As the first decade of the 21st century winds down, I find myself feeling that this really has been a lackluster decade for motion pictures. Perhaps superior to the dreaded 80s (how can a decade produce such brilliant music and such terrible films), but overall not up to par. Ultimately I think this decade will be seen as a transition decade, much like how the 60s were a transition between the studio system of the 40s and 50s and the "give-the-new-film-school-graduate-everything-he-wants" mentality of the 70s. I see this decade as providing a link between the self-aware, irony-laden cinema of the 90s and an emerging realist style that just seems to take the world and it's problems more seriously. I welcome that development, as irony gets really old, really quickly. However, it's hard for me to have much confidence in such a generalization since one needs some perspective to evaluate an entire decade of film. Time will tell which ones remain with us and which don't.
Nonetheless, I find reason to be hopeful because this year there it seems like some of the more interesting filmmakers of the last decade are getting back to work. This weekend I will view Lars Von Trier's new offering,
Antichrist, and I will get back to you all with my reaction.
Another film I'm looking forward to is
Enter The Void (Soudain Le Vide) by
Gaspar Noé, of
Irreversible fame. I have more mixed feelings about Noé's films. I enjoy his extreme use of sound and light but am not a fan of his nauseating camera work. Still, I will have to see his new one because it has the greatest teaser trailer I've ever seen:
It's a little irritating because this actually steals my idea for a teaser trailer (which I stole from a much older film). Oh well.
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