2006 year in film

The moving image was invented for unyielding triumphs like this film. There is no way I could possibly sum up Alfonso Cuaron's complex masterwork in any simple deliberation. Its bleak story, like other ponderous dystopian pictures, manages to use its sci-fi concept (global female infertility) as just a platform to address many troubling contemporary issues in an interesting anti-Hollywood fashion - thematically and aesthetically. In this world without children, existence has become a heated war-torn clutter of angry masses, and the government has established a permanent fascist police state in an attempt to contain the anarchy. Cuaron and Sexton's screenplay weaves many current multifarious international problems into the plotline -such as the scapegoating of illegal immigrants, Internment camps (Abu Ghraib), terrorism, religious zealotry, and the widening gap between rich and poor. This is not a run of the mill cautionary tale of the future, it mirrors atrocities and injustices that are happening in the present. It is a Grande example of art imitating life. In a time when it seems no studio film can remain unscathed by the influence of Michael Bay and Tony Scott-esque flashy jump cut editing, glossy pyrotechnics, pristine-faced actors, glittering product placements, and recycled, corny and predictable plotlines, "Children of Men" is a poignantly photographed, brutally honest, and tragically uplifting film. The plot parallels various biblical stories as well; for example, one is reminded of the nativity story as Kee travels a great distance even though she is so close to the end of her pregnancy. Clive Owen's character Theo at times fits the spiritual archetype of Moses leading his people out of persecution and towards the Promised Land. Although in the beginning he seems unsure of his purpose, he gradually understands the importance of his task. Theo's uncertainty makes him easily identifiable to audiences struggling with many of the same personal conflicts he faces. The screenplay strays so far from P.D. James' novel and only really uses the infertility premise to create something much more devastating and relevant, If I were attempting to pitch you the literary atmosphere of the script conceptually I would probably say something along the lines of.....it's like if Anthony Burgess scribed a Twilight Zone episode about the fall of the Roman Empire. As if the artistic aspects of this films screenplay, directing, and performances are not incredible on their own, Cuaron takes on the enormous technical challenges of choreographing long elaborate takes without edits, (the climactic last take of the film alone extends over ten minutes,) so rare in film history. There are a few shining examples of this extraordinary technique--"Children of Men" is only 3rd place next to Sokurov's "Russian Ark" (2002), in which the film IS one long continuous shot. and then Rodrigo Garcia's "Nine Lives" (2004) being second. Though I must say "The Children of Men" outshines both of those films considerably. After a dazzling but topically varying filmography up to this point, including "A Little Princess"(1995), "Y Tu Mama Tambien"(2002), and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"(2004), with "The Children of Men", Cuaron once again demonstrates his status as a heavy weight artist of composition of time and space within a motion picture frame and joins the ranks of such masters as Kubrick, Orson Welles, and Hitchcock.

Like Robert Bresson (Au hasard Balthazar-1966), or Roberto Rossellini (the Flower's of St.Francis-1950), the Dardenne Brothers are Christian filmmakers and do not try to hide the influence of their faith on their work. Don't let the 'Christian' word turn you off though, being very aware of the negative connotations that can come along with it. You won't find any traces of disgusting fundamentalism or obnoxious evangelical showmanship. No, the Dardenne's films exhibit a spirituality born of genuine compassion and redemption. Their objective handheld camera work gives "L'Enfant" the gritty realism of a documentary- to me, a documentary about what true humanism is at its very core. The main character is a sinner and thief who has made up his mind to sell his newborn son on the black market, and the film then takes a path through a series of emotionally painful events that eventually beat the concept of real salvation into the viewer's mind. Like Hirokazu Kore-Eda's "Nobody Knows" in 2005, I found this picture to be so emotionally devastating at times that it was almost physically painful to watch. However, for me, the agonizing sadness a very empathetic viewer endures during this film is just rewarded by the overwhelming catharsis at the end. So transcendentally spiritual it has put an everlasting effect on my heart after viewing, and it just makes the sappiness of Hollywood endings even more obvious (if they weren't already). It's a miracle how profoundly deep art can move a person, and this film is very much a miracle of the cinema..

Being a huge fan of the incomparable duo of French music video director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, I was concerned when I found out that Gondry's next picture would mark his departure with the greatest living screenwriter. After their last collaboration, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (in my opinion, still the best film of the new millennium) I don't believe that either man can ever top their masterpiece, but "Science of Sleep" comes REALLY close. "Eternal Sunshine" remains a better film, but "Science" is way more spontaneous in its imagery and more of a surreal triumph in the sensory perception of sight. Where "Eternal Sunshine" is like a timeless rock composition by the Beatles, "Science" is like a raw and thrashing pop riff by the Clash, thoroughly enjoyable and almost the perfection of the predecessor. Garcia Bernal's character Stephane is an artist and inventor, as is Michel Gondry and he just uses the character as a distorted almost auto-biographical version of himself to express how he experiences daily life with a child's hyper-active imagination. And since it is a film about the imagination, the stylistically playful Gondry has an open canvas to be completely off-the-wall inventive and insane. Example; love making on top of a copier machine in the middle of an office and flying around like peter pan.....Just like his previous incredible video work for Bjork, Kylie Minogue, Daft Punk, the White Stripes and many more- It reminded me at times of Pee Wee's Playhouse on psychedelic drugs, which is saying something for a children's show that was already pretty out-there. So although this is not Michel Gondry's feature film debut I consider it a debut of sorts (because of the lack of screenwriter Kaufman) and what a beautiful and refreshing one.

Forget modern torture porn like Eli Roth's "Hostel" and the "Saw" pictures- "Jesus Camp" and "Darwin's Nightmare" are the scariest horror films of 2006. Anyone with a taste for documentaries with an intellectual drive by filmmakers like Errol Morris or Werner Herzog will adore the challenging subject matter inventively tackled here by Hubert Sauper

Great companion viewing with Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan"(1998) and Edward Zwick's "Glory"(1989). Rachid Bouchareb's "Indigenes" is a good old fashion war film with grit and heart. The story follows a handful of Arab soldiers from Algeria who have joined the French military to combat Nazism in WWII. Once they have bravely fought a couple of battles in Europe they soon realize that the French officer's see them as lower-class grunts and deny them promotions and equipment. The film then takes on the form of both a civil-rights and combat film with tons of sociological heft to boot. This is a very character driven drama and a lot of the battle sequences are intentionally unsensational, that may bore most mainstream audiences, but for those of you who enjoy a thoughtful history piece in the spirit of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai"(1954), it would be in your interest to branch out and see this..