xavier beauvois' of gods and men (des hommes et des dieux) is easily my film of the year so far. surely an auteur to watch for the coming decade. actually, i loved godard's film socialisme (which incidentally features the acting debut of a certain alain badiou) even more, but i doubt that's anyone's cup of tea, even by standards of the most hardened cineastes. vigorously ambitious and terribly divisive since its first showing. i'll give people the next 10-20 years to finally get it, otherwise global culture is a funk. other great films i've seen so far - shirin neshat's women without men (amazing debut), semih kapanoglu's honey, cristi puiu's aurora, manoel de oliveira's the strange case of angelica (the wry old bastard still rules), eugene green's homage to de oliveira, the portuguese nun, mike leigh's another year, pedro costa's ne change rien (the feature and not the short of the same name) and probably a few more i can't remember. have yet to see the new bartas, kiarostami and tarr (which apparently has only just got out of post-production).
but so far, it's all about this film:
but so far, it's all about this film:
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