Defending Cinephilia 2018 (5) - An A to E of 2018

A…is for the AACTAs and, regrettably I start on a negative note. I sympathise with the (female) Actors, specifically Elizabeth Debicki, Natassia Gorey-Furber, Noni Hazelehurst and Simone Kessell,  who were the losing nominees for Best Supporting Actress in an Australian film.

Natassia Gorey-Furber, Sweet Country

Noni Hazlehurst (r), Ladies in Black

Simone Kessell, 1%

Elizabeth Debicki, Breath

All four were beaten by Nicole Kidman for her performance in an American film…yet when I ask others, some of whom I think might have some principled view of what constitutes Australian cinema, “why no protest?”, I get the shoulder shrug. "Who cares…."

Guy Borlée (ph: David Bordwell)

B…is for Bologna and Il Cinema Ritrovato and my friend Guy Borlée who has done so much to turn Cinema Reborn, both 2018 and 2019, into past and future reality. 

The Pretend One

C ….is for Commercial Cinema in no particular order…Roma, Wajib, First Man, Mudbound, Phantom Thread, Sweet Country, Loveless, A Ciambra, Shoplifters, Leave No Trace, Strange Colors, Love Education, BlacKKKlansman, The Insult, Chappaquidick, Lean on Pete, The Pretend One and You Were Never Really Here.  Not that all of them were on view to a wide public…. and I have yet to see Burning, The Image Book  and  Ash is the Purest White ...

David Lynch

D…is for David Lynch and a belated 2018 viewing of his 2017 Twin Peaks: The Return, the best thing I saw all year and a reminder that TV with its series and one off dramas is as satisfying as any day or night at the movies: A Very English Scandal, Bodyguard, The BBC Alan Bennett Box Set, The Bureau, Homeland, Wormwood, Babylon Berlin, Narcos, The Bridge, Mystery Road, McMafia, Patrick Melrose  and The Americans…... I’m sure I’ve left something out.

Ernst Lubitsch

E…is for everything else: The Criterion Dietrich/von Sternberg Box set, John Stahl's Seed at Bologna, a revisit to early American Lubitsch from Rosita to the Eclipse musicals box set passing Trouble in Paradise on the way. …and did I mention Grover Crisp’s Bologna intro to his fabulous new edition of Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place…what a movie.

Grover Crisp

Editor's Note: Contributions to this annual series are open to all and are welcome at any time for the next month or so. Previous entries for 2018 include thoughts by Adrian Martin, Rod Bishop,  Peter Hourigan and Adam Bowen. Click on the names to find them.