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Okay, it seems time to stand up and be counted! I teach English
language, critical writing, and film at National-Louis University in
Chicago. Some twenty-five years ago, I tried a stint as a daily film
reviewer but got demoralized by all the terrible movies that came
my way. Since I prefer to choose films that interest me, I choose
to write for online outlets like Daily-Reviews.com, The Film Journal,
Bright Lights, and others.

My interests lie less in philosophy and theory, more in trends in film
history. This year I taught courses at Facets Multimedia in Chicago
on 'Forgotten Films of 1933' (e.g., 'Pilgrimage', 'Only Yesterday')
and 'Noir Sunrise' (an attempt to show how aesthetic changes in
the style of film noir signalled thematic changes).

My Ten Best of 2002 are shaping up as follows (more or less in order):
'Time Out', 'Far From Heaven', 'Code Unknown', 'My Mother’s Smile',
'Bloody Sunday', 'Les Destinées', 'Russian Ark', 'Springtime in a Small
Town', 'Éloge de l'Amour', 'Bowling For Columbine', and 'Dahmer'.
Fussbudgets will say that makes eleven titles, but that's too bad. The
most exciting film to me, though, came from 1981: Im Kwon-Taek's
'Mandala'.

Three cheers for Jonathan Rosenbaum and Robert Koehler, and
Merry Xmas to Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Ming-Liang, Sokurov,
Kiarostami, and all those Makhmalbafs.

(Richard Armstrong's encyclopedic work on film critics should be
invaluable: what a good idea!)

--Robert Keser