Best Films I’ve seen in 2011 (not exclusively films released in 2011)

1) Five Easy Pieces

Jack Nicholson abandons his car to play piano in the back of a moving truck in Five Easy Pieces

2) Melancholia

3) The Beaver

4) Seven Samuari & Ikiru — Kurosawa

5) Winter’s Bone

6) Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

7) Zelig

8) If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle

9) L’Eclisse & L’Avventura — Antonioni

10) Street Days

In addition to seeing some films that rocked my world, like Melancholia and Five Easy Pieces, I have discovered famous directors Antonioni and Kurosawa.  I have the DVDs of extras in my Netflix queue for the films I reference in my list — and loads more of their films for 2012.

My infatuation with the Romanian New Wave continues with, If I want to Whistle, I Whistle.  These films seem so stripped down to the basics that it adds a directness to these films of the soul.

The two comedies on the list are Woody Allen’s Zelig and The Beaver, what they have in common is courage: courage to take a stupid idea all the way to genius.

Michelangelo Antonioni, director of Italian classics L'Avventura & L'Eclisse