The Cahiers du Cinéma never cared about hive-mind or “groupthink,” they live in their own passionate world of moviegoing.
The past year has been a rough, but rejuvenating one for the oldest and most prestigious film magazine in the world. Right as the pandemic was starting, back in March of 2020, their writing team quit due to new ownership. The new team has handled the changes admirably well.
Regardless, after six months of absence, they reformed, some of the writers came back, others left for good, and have now managed to release their annual tradition of producing the most eclectic top 10 around.
This year’s Cahiers list of the best films of 2021 is topped by Albert Serra’s “Pacifiction.” Serra’s film, a total hypnotic scorcher, is only coming out next year in the US, but it already has a firmly stamped place in my top ten of 2023.
Notice how only two films from this year’s Cannes have made the list, a total oddity as their yearly lists tend to have more than that. There are also only two French films included in their top 10.
I’ll probably have the expanded list (possibly a top 20) sent to me in the coming hours. Stay tuned …
1) Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
2) Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3) Nope (Jordan Peele)
4) EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
5) Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
6) Bowling Saturne (Patricia Mazuy)
7) Apollo 10 1/2 (Richard Linklater)
8) Introduction (Hong Sang-soo)
9) Nobody’s Hero (Alain Guiraudie)
10) Qui A Part Nous (Jonas Trueba)
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.