The Cahiers du Cinéma never cared about hive-mindedness or “groupthink,” they live in their own passionate world of moviegoing.
They've decided that, unsurprisingly, the best film of 2019 was Jean-Luc Godard’s “The Image Book.” Godard, who started off as a Cahiers contributor in the ‘50s, is well-loved by them, so this isn’t entirely surprising. What’s actually surprising is the group including Clint Eastwood’s highly underrated “The Mule“ (#9), not to mention Todd Phillips’ equally brilliant “Joker“ (#8).
Obviously, “Parasite” (#2) and “The Irishman” (#10) already had a good shot at making the list, but I have to applaud the inclusions of Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms” (#3) and, especially, “Bacurau” (#4) - the latter set for a U.S. release this year. In addition to those films making the top 10, Bruno Dumont’s “Joan of Arc” and Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” both surprising selections as they were greeted with rather mixed reviews at Cannes this year.
I’ve narrowed down the hundreds upon hundreds of films that will screen this fall to 34 titles—vote for your most anticipated.