I’ve been ranting, raving, reviewing and, as of recent, trashing “Avatar” for four years now, but my time has finally come to an end with The Eagle. Before I bid this fine publication farewell and we enter the second decade of the 21st century, I want to take a look back at the past 10 years and spotlight a few directors I think you should all trust in the future.
A few months ago there was a lot of discussion in the media, mostly on film blogs and in arts magazines, about what films were the best of the past decade. There were ample “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hurt Locker” and Pixar film mentions, yet I think the top honor belongs to David Lynch’s 2001 noir masterpiece, “Mulholland Drive.”
I won’t even try to muster a plot summary of the film, but trust me — if you haven’t seen it, do it. If there is one contemporary director that truly trusts his audience, it’s Lynch. He consistently weaves intricate cinematic webs riddled with bizarre allusions, haphazard interplays of reality and fiction and disjointed plot pieces.
After a first viewing, his work is undoubtedly difficult to fully grasp, yet this complexity is what renders his films’ feverish dreamscapes so alluring. Lynch paints vivid worlds with this fantasy-driven palette without any apparent concern for cohesion or logic. After viewing the film several times (I simply refuse to believe anyone who says they understood “Mulholland Drive” after one screening), detours into the catacombs of Lynch’s characters’ troubled psyches are anything but superfluous. They converge and weave together in strange, sublime manners, culminating in truly breathtaking directorial master plans.
After “Mulholland Drive,” I’d say the next best film of the past decade was Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 abortion drama, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.” The film is currently regarded as the centerpiece for the Romanian New Wave — Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” to the French New Wave, if you will. The Romanian independent film industry is booming and producing some really fascinating work. Films surfacing under this umbrella cinematic movement typically feature an extremely minimalist style with austere, handheld cinematography, no music or sound design and extremely long, often infuriating cuts. Thematically, these films tend to tackle political issues laden within 1980s Romania prior to the fall of communism and the country’s adjustment to free market capitalism ever since. Another great and recent example includes Corneliu Porumboiu’s “Police, Adjective,” a gem of a cop caper film that quietly snuck into D.C.’s E Street Cinema for a fleeting one-week run.
Although these films are anything but aesthetically pleasing, they pose fascinating challenges to the viewer and arouse suspense through completely non-manipulative means. There is no overt musical score pounding your ears into submission. It’s as close to pure, carnal anxiety as you’re likely to come by anywhere these days.
Although these aforementioned films of mind-twistery and inaccessibility may read slightly tortuous on paper, Lynch, Porumboiu and Mungiu are three directors you should follow in the coming years. They will not make the ride easy for you, but they are worth trusting. They are three of the few modern directors who refuse to serve the viewer a film on a platter made of formulaic convention. Their work is sophisticated and not particularly easy to digest at first, but it is the type of challenging, ambitious filmmaking that will leave you speechless and wanting more.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
