100 Great Avant-garde Films!

Adynata (Leslie Thornton 1983)
Aelf-scin (Joseph Bernard 1979)
Aleph (Wallace Berman 1955-66?)
Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold 1998)
Amerikanos (Christos Dimas 1999)
Anémic Cinéma (Marcel Duchamp 1926)
L'Arrivée (Peter Tscherkassky 1997-1998)
Autumn Fire (Herman Weinberg 1930-33)
Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy 1924)
Berlin Horse (Malcolm Le Grice 1970)
Blow Job (Andy Warhol 1963)
Boston Fire (Peter Hutton 1979)
La Cartomancienne (The Fortune Teller) (Jerome Hill 1932)
Un chant d'amour (Jean Genet 1950)
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel 1929)
Chronic (Jennifer Reeves 1997)
Chumlum (Ron Rice 1964)
La cicatrice intérieure (Philippe Garrel 1972)
Clouds (Peter Gidal 1969)
Cobra Mist (Emily Richardson 2008)
The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Paradjanov 1968)
Colour Flight (Len Lye 1937)
Combat de boxe (Charles Dekeukeleire 1929)
Cul en l'air (Pierre Yves Clouin 1998)
Cybelle (Donald Richie 1968)
Decodings (Michael Wallin 1988)
Dirty (Stephen Dwoskin 1971)
Ecce Homo (Jerry Tartaglia 1989)
11 x 14 (James Benning)
A Family Finds Entertainment (Ryan Trecartin 2005)
Family Tyranny (Modelling and Molding) (Paul McCarthy and Mike
Kelley 1987)
Film Ist (Gustav Deutsch 1998-2004)
Filmpiece for Sunshine (John Luther Schofill, Jr. 1966-1968)
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith 1963)
The Flicker (Tony Conrad 1966)
Fly Away Homo (Andrew HIller 1998)
La fórmula secreta (Rubén Gámez 1965)
From the Notebook of… (Robert Beavers 1971/1998)
Fuses (Carolee Schneemann 1967)
The Girl Chewing Gum (John Smith 1976)
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah 1986)
The Hart of London (Jack Chambers 1969-1970)
Images d'Ostende (Henri Storck 1929)
It Wasn't Love (Sadie Benning 1992)
Jack’s Dream (Joseph Cornell c. 1930-1970)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman 1975)
Klipperty Klopp (Andrew Kotting, 1984, 12m)
Kunst Life (Roger Jacoby 1975)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (Kenneth Anger 1965)
Light Rhythms (Francis Bruguière & Oswell Blakeston 1931)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen 1996)
Luke (Bruce Conner 1967)
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hamid 1943)
Mirrors Facing Mirrors (Adam Cooley 2010)
Mosaik im Vertrauen (Peter Kubelka, 1955)
Motion Painting No. 1 (Oskar Fischinger 1947)
My Parents Read Dreams I’ve Had About Them (Neil Goldberg 1998)
Near the Big Chakra (Anne Severson 1971)
Nightcats (Stan Brakhage 1956)
Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (Tracey Moffatt 1989)
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton 1971)
Notch (Diane Kitchen 2000)
Notes of an Early Fall (Saul Levine 1976-77)
1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (John C. Hecker 1939)
Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa 1926)
The Passing (Bill Viola 1991)
Pensao Globo (Matthias Müller 1997)
Peyote Queen (Storm De Hirsch 1965)
Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood 1971)
pornfilm (Stephanie Barber 1999)
A Portrait of Ga (Margaret Tait 1952)
Pu Pu (Motoharu Jonouchi 1960)
Race d'Ep (Lionel Soukaz 1979)
Reflections of Evil (Damon Packard 2002)
La région centrale (Michael Snow 1967)
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (Jonas Mekas 1972)
Roof (Betsy Kalin 1998)
Schuss! (Nicolas Rey 2005)
She Puppet (Peggy Ahwesh 2001)
Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr 1991)
Sissy Boy Slap Party (Guy Maddin 1995)
6/64 Mama Und Papa (Kurt Kren 1964)
Sodom (Luther Price 1989)
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (Marguerite Duras 1976)
Sorrows (Gregory J. Markopoulos 1969)
Le souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac 1922)
"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (David Bradley 1940-43)
Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher 1984)
Stuffing (Animal Charm 1998)
Submit To Me Now (Richard Kern 1987)
Symphony for a Sinner (George Kuchar 1979)
Le Tempestaire (Jean Epstein 1947)
Thanatopsis (Ed Emshwiller 1963)
The End (Christopher Maclaine 1953)
This Is It (James Broughton 1971)
Thundercrack! (Curt McDowell 1975)
Tomatos Another Day (James Sibley Watson and Alec Wilder 1930/1933) (pictured below)
Tríptico Elemental de España (José Val del Omar, 1960)
The Vyrotonin Decision (Matt McCormick 1999)
Wet One (Ian MacTilstra 2008)
Whitney: Mama’s Little Baby (Lawrence Elbert 2000)
Wind Vane (Chris Welsby 1972)

Favorite films between 35 - 70 minutes

My favorite film of this ilk is Illusions (Julie Dash 1982). But it's one minute short of 35 mins. However, these fit: 

Apart From You (Mikio Naruse 1933)
The Argyle Secrets (Cy Endfield 1948)
Avalanche (Mikio Naruse 1937)
Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol 1965)
The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer 1934)
Blood Money (Rowland Brown 1933)
California Frontier (Elmer G. Clifton 1938)
Call Me Madame (Francoise Romand 1986)
Camp (Andy Warhol 1965)
La cicatrice intérieure (Philippe Garrel 1972)
The Circle (Frank Borzage 1925) (pictured below)
Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin 2003)
Crimes at the Dark House (George King 1940)
The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise 1944)
The Deadman (Peggy Ahwesh and Keith Sanborn 1989)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen 1974)
Eat (Andy Warhol 1963)
Exterior Night (Mark Rappaport 1993)
A Family Finds Entertainment (Ryan Trecartin 2005)
Film Ist (Gustav Deutsch (1998-2004) 
Final Flesh  (Vernon Chatman 2009)
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith 1963)
Flunky, Work Hard! (Mikio Naruse 1931)
From the Notebook of... (Robert Beavers 1971/1998)
The Girl From Chicago (Oscar Micheaux 1932)
The Girl in the Rumor (Mikio Naruse 1935)
Guru, the Mad Monk (Andy Milligan 1970)
La glace à trois faces (Jean Epstein)
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah/Black Audio Film Collective 1986)
Hedy (Andy Warhol 1966)
Hell's Highway (Rowland Brown 1932)
Hideko The Bus Conductress (Mikio Naruse 1941)
Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod 1932)
The Hours and Times (Christopher Munch 1991)
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Raul Ruiz 1979)
Inside A.M.G.: The Athletic Model Guild (probably Bob Mizer 1970)
Kunst Life (Roger Jacoby 1975)
The Life of Juanita Castro (Andy Warhol 1965)
Lonesome (Paul Fejos 1928)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen 1996)
Lost In The Thinking (Damon Packard 2005)
Mammame (Raul Ruiz 1987)
Mirrors Facing Mirrors (Adam Cooley 2010)
Mix-Up (Francoise Romand 1985)
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton 1971)
Notes of an Early Fall (Saul Levine 1976-77)
One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning 1977)
The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch)
Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa 1926)
The Passing (Bill Viola 1991)
Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood 1971)
Pointed Heels (A. Edward Sutherland 1929)
Radio Ranch (aka Men With Steel Faces) (Otto Brower & B. Reeves Eason 1940)
Rock Hudson's Home Movies (Mark Rappaport 1992)
Sally in Our Alley (Maurice Elvey 1931)
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson 1943) - One minute over but deal - a masterpiece of concision anyway.
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton 1924)
Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr 1991)
Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop (Annie Sprinkle and Maria Beatty 1992)
The Song of Home (Kenji Mizoguchi 1925)
SpaceDisco One (Damon Packard 2007)
Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher 1984)
The Star Witness (William A. Wellman 1931)
Symphony for a Sinner (George Kuchar 1979) 
Take An Easy Ride  (Kenneth Rowles (1976)
Tales of The Valley of The Wind (Damon Packard 2009)
The Target Shoots First (Chris Wilcha 1998)
Tearoom (William Jones 2007)
That Night's Wife (Yasujiro Ozu 1930)
The End (Christopher Maclaine 1953)
A Time for Dying (Budd Boetticher 1969)
Twice A Man (Gregory J. Markopoulos 1964)
Valley of Hunted Men (John English 1942)
Vinyl (Andy Warhol 1965)
Water and Power (Pat O'Neill 1989)
Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman 1933)
The Wishing Ring (Maurice Tourneur 1914)
Young America (Frank Borzage 1932)

Best Films of the Teens

1. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, 2011)

2. Autumn (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2016)

3. Un couteau dans le coeur (Knife + Heart) (Yann Gonzalez, 2018)

4. For the Plasma (Bingham Bryant and Kyle Molzan, 2014)

5. Sleep Has Her House (Scott Barley, 2017)

6. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)

7. Wishing Well (Sylvia Schedelbauer, 2018)

8. Nightlife (Cyprien Gaillard, 2015)

9. Margaret (186-minute version, Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)

10. Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2016)

Best Films of 2019

Best Films of 2019

10. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
Yes, Scorsese is still obsessed with goodfellas, wise guys, and tough nuts. The intractable machismo is still suffocating. The narrative trajectory is still Oedipal. But. Women do talk in this film, contrary to some of the negative reviews. In fact, in the last hour or so, they turn the film, if not Scorsese’s entire oeuvre, on its head. What, finally, has all this macho posturing been about, the last hour asks, especially if it ropes you off from those you love the most, and it’s quite possibly Scorsese‘s most moving work ever. I was fighting back tears all the way up until the soon-to-be-classic final shot.

9. Climax (Gaspar Noé) 
Stupid, obnoxious, juvenile, unrelenting, and great! If you don't like this film, then you're no rock 'n' roll fun. 

8. Uncut Gems (The Safdie Brothers)
A thoroughly exhausting film, starting at 10, shifting down to 8 or 9 about halfway through, and then revving up to 11 if not beyond in its nail-biting last half hour. Adam Sandler's superb performance brings to mind Divine's in Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974) in that it's an extended aria (to borrow Jonanthan Rosenbaum's words, I think), a suffocating series of fuck ups. No spoilers but even though you should be able to see the end coming from leagues away, it's no less shocking. All this and another slimy, neon-soaked score by Daniel Lopatin. One of the best films ever made about toxic masculinity (what do these guys want?!?). I've never been so excited about the outcome of a sportsball game in my life! 

7. The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
Hogg's film keeps you abuzz and relaxed like the best art films. Your mind is working to make sure you haven't missed any narrative information. But the overall languor lowers the blood pressure. It's all about the interstices of a relationship, not to get at The truth but simply, A truth. Pungently observed and transfixing throughout. I'm baffled at all the hate I've read. It's a challenging film but no more so than the art film norm. How did the haters wind up watching it in the first place? And perversely, a sequel is coming albeit sadly without Robert Pattinson.

6. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa) 
The moment the end credits appeared, a sense of longing washed over me, the feeling of wanting time spent with loved ones to continue. More here.

5. Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello)
Before exegesis, there is observation. More here. 

4. Show & Tell: Josh B. Mabe
Mabe himself may not believe it. But Anthology Film Archives' retrospective of his work proves he's a major filmmaker. Ranging from one to thirty-seven minutes and mostly silent, Mabe's films evoke Brakhage's Arabics in that you cannot possibly imagine the profilmic event. Color-field oblivions alternately terrify and lull you. Light stretches objects like so much taffy. Etudes and leader collapse into one another. I was lifted. 

3. Liberté (Albert Serra) 
My favorite film at NYFF 57, Albert Serra's Liberté recalls my favorite film of the century, Jacques Nolot's La chatte à deux têtes (aka Porn Theatre, 2002). Based on a play Serra mounted for a controversial performance at Berlin's Volksbühne last year (according to an Artforum review by Dennis Lim, patrons shouted “Louder!” and “Some acting please!”), Liberté's central presentational mode is cruising: a dozen of so 18th-century libertines roam a German forest at night and engage in a variety of polymorphously perverse acts with one another. More here. 

2. Empire (Andy Warhol et al., 1965) at the Whitney
Saturday, January 12 at 1 p.m., the Whitney Museum of American Art, in conjunction with their Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again exhibit, showed Warhol's silent Empire at 16fps making for a screening of eight hours and five minutes. It was one of the greatest cinematic experiences of my life. More here. 

1. Un couteau dans le coeur (Knife + Heart) (Yann Gonzalez) 
Un couteau dans le coeur is one of those impossible things - a great slasher film AND a film with a great ending. In fact, it may be the greatest slasher film ever made (unless something like Psycho counts). The most moving of its many, many fine qualities is a compassion for secondary characters (and not just the murder victims). This is a film that shows care for a group of people even though the main character (Vanessa Paradis!) has individual goals of her own. Despite never stinting on seedy sex and violence, Gonzalez infuses every moment with hope and warmth, not nihilism and misanthropy, the slasher/giallo’s default mode. And then the ending...gawd, I’m choking up now just thinking of it. Poetic, dreamy, inviting, astonishing, an absolute stunner from frame one to frame last. 

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today: The Best Albums of 1998

I was all set to share a list found in the recesses of my hard drive of my fave albums of 1998 until I discovered it was online at MTV.com here. So here's a minor tweak and reshuffle because Come On Over was 1997 and the Kim cuts drag down A Thousand Leaves. I make no apologies for the preponderance of anthologies and compilations. The 1990s was the great reissue decade (all hail Rhino's heyday!) and 1998 fell several stories from 1997's sugar high.

1. Queer to the Core!: Queer Rock From the Vaults! (Quick Nuts) - We still have no clue who released this bootleg plucked from the bins of Atomic Records in Milwaukee. But I've never been able to shake how it epitomizes the alternately frustrating and glorious position of the queer historian. More here and still for sale cheap on Discogs.

2. The Music in My Head: Indispensable Classics and Unknown Gems From the Golden Age of African Pop (Stern's Africa) - Still my favorite African pop compilation. I reviewed it and Mark Hudson's delirious novel to which it was the de facto soundtrack for the Chicago Reader.

3. American Pop: An Audio History (West Hill Audio Archives) - And still my favorite box set ever. Gawd, its nine discs continue to educate although my one-disc distillation sieves out the poppiest (and weirdest) (and punkiest) moments.

4. Fat Beats & Bra Straps: Battle Rhymes & Posse Cuts (Rhino) - 90% of the rap I quote comes from this vicious collection of gripes and disses. Bow down to her, bitch, cuz she's the shit: Roxanne Shanté.

5. A Night On South Bitch (Max) - The finest bitch tracks comp extant. I'll see you after the function!

6. Sean "Puffy" Combs: Changing The Sound of Popular Music (Bad Boy Promo) - Cheating. But these Puffy-helmed hits honor the man who helped make 1997 the greatest year for singles since 1981.

7. George Clinton & The P-Funk All-Stars: Dope Dogs (Dogone) -The first "real" album on the list by a man for whom the importance of The Album meant precious little.

8. The Perfect Beats: New York Electro Hip-Hop + Underground Dance Classics 1980-1985 (Rhino) - Four volumes proving not only that disco never died but that 1981 was the greatest year for singles ever.

9. Suckdog: Onward Suckdog Soldiers (Tray Full of Lab Mice) - Here for the 20-second masterprank "I Knelt 2day Where Jesus Knelt."

10. Unkle: Psyence Fiction (Mo' Wax/London) - For years it had been an open question which turntablists would be the first to sample Olivia Record rockers BeBe K'Roche, to paraphrase Eric Weisbard's Jungle Brothers entry in the Spin Alternative Record Guide.

Fave albums of the 1970s

1. New York Dolls: In Too Much Too Soon (Mercury, 1974)

2. Sly & The Family Stone: There's A Riot Goin' On (Epic, 1971)

3. Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street (Rolling Stones, 1972)

4. X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents (EMI, 1978)

5. Big Star: Radio City (Ardent, 1974)

6. Steely Dan: Can’t Buy a Thrill (ABC, 1972)

7. Miles Davis: Dark Magus (CBS-Sony, 1977)

8. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band: Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (RCA Victor, 1976)

9. Culture: Two Sevens Clash (Joe Gibbs, 1977)

10. The Stooges: Fun House (Elektra, 1970)

Cheater’s option 1: The 1977 repackaging of both 1970s NY Dolls albums

Cheater’s option 2: Tom Zé: Brazil Classics 4: The Best of Tom Zé (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros., 1990), a compilation of 1970s album tracks

Cheater’s option 3: Disc One of Can: Tago Mago (United Artists, 1971)

*Discogs tells me that the 1987 Shanachie CD I've been listening to for over two decades programmed Side Two first! My world is all discombobulated now.

** Although I still take "L.A. Blues" as an opportunity to gather my things, pick up my popcorn bucket, and leave the theatre.

15 Fave Classical Hollywood Films!

A friend asked for my 15 fave classical Hollywood films. And since the world is in love with film lists lately, I was happy to oblige. Some of these don’t honor the Bordwell/Staiger/Thompson 1960 cutoff date. But I insist they’re of the classical era, if only apocalyptically. Still, I provided four titles to honor the date if I must...

1. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
2. Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1952)
3. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
4. 7 Women (John Ford, 1966)
5. Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
6. Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks, 1965)
7. The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961)
8. Paradise Alley (Hugo Haas, 1962)
9. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
10. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
11. Day of the Outlaw (André De Toth, 1959)
12. Liliom (Frank Borzage, 1930)
13. Female on the Beach (Joseph Pevney, 1955)
14. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)
15. Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)

Thunderbolt (Josef Von Sternberg, 1929)
Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 1935)
Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fristch and Robert Wise, 1944) 
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)