2016 Summary with Mr Minio

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Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
A bunch of rankings, mainly concerning movies, but also music and a book.

0. Movies watched in 2016: 1240+
Including:
Short films: 420+
Full-length films: ~820
Watched at cinema: 7
Number of 5 star ratings given in 2016: 20
Number of 4.5 star ratings given in 2016: 145
Number of 4 star ratings given in 2016: 334

1. Greatest masterpieces watched in 2016
(all
movies), ranked by watch date, earliest first:

1. Quatre nuits d'un rêveur [Four Nights of a Dreamer] (1971) - my favourite Bresson film. Watched the crappy VHS copy on January the 6th, which was months before the Blu-Ray had been released. This copy gave the movie some cool twee atmosphere and made the colours way more blurred than they should be, which might have been the reason why I found it so striking aesthetically. Heard the Blu-Ray rip is more austere in its crispness & kind of afraid to rewatch it. Absolutely love Dostoevsky's White Nights this is based on.
2. 簪 [Ornamental Hairpin] (1941) - my favourite Shimizu. No other Shimizu film has reached this level of mastery. A beautiful holiday movie with the most adorable and talented Kinuyo Tanaka as well as badass Chishu Ryu in secondary role. The ultimate example of mono no aware in cinema.
3. Trouble in Paradise (1932) - my favourite Lubitsch film. I believe this is the best exemplar of the so called Lubitsch touch as well as his most enjoyable film.
4. 我的父亲母亲 [The Road Home] (1999) - REWATCH - first watched on April the 26th 2012. Cried. Simple yet impossibly effective Chinese melodrama. Melodrama of the year.
5. ポストマン・ブルース [Postman Blues] (1997) - Cried. Best Sabu. One of these movies that I watch and think how I'd write & direct the next scene and then I see it exactly the way I imagined it.
6. Ernest et Célestine [Ernest & Celestine] (2012) - Cried. Best animation film watched in 2016. Quite simple, but very touching in its sad & melancholic moments and quite funny and damn enjoyable in its entertainment value.
7. Napoléon vu par Abel Gance [Abel Gance's Napoleon] (1927) - Second best Gance (after J'accuse), the greatest pean in the name of Napoleon (even better and more grandiose than Bondarchuk's Waterloo).
8. Обломок империи [Fragments of an Empire] (1929) - Cried. Best silent movie watched in 2016. Watched with striking soundtrack. Incredible Soviet montage.
9. Seconds (1966) - Cried. Outstanding cinematography, quirky atmosphere.
10. La caduta degli dei [The Damned] (1969) - Visconti is the Italian director.
11. Alice in den Städten [Alice in the Cities] (1974) - Almost cried. Third best Wenders, incredible atmosphere.
12. Nära livet [Brink of Life] (1958) - one of 12 five star Bergman movies (he's the best director ever when it comes to the number of movies I granted the highest rating), very heavy, Can't remember if cried.
13. Ladri di biciclette [Bicycle Thieves] (1948) - first watched on February the 22th 2012. De Sica's second best after Umberto D..
14. Portrait of Jennie (1948) - Cried. Too poetic to be true, too poetic to be a Hollywood movie.
15. 七人の侍 [Seven Samurai] (1954) - first watched on February the 22th 2012. (Sorta) cried. The proof that Kurosawa was the master. However, I still prefer Akahige to this.
16. Odd Man Out (1947) - Cried. Best Reed.
17. Parsifal (1982) - best Syberberg. Wagner was a genius.
18. Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland [Our Hitler: A Film From Germany] (1977) - second best Syberberg. Best movie about Hitler & Nazism. Watched in one sitting.
19. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) - formerly a 4.5 movie, increased the rating to 5 stars after more than a month, since I couldn't stop thinking about it! Best bromance in film history, best Walbrook performance, best Powell & Pressburger movie, best British movie of the year.
20. Level Five (1997) - second best Marker, vaporwave in film form, shocking, intimate, French.

1.5. Greatest masterpieces watched in 2016 - continued:
(chosen
films, chronologically)

1. タンポポ [Tampopo] (1985) - the so called ramen western is just too enjoyable to not include it here. It quotes some classic flicks, sometimes quite blatanly, I admit (like that Breathless ending rip-off), but also provides its own cult scenes, like the one with egg kissing that will be parioded in Dead Sushi years later. I'm quite sad I still didn't manage to watch any other Juzo Itami film.
2. 青蛇 [Green Snake] (1993) - while the rest of the world faps to Legolas' bow and Gandalf's wand I fap to the snake-woman Maggie Cheung participating in a wild Hindu music orgy. They don't make 'em like this anymore. Films, I mean. Wait, how do I get out of this, but seriously this really IS a masterpiece. You absolutely have to watch it. It's that good.
3. Jeux interdits [Forbidden Games] (1952) - I find it quite weird that Truffaut and Godard hated on this and made this flick one of the reasons why French New Wave had to begin as I find it immensely good and very touching.
4. Lonesome (1928) - so there's that silent flick with a couple having fun on Coney Island. Too feel good. Them little jerks of joy.
5. Harold and Maude (1971) - I don't know why a guy shamming his suicide, seemingly chopping his hand off with an axe and falling in love with a grandma is so awesome, but ultimately film's meaning is gold for a such a weirdo as myself.
6. Весной [In Spring] (1929) - Man With a Movie Camera 2. Nuff said.
7. 野菊の如き君なりき [She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum] (1955) - cried like Sexy Celerity upon finding he's not the MoFo of the year. Kinoshita's best!
8. Le testament d'Orphée, ou Ne me demandez pas pourquoi! [Testament of Orpheus] (1960) - best Cocteau, who's the very poetic wanderer with a rose Coleridge wrote about.
9. Tagebuch einer Verlorenen [Diary of a Lost Girl] (1929) - "With a little more love, no one on this earth would ever be lost!"
10. La sapienza [Sapience] (2014) - say whatever you want, Eugène Green is the best living American director!
11. 名もなく貧しく美しく [Happiness of Us Alone] (1961) - apart from the deus ex machina ending, this is one of the best obscure melodramas ever.
12. Dellamorte Dellamore [Cemetery Man] (1994) - genius. Freakin' genius.
13. The Kid Brother (1927) - something I wrote after I've watched it: "In some shots Jobyna Ralston may be the most beautiful woman alive. In some other, not really. If this doesn't prove anything, I don't know what does.", although now that I look at it, I don't know what I meant. She's absolutely stunning all the time!
14. The Last Man on Earth (1964) - best Vincent Price film!
15. La casa dalle finestre che ridono [The House With Laughing Windows] (1976) - one of its kind giallo that most of the time isn't even a giallo, but a dense mystery horror with that feel of being constantly watched by somebody!
16. The Spiral Staircase (1945) - criminally underrated! Very influential to giallo films!
17. 夜の女たち [Women of the Night] (1948) - Mizoguchi's take on Neorealism. Shocking!
18. Attack! (1956) - very powerful, outclasses all modern war movies.
19. La dolce vita (1960) - perhaps this is the best Fellini after all.
20. 風の中の牝鶏 [A Hen in the Wind] (1948) - Ozu thought this is his worst movie. Loved Leo McCarey, too. What a pleb.
21. 丹下左膳余話・百万両の壷 [Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo] (1935) - yet another Japanese gem.
22. Trop tôt, trop tard [Too Early, Too Late] (1982) - except for all this revolution tirade this was one of the most pleasurable contemplation flicks of the year
23. 安城家の舞踏会 [Ball at the Anjo House] (1947) - this is like Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard gone Japanese and with Setsuko Hara. What more can a man want?
24. Shock Corridor (1963) - beautiful and shocking at the same time.
25. La danza de la realidad [The Dance of Reality] (2013) - Jodorovsky is back and guess what, HE SLAINS.

So many I missed! But let it leave at this!

2. Movies watched at cinema in 2016,
ranked by quality, best first:

1. 海街diary [Our Little Sister] (2015) -
- CINEMA MOVIE OF THE YEAR
2. Toni Erdmann (2016) -

3. Wołyń [Hatred] (2016) -

4. Saul fia [Son of Saul] (2015) -

5. I, Daniel Blake (2016) -

6. Nawet nie wiesz, jak bardzo Cię kocham (2016) -

7. The Model (2016) -
- CINEMA TURD OF THE YEAR

2.5 Movies I wanted to watch at cinema, but missed
+ the reason:

1. The Neon Demon - watched once before plus was very busy
2. 아가씨 [The Handmaiden] - they wouldn't show it in my city. Still haven't seen it.

3. Best 2016 albums:
(first place is the best & masterpiece of the year, the rest is ex aequo on the 2nd place & wonderful albums)

1. 戸川純 with Vampillia - わたしが鳴こうホトトギス
2. Abchordis Ensemble - Stabat Mater: Italian Sacred Music from the 18th Century
2. Alcest - Kodama
2. Behexen - The Poisonous Path
2. Chrysta Bell & David Lynch - Somewhere in the Nowhere
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
2. Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
2. Deathspell Omega - The Synarchy of Molten Bones
2. Goat - Union of Mind and Soul
2. Michelle Gurevich - New Decadence
2. Hypnopazūzu - Create Christ, Sailor Boy
2. Laniakea - A Pot of Powdered Nettles
2. Cliff Martinez - The Neon Demon
2. Angel Olsen - MY WOMAN
2. SHXCXCHCXSH - SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs
2. Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld - Nerissimo
2. Tempelhof & Gigi Masin - Tsuki
2. Vysoké Čelo - Liście na Księżycu
2. zeitkratzer + Keiji Haino - Aus den sieben Tagen

4. Best albums first heard in 2016:
(albums from 2016 heard in (obviously) 2016 excluded)

1. Alban Berg Quartett (Ludwig van Beethoven) - The Complete String Quartets (1999)
2. 不失者 [Fushitsusha] - Secret Black Box (2003) + 3 other Fushitsusha albums
3. Various Artists - Khomus: Jew's Harp Music of Turkic Peoples in the Urals, Siberia, and Central Asia (1995)
4. Henryk Szeryng - Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin (1991)
5. Juan Vicente Torrealba - Interpreta su Musica (1971)
6. Konrad Junghänel / Cantus Cölln - Johannes Passion Version IV (1749) (2011)
7. Kormorany - La musica teatrale (2009)
8. Dinu Lipatti - Waltzes (1953)
9. M.I.A. (Músicos Independientes Asociados) - Mágicos juegos del tiempo (1977)
10. Berliner Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan - Symphonie No. 9 (1984)
11. 폐허 - The Haunted House (2008)
12. The John Coltrane Quartet - Africa/Brass (1961)
13. Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra / Kirill Kondrashin - Symphony 7 Leningrad (1994)
14, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra / Kirill Kondrashin - Symphonies 3 The First of May & 5 (1994) (heard these two before, but didn't rate until 2016)
15. Dresdner Kammerchor / Hans-Christoph Rademann - Vespro della Beata Vergine (2000)
16. La Curva di Lesmo - La Curva di Lesmo (2015)
17. Uriah Heep - Look at Yourself (1971)
18. Patty Waters - Sings (1966)
19. Владимир Софроницкий [Vladimir Sofronitsky] - Scriabin chez Scriabin (2008)
20. Pierrot Lunaire - Gudrun (1977)
21. Sequentia - Voice of the Blood (1995)
22. Virgin VS - Virgin VS Virgin (1981)
23. Menace Ruine - The Dice is Cast (2008)
24. one of 5543954354535435435435435435438543 4/5 albums
25. one of 5543954354535435435435435435438543 4/5 albums

5. Books read in 2016
(only fiction and only novels, for short stories go here)

1. Karamazov Brothers (almost 800 pages) -
- read in English - an overwhelming experience! Impossible to fully comprehend after only having been read once. Infinity of topics: man, God, nature, ethics, parricide, religion, love... But ultimately every man is a scoundrel and every girl is a wretch (in their own minds). Alyosha.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



The Bib-iest of Nickels
Impressive. I only watched 128 films this year, down from last year's 282, and 2014's 279. The highlights of this year, for me, were Hannibal and The Nice Guys, with Stranger Things and The Conjuring 2 as honorably mentions. I was a lot more preoccupied than I usually am, I guess, or maybe, I just didn't have the interest.



Let the night air cool you off
Nice to see The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on there as a five bagger. Didn't really expect that from you, but it's very cool. Hopefully this means that it will perform well on the 40s list.



Two more added to my 40's watchlist; Women of the Night and The Spiral Staircase. The other 40's movies I've either seen already or plan to.