão de estrear em abril de 2011.

Do G1, em São Paulo

imprimir

Courtney Cox, assim como Neve Campbell e David Arquette, esteve em todos os filmes de 'Pânico'. (Foto: Divulgação)

clueless

patricinha, sempre. alicia silverstone (L)

deborah secco eh bruna surfistinha

Teaser Oficial - Bruna Surfistinha [HD] from TvZERO on Vimeo.


passei mal

Diretora aposta nas experiências de jovens do interior em "Antes que o Mundo Acabe"

Mostrar que os jovens do interior têm uma vivência tão rica
e variada quanto os da cidade, é o forte do filme

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Divulgação

Atores em cena de "Antes que o Mundo Acabe", de Ana Luiza Azevedo

A premiada curtametragista gaúcha Ana Luiza Azevedo costuma dizer que “um filme vem de uma ideia”. Ela aplica à risca sua filosofia em seu primeiro longa, “Antes que o Mundo Acabe”, que exibe um punhado de boas ideias bem executadas ao longo de pouco mais de uma hora e meia. Para ela, uma das coisas mais fortes em seu filme é mostrar que os jovens do interior têm uma vivência tão rica e variada quanto os da cidade. “Acredito que essa seja minha contribuição”, disse ao UOL Cinema.

O filme, porém, tem ambição bem maior do que apenas retratar a vida de jovens do interior. A diretora sabe que o grande desafio que tem pela frente é chegar ao coração do público de seu filme e vencer dois preconceitos envolvendo adolescentes e adultos. “O público jovem sempre foi um pouco negligenciado pelo cinema brasileiro, por isso é tão distante. Eles são muito motivados por aquilo que está em evidência. Então, boa parcela acaba vendo apenas os grandes sucessos americanos”.

Esse panorama, no entanto, parece caminhar para uma mudança gradual. Há poucas semanas estreou em circuito “As Melhores Coisas do Mundo”, de Laís Bodanzky, que tem como personagens centrais um grupo de adolescentes de classe média alta da cidade de São Paulo. O de Ana Luiza leva às telas amigos da mesma faixa etária morando numa cidadezinha do interior do Rio Grande do Sul. Em comum está a forma como as duas diretoras pesquisaram para fazer seus filmes.

Os dois filmes usaram um método bastante parecido: muita conversa com jovens sobre o seu universo, suas experiências, expectativas. Enquanto fazia oficinas para a escolha de atores, Ana permitiu que esses próprios adolescentes dessem alguns palpites no roteiro que liam. “Absorvemos muitos elementos deles, muitas coisas que eles nos contavam e sugeriam. Creio que isso traz uma grande verdade para o filme, faz com que os personagens sejam pessoas de verdade, não apenas criações que saíram da cabeça de alguém”.

Como ressalta a diretora, isso deu segurança à equipe. “O pessoal jovem mostrava muito interesse pela história quando lia o roteiro. Há alguns elementos de suspense e isso os instigava a querer saber como a questão de um roubo na escola, por exemplo, seria resolvida no final. O trabalho com eles também nos ajudou nos diálogos. Pudemos incorporar o jeito como os adolescentes de hoje falam, as gírias, as expressões”.

Mais segura por conta dessa cooperação estreita com os jovens, Ana continuava intrigada sobre como seria a recepção do filme pelos adultos. A resposta veio em julho do ano passado, quando “Antes que o Mundo Acabe” estreou no 2º Festival de Paulínia, de onde saiu com diversos prêmios, entre eles de direção, fotografia (para Jacob Solitrenick), e da crítica. “Eu achava que os adultos se identificariam com os pais dos personagens. Mas que nada, eles foram tomados por alguma nostalgia. Todo mundo vinha me falar que saiu do filme lembrando da adolescência, do primeiro fora amoroso, do primeiro porre”.

O roteiro, que é creditado a Ana, Giba Assis Brasil (também montador do longa e marido da diretora), Paulo Halm e Jorge Furtado, é baseado no romance homônimo de Marcelo Carneiro da Cunha, mas traz algumas mudanças radicais logo de início. O texto original se passa em Porto Alegre, ao contrário do longa, em que a capital do estado se transforma num sonho distante ou numa possibilidade de futuro para os jovens personagens. “Eu sou do interior e tinha essa experiência. Aliás, dos roteiristas, sou a única que não é de cidade grande, por isso pude colaborar muito nesse sentido”, comemora.

Além disso, para compor o elenco juvenil, a equipe da diretora passou a procurar possíveis atores estreantes em cidades do interior do Rio Grande do Sul, onde se passa a história, e onde o filme seria rodado – “não há nenhuma cena feita em estúdio, é tudo locação”, ressalta a diretora. “Depois de vários testes, foram selecionados 30 adolescentes. Metade deles formaria uma classe de estudantes que aparece no filme.”

Entre eles, estava Pedro Tergolina, que já havia trabalhado com a diretora no curta “Dona Cristina Perdeu a Memória”. Ele acabou ficando com o papel principal. Como o ator é de Porto Alegre, precisou viver um tempo no interior para se adaptar ao mundo do personagem. “Ele experimentou a rotina de quem vive numa cidade pequena. Acho que descobriu muita coisa que levou para o filme”.

Os atores jovens fizeram algumas oficinas mas, em alguns casos, não precisaram de preparação alguma. “Acho que quando o assunto é amor, a gente não precisa ensaiar nada, isso vem com naturalidade”. No filme, Pedro, Eduardo Cardoso e Bianca Menti vivem um triângulo amoroso – algo à la “Jules e Jim”, o famoso filme de François Truffaut. Ana conta que eles estavam tão envolvidos que até desconfia que possa ter ocorrido algo fora das telas. “Se aconteceu de verdade eu não sei não, mas os dois meninos estavam muito encantados com ela. Isso a gente percebia”, confidencia.

Essa química entre o trio, aliás, foi uma das coisas que mais encantou a diretora no processo de filmagem. “Quando a gente chega num set e os atores assumem aquilo que está no papel, tudo meio que sai de controle. Eles tomam conta do personagem e trazem um frescor para o filme. Isso é muito bom, porque, às vezes, a gente está envolvida com uma história há tanto tempo que precisa dessa carga nova para revitalizar”.

Além de estar engajada no lançamento de “Antes que o Mundo Acabe”, que acontece em 14 de maio no Rio Grande do Sul e Santa Catarina, e nas semanas seguintes em outras cidades do país, Ana trabalha também com uma série do canal a cabo HBO, “Mulher de Fases”, na qual assina a direção, ao lado de Marcio Schoenardie.

panico 4

It's official: Scream 4 is a go. Dimension Films announced today that the fourth iteration of the popular series is back and starting production this spring. Kevin Williamson is writing,Wes Craven is directing, and Neve Campbell, David Arquetteand Courteney Cox have all signed on to reprise their roles from the original Scream movie. The veterans are set to join a new group of young actors who have yet to be announced.Scream 4 will be released on April 15, 2011. Said Craven in a press release, "Working with Courteney, David, and Neve was a blast ten years ago and I'm sure it will be again. 

*** panico era para ser uma trilogia... panico 4? por mim tudo bem, os sustos desse filme sempre me agradaram, assisti panico 3 na pre estreia............. enlouquecida.

ta todo mundo louco!

alguns anos atras (2001 talvez, varios anos portanto), naum sei pq acabei indo no cinema assistir este filme (rat race)......... uma comedia pastelao, dirigida por jerry zucker (apertem os cintos, o piloto sumiu e ghost - do outro lado da vida). o filme eh estrelado, whoopi goldberg, cuba gooding jr (pavor), rowan atkinson...........

um bilionario reune seis pessoas em um dos seus cassino/hoteis em las vegas e promove uma corrida em que os participantes tem que ir ate o novo mexico e o primeiro que chegar e abrir o cofre, ganha 2 milhoes de dolares. detalhe: naum existem regras, vale tudo.

todos os participantes saum loucos. mas o engracado eh que o bilionario do hotel passa o filme inteiro fazendo aposta com amigos. tudo eh um motivo para apostar.

o filme eh uma bobagem soh, mas foi a vez que eu mais ri num cinema. a cena de baixo, em especial.



voce
devia
ter
comprado
um
esquilo

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change!

ontem assisti com o left, na sessao das 23:45 no cinemark, this is it, documentario sobre a turne do michael jackson. no cinema tinha apenas dois casais alem de nos, uma sessao quase vip. :)

o "filme" mostra como seria todo o show que nunca aconteceu. sem narracao, apenas com cenas filmadas durante os ensaios.

nosso rei era realmente brilhante. um artista pop diferente de todos os outros: michael sabia exatamente o que queria e exigia o maximo de todos. tinha grande conhecimento musical, sabia tudo sobre todas suas cancoes e o que seu publico buscava nos shows. reclamava da banda, do tempo nas musicas, dos baixos, do retorno nos seus ouvidos, apunhalando como facadas. mas sempre, com muito amor, l.o.v.e.

neste show, michael pensou em tudo para seus fas. faltariam muitas cancoes, mas todas que estavam eram especiais. dificil escolher um reportorio, tendo um material taum vasto e de qualidade.

pareceu bem feliz de estar de volta aos palcos. sua voz era uma delicia, me emocionei muito quando vi os ensaios de tres das minhas cancoes favoritas. human nature, black or white e man in the mirror, que encerra o filme.

talvez o filme seja para poucos. quem naum eh fa talvez nem se interesse em ver os bastidores de tudo. eu me diverti o tempo inteiro, me senti no show e proximo deste que nunca tive a oportunidade de ver de perto.

alguem da banda disse algo que eh bem pertinente: michael era o unico artista da musica pop que exigia, queria mais e tinha grande preocupacao com o que seria apresentado. bem diferente de madonna, da minha britney, entre tantas outras. o show era para os fas, nada mais. aqueles que sempre surtaram, choraram, desmaiaram, estiveram do seu lado.

ontem tive outro entendimento sobre a musica black or white. mesmo sendo sempre apunhalado pela imprensa, pelo publico, por quem desconhecia sua vida, historia e dores, michael dava respostas com muito amor em suas musicas. black or white em momento algum eh uma musica agressiva. fala de amor.

michael eh amor. espero que mais alguem entenda sua mensagem sempre positiva com o proximo e com o planeta. who am i to be blind? pretending not to see their needs....

tudo bem, michael se foi e naum tivemos o show. mas ele eh eterno, neh? :)

hj acordei, o dia cinza e estou escutando michael o tempo inteiro. i just cant stop loving you, michael. :~~~

eu quero!

Michael Jackson "Human Nature" from This Is It


eu querooooo! amanha vamos ver!

The 100 Best Films of the Decade, segundo o jornal britanico "The Times"

100 The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006)
Meryl Streep begins her own populist career reinvention (soon to be followed by Mamma Mia!) by playing a tyrannical and thinly disguised version of Vogue editor Anna Wintour in this satirical yet soft-centered account of life among the fashionistas.

99 Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) 
The worst school kids in Japan are dumped on an island, fitted with exploding neckbraces, equipped with weapons and told to fight it out between themselves. Deliberately lacking in PC credentials but ultimately, it’s a provocative and challenging film.

98 Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004) 
This surprise Oscar champ of 2004 inspired myriad syrupy “We are all, like, totally connected” imitators (see The Air I Breathe), and yet the savvy narrative chicanery and superlative performances (including Sandra Bullock’s racist housewife) lift this LA-set ensemble far above the crowd.

97 Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook, 2005) 
The third of Park Chan-Wook’s fervid, savage revenge trilogy, Lady Vengeance ends with a sombre acknowledgement of the futility of revenge. But not before buckets of blood have been spilt.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

96 Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002) 
One of Scotland’s most acclaimed and offbeat filmmakers, Ramsay (Ratcatcher) here transforms Alan Warner’s cult novel into a thing of woozy, meditative beauty. Samantha Morton stars, in the title role, as the emotionally withdrawn checkout girl who profits from her boyfriend’s suicide.

95 Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000) 
This smouldering powder keg of a movie launched a new generation of Mexican talent. Gael Garcia Bernal stars in the first of three stories which are linked together by a shattering car crash.

94 An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006) 
A user-friendly slideshow about global warming, combined with a revealing personal profile of presenter Al Gore, becomes a box office behemoth, an Oscar winner, and a brand leader for all future eco docs.

93 House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004) 
Probably the most satisfying of the big budget martial arts crossover movies of the past decade, it combined ridiculously ambitious action set pieces with lush, colour-saturated imagery.

92 Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002) 
A Nigerian doctor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in London double-jobs as a cab driver and hotel porter while uncovering an illegal trade in human organs. This quietly polemical work humanises the immigration debate.

91 Lantana (Ray Lawrence, 2001) 
This intelligent drama is so much more than a murder mystery — it’s an impeccably acted exploration of human relations at their trickiest. Meticulously constructed and rewardingly realist in tone.

90 Wedding Crashers (David Dobkin, 2005) 
It could've been a frat-boy sex comedy but Wedding Crashers achieves that miraculous balance of crude and cute, wild and witty. Two charismatic central turns help, from Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, playing the eponymous cads with sex on the brain but romance on the cards.

89 School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003) 
This boisterous love letter to loud guitars and three-chord choruses represents the last good performance from star Jack Black. It’s an irrepressible ode to the joy of power-chords played by grown men in PVC trousers.

88 The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001) 
A career high from which Anderson (Fantastic Mr Fox) has never quite recovered, here he directs a knockout ensemble (including Gene Hackman and Bill Murray) as a dysfunctional family of New York eccentrics.

87 Time and Winds (Reha Erdem, 2006) 
A lyrical portrait of village life in rural Turkey — slow-burning but inexorable in its power. Nothing is hurried about the rhythms of the lives captured here, but we are left with the feeling that each passing moment is precious.

86 The Orphanage (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007) 
The ultimate in post-Sixth Sense kiddie horror, this superlative Spanish chiller stars Belén Rueda as a woman battling an entire orphanage of creepy pre-teen ghosties who might just have kidnapped her dying son.

85 The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001) 
Two of the most uncompromising voices in European cinema, director Michael Haneke and actress Isabelle Huppert collaborate on a harrowing, deeply disturbing exploration of female sexual repression and masochism.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

84 Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004) 
Ten years after the Rwandan genocide, George’s bracing drama was the first mainstream movie to tackle the subject. Don Cheadle gives a duly Oscar-nominated turn as the Hutu hotelier Paul Rusesabagina who risks his own life to save hundreds of vulnerable Tutsis.

83 The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, 2006) 
A stirring and sympathetic portrait of the early days of the Irish Republican Army that carries the stark warning: an armed struggle soon loses touch with its ideals. The naturalistic, committed performances are the film’s main strength.

82 Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000) 
An insightful, exquisitely controlled family drama set in modern day Taipei, this is Yang’s masterpiece.

81 In The Loop (Armando Iannucci, 2009) 
The savagely perceptive political satire based on the television series The Thick Of It elevates swearing to an art form. It’s the Sistine Chapel of profanity. Lean, mean and painfully funny.

80 Me, You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July, 2005) 
A gorgeous, feather-light debut from American visual artist July, the film depicts a burgeoning romance between the quirky Christine (July again) and shoe salesman Richard (John Hawkes). Subplots involving chatroom debacles, bashful perverts and teen sex lessons create a nicely demented tone.

79 Le Grand Voyage (Ismael Ferroukhi, 2004) 
A devout Muslim father and his secular son make a pilgrimage together — in itself, it’s not a groundbreaking premise. But the picture’s climax, actually filmed in Mecca, is extraordinary.

78 About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002) 
Possibly the last great Jack Nicholson performance of the decade (and no, hamming it up in The Departed doesn't count). He stars as a superannuated actuary searching for meaning in an empty middle-American existence. The tear-stained finale is heartbreaking.

77 Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002) 
Moore’s documentary, the best of his career, and made before he became a global brand, is a breathlessly entertaining two-hour tirade against lax American gun laws. Highlights include interviews with Marilyn Manson and a sadly enfeebled Charlton Heston.

76 Control (Anton Corbijn, 2007) 
Manchester post-punk band Joy Division are brought to life thanks to a punchy, often blackly funny script and an incendiary debut from Sam Riley, playing lead singer Ian Curtis.

75 Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002) 
One of Almodóvar’s most ambitious and accomplished films focuses on the tribulations of a comatose dancer (Leonor Watling) and those who surround her. It thus features an array of flash forwards, flash backs, surprise twists, plus a giant rubber vagina.

74 Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006) 
One of the darkest periods in recent Spanish politics is woven into a twisted fairytale, a battle between good and evil that plays out in the imagination of a little girl trying to escape the ugly realities of the real world. Stunning.

73 The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard, 2005) 
A gifted director, a roaming restless camera, and a young white-hot French actor (Romain Duris) combine to tell the wrenching tale of a small time hoodlum with ambitions to be a concert pianist, and a string of Russian mobsters in his way.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

72 The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008) 
The cinematic equivalent of a Semtex detonation, this Iraq-set movie is a sensory wallop that ignores political sermonising. Meticulously researched by journalist Mark Boal, it follows a busy bomb-disposal team in Baghdad.

71 Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter/David Silverman/lee Unkrich, 2001) 
Pixar at its most hallucinogenic follows fourth dimensional monsters Sulley and Mike (John Goodman and Billy Crystal), who harness terrified children’s screaming power for industrial energy. They nonetheless learn that love contains more power than fear.

70 The Class (Laurent Cantet, 2008) 
Former teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself in a doc/drama hybrid set in an inner city school. Without being sanctimonious or sentimental, the film makes piercing observations about multicultural France.

69 Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi, 2007) 
Satrapi’s bestselling autobiographical graphic novel makes the transition to the big screen seem effortless. A child’s-eye view of the Iranian revolution, this is playfully disarming rather than didactic; the animation pleasingly simple and stylised.

68 Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) 
Formally intricate and expertly executed, Memento is a devious brainteaser of a film. Guy Pearce is a haunted man doomed by short-term memory loss to live forever in the present, who carries clues to his past in the tattoos on his body.

67 Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008) 
A sprawling, multi-stranded descent into a modern day Naples terminally infected with the disease of organised crime, this is a film full of striking imagery, sardonic wit and sobering truths.

66 City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund, 2002) 
Vital, kinetic and visceral, this Brazilian favela epic sent shockwaves through audiences. The cool and the camaraderie of crime in the face of extreme poverty is powerfully evoked, as is the terrible cost to young lives.

65 Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008) 
The 1982 Israeli-Lebanon war is seen through the prism of animation in a deeply personal account of one soldier’s struggle with his own memories. Folman, an army veteran, depicts traumatic war stories with unflinching honesty and a dreamlike palette.

64 L'enfant (Jean-Pierre Dardenne/Luc Dardenne, 2005) 
The plot is seemingly preposterous — local Belgian tearaway Bruno (Jérémie Renier) sells his girlfriend’s baby on the black market for a new leather jacket. But in the hands of fraternal film-making masters, it becomes a tour de force of guilt and desperation.

63 There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007) 
“I, drink, your, milkshake!” The climactic quote, from Daniel Day Lewis’s embittered protagonist is already immortal, as is the performance. While the entire devastating movie, about oil prospecting in the early 20th century, is endlessly re-watchable.

62 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004) 
Unreconstructed juvenile chauvinism goes head to head with the march of feminism in a 1970s San Diego newsroom. It’s a world where men wear flammable trousers and aftershave called Sex Panther. Will Ferrell’s finest moment.

61 Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) 
The master storyteller and animator creates a deliciously loopy adventure for ten-year- old Chihiro (Rumi Hiragi) when a tedious drive to a new town is interrupted by a deadly detour into the spirit world. Like the Wizard of Oz, minus the sentiment.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

60 The Squid and the Whale(Noah Baumbach, 2005) 
Exemplary US Indie about two brothers growing up in mid-1980s New York and dealing with their academic parents acrimonious divorce. A witty and acrid semi-autobiographical script from Baumbach, plus pitch-perfect casting, give this coming-of-ager unexpected depths.

59 Être et Avoir (Nicolas Philibert, 2002) 
A rural schoolhouse holding just 12 students and a single ageing teacher in the Auvergne may not seem like a recipe for must-see documentary. Yet Philibert is so finely attuned to the tender relationship between teacher and pupils that the subsequent school year becomes as gripping as any blockbuster.

58 Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) 
Shaun is determined to win back his girlfriend Liz and nothing, not even the fact that streets of suburban North London are full of zombies trying to eat his brains, will stop him. Although there’s always time for quick pint in the Winchester.

57 The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino, 2004) 
Sorrentino’s super-stylish debut is an art-house mafia movie about a middle-aged businessman and Cosa Nostra cash-mule called Titta (Toni Servillo). When his quiet romance with a local waitress fails, Titta takes out his frustrations on his Sicilian paymasters. Big mistake.

56 Volver (Pedro Almodovar, 2006) 
A family and the ghosts that haunt it, a body in the freezer and Penelope Cruz in screen-melting vamp mode. This tragicomic melodrama is drenched in colour and full of evocative imagery; it’s a rich confection from Almodóvar.

55 Chopper (Andrew Dominik, 2000) 
Actor Eric Bana displays a near-wreckless virtuosity as the violent and self-deluded Australian criminal, Mark “Chopper” Read, in an off-kilter adaptation of Read’s quasi-autobiographical writings. Through self-mutilation, murder and megalomania, Bana somehow always retains audience sympathy.

54 Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003) 
Billy Bob Thornton buys his Christmas spirit in bulk from the discount liquor store and drinks away his hatred of children in order to face his job as a department store Santa. Take a wild guess whether he’s naughty or nice.

53 Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
“Best Actor” winner Sean Penn, surrounded by firebrand talent including Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin, stars in a timely movie that brings the selfless (and ultimately fatal) activism of gay campaigner Harvey Milk to the mainstream. Released, ironically, just as California passed the anti-gay-marriage bill Section 8.

52 The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles, 2005) 
A John Le Carré thriller brought to life by the Brazilian director Meirelles, this is storytelling that is charged with energy and idealism. Ralph Fiennes is tremendous as the conflicted widower driven to make sense of his wife’s murder.

51 The Son’s Room (Nanni Moretti, 2001) 
Moretti, of Dear Diary fame, dumps his previous penchant for on-screen clowning with an emotionally punishing account of a psychiatrist (Moretti) dealing with the sudden death of his son. There are light moments, especially with his neurotic clients, but this mostly made for weeping.

50 The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003) 
The final and most satisfying Rings movie snagged a record $1.1 billion at the box office, plus 11 Oscars, and cemented the trilogy’s reputation as one of the great all-time franchises.

49 Knocked Up (Judd Apatow, 2007) 
Ambitious career girl Katherine Heigl and stoner scruff Seth Rogen get more than a phone number at the end of their night together. It’s gleefully rude and deliriously funny, but the film’s ultimate strength comes from its unexpectedly soft centre.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

48 Little Miss Sunshine(Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris, 2006) 
A Hollywood honcho’s dream ticket, this heartfelt family drama cost only $6 million but grossed over $100 million. The story of a ramshackle road trip to California in a clapped out VW van set the quirky tone for future indies, such as Juno.

47 My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004) 
Heady, intoxicating and a little crazy — the teenaged crush is explored in all its deranged intensity, with two sterling central performances from Natalie Press and Emily Blunt.

46 Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) 
Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan somehow achieve the impossible by making a single star-laden movie (step forward Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas) about the human cost of the drugs trade that’s even better than the six-hour Channel 4 mini-series that inspired it.

45 Touching the Void (Kevin Macdonald, 2003) 
In 1985, two climbers attempted to scale the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. This documentary, about endeavour and survival, is as tense as a thriller.

44 Under the Sand (François Ozon, 2000) 
Charlotte Rampling dazzles as a woman in denial about her husband’s death. An uncharacteristically subtle and sensitive work from Ozon.

43 The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) 
A rare example of a film franchise in which the director’s vision triumphs over the tendency to churn out a homogenous brand. A chilling, brilliant swan song for Heath Ledger as the Joker.

42 The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) 
Superhero-mania gets a wryly affectionate drubbing with an ironic adventure from Pixar

41 Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006) 
Staggeringly accomplished photography from Emmanuel Lubezki brings an urgency to this dystopian vision of a near future where humankind has become infertile. An outstanding film which somehow slipped through the net.

40 Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005) 
George Clooney produces and stars in a withering account of petrol politics in the Middle East. Fine performances from Matt Damon, Christopher Plummer and William Hurt, plus a cracking sense of pace, help to mollify a core message of bleak corporate cynicism.

39 Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003) 
Strangers in a strange place become soul mates for a few stolen days. Bill Murray is gloriously hang dog as a movie star in crisis; Scarlett Johansson is utterly disarming as the neglected newlywed.

38 Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) 
Lynch at his brash elliptical best with Naomi Watts as Betty, an aspiring actress who becomes the unwitting star of her own twisted film noir.

37 In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000) 
Heart-stoppingly lovely and exquisitely sad, elegantly erotic and impeccably stylish — this romantic tone poem is a thing of real beauty.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

36 Capturing the Friedmans(Andrew Jarecki, 2004) 
Bizarre and compelling, Andrew Jarecki’s documentary began as a portrait of New York clown David Friedman but segued into an analysis of Friedman’s pressured family life — complete with brother Jesse and father Arnold, both convicted paedophiles.

35 Y Tu Mamá También (Alfonso Cuarón, 2002) 
Two teenage boys and an older woman in crisis take a road trip to an elusive “perfect” beach in this sexually charged Mexican comedy drama. Cuaron’s restless camera-work gives an unexpected depth to the story.

34 Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton/Lee Unkrich, 2003) 
The Pixar trademarks are all there — rapid-fire badinage, ravishing visuals, and sympathetic characters. But this tale of a timid clownfish tracking his kidnapped son carries, like a subaqueous Searchers, a genuinely mythic uppercut.

33 Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2002) 
There are few directors better than Mira Nair at capturing the mercurial tensions of domestic life. And with this vivid, richly textured portrait of a Punjabi wedding she is at her absolute best.

32 Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000) 
The sheer audacity! Taking a dead genre — the sword’n’sandals movie — and not just reviving it, but creating an Oscar-winning box-office sensation into the bargain.

31 Iraq in Fragments (James Longley, 2006) 
Remarkable photography and a glimpse of Iraq on the streets rather than from inside an armoured vehicle — this little-seen film is one of the decade’s most impressive documentaries.

30 Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002) 
Yes, this scandalous revenge drama boasts a vile nine-minute rape sequence and a hideous opening mutilation. But it’s also a moral movie that refuses to sanction violence and remains, for strong stomachs at least, unforgettable.

29 Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 2000) 
The film that introduced the surreal genius of writer Charlie Kaufman to the world, this endlessly inventive riff on the nature of identity and celebrity is a milestone in moviemaking.

28 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007) 
The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who, after a stroke, was left paralysed and able to communicate only through blinking his left eye. The film takes us inside Bauby's wrecked body and charms us with his still rebellious wit.

27 Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004) 
A sozzled road trip in Californian wine country leads to a mid-life crisis for divorced failed writer and wine buff Miles (Paul Giametti), best man to sleazy charmer Jack (Thomas Haden Church).

26 Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002) 
A pinnacle for Spielberg and star Tom Cruise, this near-future sci-fi depicts a world of psychic crime- stoppers but is rooted in old fashioned film noir.

25 Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000) 
This musical melodrama was as emotionally subtle as a coach load of orphans and kittens driving off a cliff — and yet there was something about the florid excesses that gelled perfectly with star Bjork's heart-wrenching score.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

24 28 Days Later... (Danny Boyle, 2002) 
Danny Boyle and Beach novelist Alex Garland re-imagine the zombie movie for the 21st century. Here, the zombies move with lightning speed, and are fuelled not by the dark arts but by rage itself.

23 Man On Wire (James Marsh, 2008) 
This lyrical documentary tells the story of Philippe Petit, who strung a wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and danced on it, for no reason other than to create something beautiful for the people far below.

22 Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002) 
The social facades of 1950s Connecticut slowly crack apart in a gorgeous Technicolor-style melodrama. Julianne Moore is riveting as the homemaker whose life is upended by her husband’s homosexuality and her own feelings for gardener Dennis Haysbert.

21 Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, 2005) 
This ode to a past era of challenging TV journalism is authentic down to the last swirl of late-night cigarette smoke. David Strathairn impresses as Edward R. Murrow, the television journalist locking horns with Senator Joseph McCarthy.

20 Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001) 
Head-tripping sci-fi goes to high school in an Eighties-set psychological thriller with dark Lynchian overtones. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the titular teen — a possible paranoid schizophrenic who may just have the key to time travel.

19 United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006) 
Shattering, sobering and uncompromising, Greengrass’s masterful drama set onboard one of the 9/11 hijacked planes is resolutely unsensational — and is all the more powerful for it.

18 Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) 
The biggest vampire movie of 2008 was Twilight, but its bloodless inanities were exposed by this Swedish chiller. Here Kare Hedebrant plays a bullied pre-teen whose burgeoning relationship with an equally alienated girl-vampire radically alters his dull suburban existence.

17 Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005) 
This achingly sad love story gave Heath Ledger a chance to explore hitherto unsuspected depths. It’s a hugely powerful performance — his inarticulate yearning is almost painful to watch.

16 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) 
Testing the limits of narrative convolutions and visual technique, Gondry directs an ingenious script about memory-wiping. A central tempestuous romance between Jim Carrey’s Joel and Kate Winslet’s Clementine, however, is never once overshadowed.

15 Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004) 
One of the most extraordinary cinematic explorations of failure, disappointment and thwarted ambition ever made, this tale of Hitler's final days features a savage, dazzling performance by Bruno Ganz.

14 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) 
The tale of an illegal mid-term abortion in Ceausescu’s Romania was never going to be easy. And though the details are harrowing, Mungiu, a former journalist, has such compassion for his heroines Otilia and Gabita that the pain is almost palatable. Almost.

13 This Is England (Shane Meadows, 2007) 
Meadows’s most personal film is a real treat, combining the director’s impeccably observed comedy with a gathering storm cloud of ominous ill will and violence. Honest, authentic and ultimately shattering.

RELATED LINKS

• Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'

• British film insider top tens of the decade

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

12 The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006) 
A mercilessly efficient account of Stasi surveillance in mid-1980s East Germany is anchored by a haunting performance from Ulrich Mühe, who died from stomach cancer just after the film’s release.

11 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan(Larry Charles, 2006) 
The decade’s favourite sexist, anti-Semitic, racist homophobe, Borat picked at the scabs of America’s intolerance and hypocrisy. Sacha Baron Cohen’s status as the most fearless man in comedy is unlikely to be challenged in the near future.

10 Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008) 
Provocative London-born artist McQueen directs a revelatory Michael Fassbender in a movie that purports to tackle the infamous 1981 IRA hunger strikes but is actually a hypnotic meditation on the ineffable mystery of human life. Achingly profound.

9 The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006) 
Compassionate and intelligent, witty and wicked, this account of what happened behind the Palace gates after the death of the Princess of Wales is a crown jewel of a movie. Helen Mirren is a very human HM.

8 Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) 
The high camp of the Brosnan era Bond is ditched, and Fleming’s hero returns rebooted (and Bourne-ified), with an intense turn from Daniel Craig, and some breakneck set-pieces. An opening parkour-style chase through Madagascar sets the tone.

7 The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald, 2006) 
Forest Whitaker gives one of the great performances of the decade as Idi Amin. He nails the Ugandan dictator’s deadly charm — he’s a charismatic monster; part amiable buffoon, part stone-cold killer.

6 Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2008) 
Twelve years after Trainspotting, Boyle produces a dizzying Mumbai-set romance that redefines the possibilities of a progressive yet commercially successful national industry. Oscars abound.

5 Team America: World Police (Trey Parker, 2004) 
The South Park creators launch an assault on pretty much everyone, from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to poor, hapless Matt Damon. It’s jaw-droppingly offensive and wildly funny.

4 Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005) 
Party nature documentary, part philosophical tract, Herzog’s eerie account of the life and brutal death of mildly unhinged bear-watcher Timothy Treadwell is a monumental piece of cinema — emotionally satisfying, intellectually stimulating, but primal to the core.

3 No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 2007) 
The alchemic combination of the Coen brothers’ eloquent precision and Cormac McCarthy’s vivid nihilism makes for a bleakly compelling cycle of violence. The only thing more terrifying than Javier Bardem’s haircut is the clinical efficiency of his murders.

2 The Bourne Supremacy / The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass, 2004, 2007) 
The action movie is dragged, kicking and back-flipping, into the Noughties courtesy of Matt Damon’s amnesiac superspy and director Greengrass’s film-making élan. Marrying jittery docu-style camera work with healthy political cynicism, Greengrass transformed Bourne into an anti-Bond for the PlayStation generation.

1 Hidden (Cache) (Michael Haneke, 2005) 
It is only as the decade draws to a close that it becomes clear just how presciently the Austrian director Michael Haneke tapped into the uncertain mood of the Noughties. The film’s twin themes resonate perfectly with the defining concerns of the time: tacit national guilt about a questionable foreign policy, in the film it’s France’s occupation of Algeria, but it’s not hard to piece together the parallels with more recent conflicts. Plus, as round-the-clock surveillance became a part of our daily lives, here was a film that captured the creeping paranoia that resulted from the eyes of unseen strangers invading private life.