A tale of beauty and decay, Visconti’s cinematic requiem for Thomas Mann sees Dirk Bogarde, in a quiet, despairing performance, playing an ageing composer obsessed with the perfect looks of a teenage boy, accompanied generously by Mahler’s heart-aching ‘Adagietto’.
PTA’s tour de force, operatic long-arc film not only sets a new tone for studio filmmaking but ‘bobbles’ with such incredible airtight momentum that it oscillates between absurdist comedy and high-stakes action-thriller with effortless ease, as a man is haunted by the consequences of his past political actions.
Somai shoots this artful Nikkatsu Roman Porno effort with trademark long takes, fusing eroticism with a sense of fate and lingering despair in the sexual encounters between a suicidal man and a woman prostituting herself for the first time.
A reimagination of Oz through the lens of ‘70s New York, blending dazzling production design with soulful and disco-infused music, as an all-Black cast led by Diana Ross and a young Michael Jackson take center stage.
Somai captures both the energy and inquisitiveness of youth, and the resignation of the aged, as three boys’ encounter with a lonely old man brings about changed perspectives toward life and death.
Weerasethakul’s debut feature is like a living folk tale, a radical blend of documentary and fiction, shaped through the surrealist ‘exquisite corpse’ method as ordinary Thais collectively spin an evolving story.
Somai’s tender and transformative masterwork, about a child grappling with her parents’ divorce, boasts an extraordinary acting debut by Tomoko Tabata, capturing the emotional, physical and psychological aspects of separation with such empathy.
Hovering between introspection and narcissism, Allen channels Fellini’s ‘8½’ in this self-reflexive work that sees a filmmaker at his own retrospective wrestling with fans, fame and failed relationships, shot artfully by the great Gordon Willis.
Arguably Tsui’s angriest film, this live-wire and nihilistic HK New Wave entry sees the collision of rebellious youth, lowly gangsters and nasty foreigners as society crumbles into death, violence, cruelty and insanity.
The Japanese master’s greatest achievement, this is an anime of endless imagination and hypnotic power, winning the coveted Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Eternality Tan 