Sunday 18 January 2015

In The Mood For List: 2014


10 Best new films seen in 2014
  1. Damp Access (Maximilian Le Cain)
  2. Mutual Admiration Society (Rouzbeh Rashidi & James Devereaux)
  3. Welcome To New York (Abel Ferrara)
  4. Rearrangement Trilogy: Hypothesis, Conditions, Poetics (Rouzbeh Rashidi)
  5. Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  6. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
  7. Investigating the Murder Case of Ms. X/Y (Rouzbeh Rashidi)
  8. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
  9. Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
  10. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)

 -- Jean-Luc Godard’s “Adieu au langage” (watched in 2D) shares a top slot.

Special Mention:

There (James Fotopoulos)
Bastards (Claire Denis)
Norte, The End of History (Lav Diaz)


Best Short film:

Night Regulation (Maximilian Le Cain)
The Nest (David Cronenberg)
Pitpony (Jason Marsh)
Murder (Michael Higgins)


Worst 2014:
  1. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)
  2. Nymphomaniac (Lars Von Trier)
  3. The Double (Richard Ayoade)
  4. Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)
  5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  7. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
  8. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
  9. Magic in the Moonlight (Woody Allen)
  10. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)

Best TV Series
  1. Boardwalk Empire
  2. Hannibal
  3. Trailer Park Boys (Season 8)
  4. True Detective

Performance:
  1. Bahar Samadi & Navid Salajegheh: “Non-Pacific Coexistence of Numbers and Dates” @ The Guesthouse, Cork, Nov 30th.
  2. Karen Power & Maximilian Le Cain: “Gorging Limpet” @ TDC, Cork, May 30th.
  3. Susan Stenger’s flute piece, a Solo from “Concert for Piano and Orchestra” (1957-58, John Cage), Schizo-Culture Event, Space Gallery, London, Dec 13th.
  4. “Clarence Darrow”, performed by Kevin Spacey @ The Old Vic, London.


Events:
  1. EFS Iranian Programme, Cork Film Festival, curated by Max Le Cain, 8th & 9th Nov.
  2.  “A Weekend of Schizo Culture at Space Gallery”, (12th-14th Dec) London, Curated by Katherine Waugh.
  3. “Devoted Songs: The Films of Nathaniel Dorsky”, curated by Lumiere Magazine/Esperanza Collado, Experimental Film Club, IFI, Dublin, April 22nd.
  4. The shooting of Rouzbeh Rashidi's “Ten Years in the Sun”/Max Le Cain’s “Cloud of Skin” back-to-back @ Bray Head hotel. A grotesquerie of illness and a carnival of madness.


Favourite Installation:

“Last Phase”, video/sound installation by Atoosa Pour Hosseini, as part of “Recollections” research project, NCAD, June.


Favourite Album:

“Rock or Bust” (AC/DC)