In writing terms, I had a great 2013. I added some cool new bylines to my resumé, and for the first time I even got paid for my work! As such, constantly looming deadlines made me shift focus away from this blog even to update it with links to my work, much less to actually write stuff here. I imagine that will continue in 2014 (at least I hope it does, as it means I'm still pulling down freelance work), but I am still going to try and write a few exclusives here, primarily with my entries in the cross-blog Blind Spots series. I failed to write about five of my chosen picks for 2013, even though I actually watched one of them, French Cancan (a masterpiece I will write about shortly, I hope). So, as to not forget them, I will list them here alongside this year's picks, and with any luck I will get to all of them before the year is done.
Outstanding picks:
All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1954)Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)Judex [a 2012(!) Blind Spot] (Louis Feuillade, 1916)Too Early, Too Late (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1982)Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
2014's picks:
The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995)Cockfighter (Monte Hellman, 1974)The Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1985)Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978)Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1922)The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöstrom, 1918)Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, 1986)Pyaasa (Guru Dutt, 1957)Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel, 2005)The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986)The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933)
