This Film Year, I'm Thankful for...

by Cláudio Alves

Happy Thanksgiving!

The world is burning and everything sucks, principled people are few and far between, with depression and bad news always waiting 'round the corner. And yet, even now, there are things to be thankful for. As a cinephile, I've found that films often represent a reprieve from doom, including when they catalyze one's anger and throw it back at the audience. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine life without those moving pictures. From a personal perspective, it's impossible to conceive of the past months without these screen-bound pleasures. So far, 2023 has been a fantastic year for my journey as a film fanatic, from stellar pictures to unprecedented opportunities.

It only seems fair to share some of that joy in a day that, for my American friends, is all about celebrating gratitude. Sure, I'm Portuguese, but the sentiment persists beyond borders. Without further ado, this film year, I'm thankful for… 

 

• The Everything Everywhere All At Once team, whose victories throughout the last awards season didn't always match my pick. Thankfully, their speeches and good spirits were enough to bring joy, even to my curmudgeon soul. I still tear up when I remember Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh's moments on the Oscar stage.

• AMPAS, for nominating Portuguese cinema for the first time in their history. It would have been even better if justice had prevailed and Ice Merchants won the Oscar. Well, we can't have everything.

• Marya E. Gates for her Babylon-related watchlist and how much pleasure I got from discovering their silent and Pre-Code delights.

• Jafar Panahi, one of our greatest directors, his new No Bears, and all the masterpieces I came to know this year when exploring his past achievements.

• The MONSTRA Animation Film Festival here in Lisbon, and the chance to finally see Akira for the first time and instantly fall in love with it.

• The resurgence of Erotic Thrillers in the public consciousness, from Karina Longworth's podcast to the Criterion Channel's programs. Some of you didn't particularly like my coverage of those films, but it was a lot of fun. Body Double, in particular, proved to be one of my new all-time favorites.

• For a dear old friend and his helping hand in my Portuguese cinema odysseys. Getting intimately acquainted with the cinema of João Canijo before his latest double feature was a formidable gift.

• IndieLisboa's Jan Švankmajer retrospective, its open window into another world of material possibilities. His is a cinema of plasticine inventiveness, transgressing dreams and nightmares to reach for something indescribable in its wonder, as ugly as it often is.

• Bas Devos, whose oeuvre of urban loneliness continues to amaze me. His Ghost Tropic is a recent favorite from 2020, and Here is just as lovely. Oh, how I wish he were more known by cinephiles worldwide.

• Samsara's invitation to close my eyes, a moment of transcending cinema, going across the barrier of life and death in a tourbillion of flashing lights.

• Virginia Efira and her 2023 releases, not to mention an aching portrait of living within an abusive relationship in Just the Two of Us.

• Sandra Hüller, whose Cannes double-whammy provided food for thought like few other films. Hopefully, we'll all see her at next year's Academy Awards.

• Ryan Gosling for embracing plastic silliness and committing to the bit. He has that Kennergy!
• The Mission: Impossible franchise for showing that not all hope is lost and Hollywood can still crank out über entertaining action blockbusters from time to time.

• The filmmakers behind My Year of Dicks, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, and The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Who Lived for Twenty and Eight Years All Alone on an Inhabited Island and Said It Was His for coming up with those titles.

• Eduardo Williams, Radu Jude, Rosine Mbakam, and the folks from El Pampero Cine. They prove there are still ways to innovate and fearlessly sprint into cinema's future.

• Hayao Miyazaki and Víctor Erice for not giving up, for returning to the big screen and the artform they've mastered.

• Martin Scorsese for continuing to be a paragon of the seventh art at its best, and Francesca Scorsese for making him a social media star while at it.

• Lily Gladstone, for breaking my heart with a look, a scream, for honoring the memory of Mollie Kyle.

• Catherine Breillat and Léa Drucker for proving the artistic merits of remakes.

• Film Festival Gent's short film project, pairing composers and directors. Such greatness in small packages, from a Schrader urban symphony to the latest Bi Gan invention. They're available on YouTube, for free!

• Greta Gerwig and Yorgos Lanthimos for imbuing their fantasy worlds with great materiality. Watching such mirabilis sets in Barbie and Poor Things, actual physical spaces has been one of the year's cinematic highlights.

• Emma Stone's Bella Baxter, that bisexual icon and sex-positive sensation, with her endless curiosity and hope for humanity. She's a character for the ages, a heroine befitting big-screen immortality.

• Todd Haynes who knew just what to do with Portman, Moore and Melton. Sofia Coppola, who upended my anti-biopic expectations with her Priscilla. Richard Linklater who showed me I should stop making assumptions about artists. Who knew one of the year's sexiest films would come from that particular auteur or that, after much skepticism on my part, Glen Powell would prove to be the real deal? The man's a bonafide movie star in the making.

• The queerness exuding from so many of the season's Oscar campaigns. Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal might still kill me with their antics, and the Keoghan-Elordi pairing isn't far behind. For this picture, in particular – pardon the televisual intrusion into this film list.

• Terence Davies, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Glenda Jackson, and all the other great artists we lost this year. Thank you for sharing your amazing work during your time on Earth. The same goes for Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who's retiring and whose cinema is a miracle.

• TIFF and the International Cinephile Society for accepting my applications and allowing me to expand my horizons.

• The likes of Ben Miller and Kevin Jacobson, for inviting me to guest in their podcasts. The team at BBC Radio 5, too.

• Erik Anderson, John Lynn Fernandez, Ankit Jhunhunwala, Abe Friedtanzer, and all the other wondrous writers I met while in Toronto. Thank you for your kindness, availability, for some wonderful conversations in some cases and, in others, just a quick show of film-loving appreciation.

• All my friends and colleagues, those whom I've pestered with preposterous hot takes and who've shared the experience of discovering cinematic marvels. You know who you are, and life wouldn't be worth living without people like you. Even cinema wouldn't be worth loving.

• Nathaniel and all of the Team Experience - talk about saving the best for last. Thank you for the chance to be part of this beautiful community, the opportunities and doors opened over the past few years, and the hope and hard work. Thank you for changing my life for the better.

What about you, dear reader? What are you thankful for, cinematically speaking?

Comments

[Tony L]

I’m thankful for Claudio Alves and all of his articles and obvious LOVE of cinema and everything that goes into it.

[Finbar McBride]

After the past trying 12 months, I am grateful for the storytellers. Hurrah for the artists who prioritize entertainment and have created glorious film that distracted me from the world’s tribulations - Heartstopper, The Holdovers, Long Long Time (episode of The Last of Us), American Fiction, Red White and Royal Blue, and Maestro.

[thevoid99]

I'm thankful for Claudio as well as this dude LOVES cinema.

I'm grateful for the fact that I got to see a new Sofia Coppola film in the theaters having forced to miss On the Rocks in the theaters because of the pandemic. I'm thankful for animated films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem for keeping animation going as well as push the boundaries of what it can do. I'm grateful for Barbenheimer for making the summer a good one. I'm grateful for Criterion and Arrow for putting out Blu-Rays as a way to ensure that physical copies of films will always be around. I'm thankful for the fact that after many years, my mother and I finally got rid of cable.

[Mike in Canada]

Who wouldn't like coverage of 80's erotic thrillers?! That was one of my favourite series on the site this year, and on Criterion Channel, as well. I'm thankful for it, and all the great TFE coverage all year-long.

Long live the generation that watch smutty suspense together in the dark!

[charlea]

Last night after my Thanksgiving meal, I had no idea what I wanted to watch. Then I sat down in front of my dvd bookshelf and instantly my eyes were drawn to Robert Altman’s masterpiece Gosford Park, a film I have seen dozens and dozens of times but not in a few years. I put it on and was transported back into one of my all time favorite settings: a rich countryside manor full of people upstairs and downstairs all scurrying about, squabbling over insignificant things and making me laugh for it. I was thankful for:
-The beautiful cinematography floating around all the rooms.
-The absolutely delightful score, so burned into my brain.
-The incredible screenplay full of details about the Do’s and Don’ts of British high society and also of the service people. So many fun quips and jabs. One of my favorite screenplay winners.
-The acting! So many great actors all together. My favorite upstairs person is probably Kristen Scott Thomas, so cold and just done with her husband’s bs. My favorite downstairs person is probably Alan Bates, so convincing in his role. Plus the sight of him not containing his joy in dancing to Ivor Novello’s piano entertainment. And lastly, even though I’ve seen this film so many times it was only the last time I watched this that I finally appreciated what Stephen Fry is doing as the bumbling detective that shows up and is incapable of being allowed to say his full name. He is so hilarious in this film and I would have nominated him.
-The directing. Nobody directed a movie quite like Robert Altman and he feels like one of the great directors that has already been forgotten. I feel like I never hear people talk about him and the man made some of the greatest films ever and some of my personal favorites. It was sad that he never won a competitive Oscar but it was downright offensive that he lost this particular Oscar to Ron Howard for the garbage dump that is A Beautiful Mind. This would have been a perfect film to win for. Oh well, I’m thankful I have my Gosford Park dvd to watch forever and I’m really thankful that I never have to see A Beautiful Mind ever again!

[Cláudio Alves]

Tony L & thevoid99 -- Thank you so much for your kind words.

Finbar McBride -- I can't believe I'm excited about a new Alexander Payne movie, but all these great notices and word-of-mouth have gotten my hopes up.

Mike in Canada -- The series did get some discouraging feedback, but I'm glad some folks loved it. Thank you.

charlea -- I cosign all your praise for GOSFORD PARK, a perfect picture.

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