Who Are You Guys Pt 2: I should add, from a current cinema standpoint,
that I am most drawn to the work of Tarr (who I think is the most
extraordinary filmmaker at work right now), and, in no particular order,
Michael Haneke, Tsai Ming-liang, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Carlos Reygadas,
Apitchatpong Weerasathakul, Jim Jarmusch, Alexander Sokurov, Michael Snow,
Martin Scorsese, Craig Baldwin, Abbas Kiarostami, Samira Makhmalbaf, Peter
Greenaway, Laurent Cantet, Seijun Suzuki, Krzysztof Zanussi, Babak Payami,
David Lynch, Straub-Huillet and Chantal Akerman. Were I to contribute to the
Sight and Sound poll of all timers, my number one pick would be Antonioni's
``L'Avventura,'' followed by ``2001.'' I am violently opposed to the
``cinema-is-dead'' school led by the David Thomson crowd; I am for the
``cinema-is-alive'' group of Jonathan Rosenbaum, Stuart Klawans, Adrian
Martin and others. I've always been highly suspicious, as an American
critic, of the schools and legacies of both Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris,
and have always preferred the genuine independence of critics like Gilberto
Perez, Stanley Kauffmann, Klawans, Rosenbaum and others. Deleuze's cinema
books seem to grow in magnitude with each passing year, and may eventually
eclipse Bazin's studies in importance. The internationalist approach
recently advocated by Adrian Martin in this salon is something that I'm
currently exploring with great interest, particularly Iranian critical
response to their own remarkable national cinema. A sample of my favorite
films from 2002 include: ``Werckmeister Harmonies'' (Tarr); ``Gangs of New
York'' (Scorsese); ``Eloge de l'amour'' (Godard); ``Corpus Colossum''
(Snow); ``What Time is it There?'' (Tsai); ``The Piano Teacher'' (Haneke);
``Time Out'' (Cantet); ``Femme Fatale'' (Brian De Palma); ``Auto Focus''
(Paul Schrader). I'm currently working on a piece for Variety on how various
countries Oscar selection committees arrive at their choices (for example,
Mexico's choice of ``El Crimen de Padre Amaro,'' France's choice of ``8
Women,'' Russia's choice of ``House of Fools,'' and most dramatically,
Spain's choice of ``Mondays in the Sun.'' On this latter point, anyone with
insight or comments would be welcome to chime in their thoughts--they could
be useful to me.
Robert Koehler
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