This is something I can support. Some countries I’d suggest are Latvia and Austria. Austria specifically hasn’t gotten a lot of acclaim due to Haneke mostly, but that’s really only in the cinephilia circle. My knowledge isn’t that far knowing for other countries, so that’s why I think a topic like this would benefit many a folks here.
Good idea. I’m sure I’m not very knowledgeable except on the most obvious (but please don’t leave France out on the basis that it’s too well-known, there’s a lot to discover) – but I suggest that you think about giving space to groups of countries so that the two great films from Tunisia or Uruguay, for example, don’t get lost because they don’t produce much in a year.
Our first topic is up;
Day 1 – Iran
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6663
Ali;
Don’t worry, France will definitely get a topic. As far as grouping countries goes, I am all for that, however if people could suggest how they would like things to be grouped then that would be quite good – I’m probably one of the least knowledgeable people here so I’m kind of running this a bit blindly.
Well, there are key areas like the Balkans, Scandinavia, Eastern Bloc, Central Asia, things of that nature.
A great thread. Count me in.
I just started a best of the 00’s list today. Go look at it. It’s linked to from my page.
Blue K could begin with a several countries from Africa list,particularly Senegal,Nigeria and South Africa in terms of development,he could also merge some of them since the production is relatively shorter than other countries like Egypt.
Edwin could easily create a Lebanon thread,Pedja,another user could create a Serbia thread and why not some ex-Yugoslavian countries too like Croatia and Macedonia,Sano would be perfect for a Slovenia list,Filmbot could start with Mexico and so on…this does sound intriguing.
William set it off by marking on country at a time and NOT with regions which is the correct thing to do…even if we end up talking about Papua New Guinea and we realize it only has a less than zero production,then we’d have at least known it.
i can begin an individual thread about Greek films and hopefully some more will come with lists of their own.
p.s.: as much as i love French films in the 2000’s Ali,i’m pretty sure that even if we don’t create a France thread,that country has already dominated the public opinion for more than a century…like you said,we need to prioritize countries like Tunisia and Uruguay and eventually,countries with a considerably larger production being ignored for decades and decades like Portugal,Netherlands,Philippines and Cuba!
This is a great way to prepare for The Decade Poll. Thanks William. I must say I have been overwhelmed lately as I am only now discovering the greats in recent Asian cinema. So many wonderful films…
@ Dimitris. No, I don’t mean to prioritise particular countries necessarily, just to make sure taht none get dropped off the list (are these sprouting Greek/Singaporean etc. threads part of this project or not, incidentally?). The issue is films which may not have been seen. You can speak with authority on Greece , I can speak with (a little) authority on France, because we have access to films which didn’t necessarily get international release. There won’t be someone for every country unfortunately, but I think the priority is to try looking for the obscure… There isn’t necessarily any need to make sure that Whisky gets a mention (even if I was thinking Whisky when I mentioned Uruguay), it probably could do with a boost but it also got fairly well distributed including regular showings on Film4.
haha,i get what you’re saying Ali,it will do some good to popularize the unknown resources even from successful countries,France has become the center of attention with the unfair “gore” genre and i believe this isn’t the representative “movement” of this new century,but it tends to engage mainstream audiences a lot more than usual.
besides,this can also be a commentary thread where we offer ideas and individual films,just like with Whisky (and may i say it’s a lovely dead-pan comedy too?)
I think it’s a great idea, if this goes by country, not by regions. So we also may find out where we are (completely) blind.
E.g. I’d love someone who could tell me about great Hungarian films from the last 10 years.
I think Dimitris would probably be the right guy to coordinate such a huge enterprise, precisely because it’s about lesser known films and countries (I hope I’ve understood this right). ;-)
Technically I could do Slovenia, as I’ve probably seen more Slovene films from the 00s than most people here, BUT I have seen only a few (maybe ten features and shorts) which is kind of unfair, even if a country like Slovenia is probably one of the easiest to follow, if you happen to live there (which i don’t – which hopefully also serves as sort of an excuse why I’m so ignorant of its output), exactly because of its tiny output of films. But I think there are still several hundreds of films in different formats that have been made in the last 10 years, so I’d have to check them out first (not that I wouldn’t like that, though). If I randomly pick a catalogue from the Slovenian Film Fund of a bookshelf (it’s 2005-2006) there are listed: 11 feature films (including co-productions – some of which imo don’t have anything Slovene about them except for the money), 6 medium and short length films and 5 in production. And I think this is not all, as I’m sure there are several amateur and hobby-filmmakers as well as a lot of people working on TV, whose work isn’t officially recognized as “Making films”.
But why I would really be reluctant to do this, is I actually despise most Slovene films I’ve seen since 1991, and I think the whole industry and what they are trying to do is more or less crap. It may sound harsh, but that’s my opinion (which I’d be more than glad to see transformed). A Story I’ve heard about former editor of the Slovene film magazine “Ekran”, which goes something like that she could only agree about one single film to be worthy of any coverage is (if made up or not) near the way I feel.
What about several knowledgable/passionate people uniting together to do this kind of thing for a country?
I’d looove to do Germany (as I’m living here, have seen some 60 to 70 films from this decade, and have a lot of enthusiasm for many), but I’d like to have some fellow Germans with me, with controversial/different opinions, so it might get more interesting. And if we are speaking about Germany, I haven’t seen any of the big-budget extravaganzas or renowned films like “Life of Others”, “Downfall”, “Perfume”, “Baader-Meinhof Komplex”, etc. so it would actually be some unknown stuff, I’m promoting. ;-)
Hey it was William’s idea, it seems to be taking off in all directions but if he wants to keep a handle on it, he has some sort of authorial right, surely?
A co-authored session sounds a great idea. ‘Specially as I’m lazy – I’m beginning to feel I should make the effort to get together a ‘should-have-been-distributed-instead-of-La-Môme’ list for France, and I’m happy to try, but if anyone else out there is interested in forming a team, that’d be great!
Sano; “I think Dimitris would probably be the right guy to coordinate such a huge enterprise, precisely because it’s about lesser known films and countries (I hope I’ve understood this right). ;-)”
Ali; “Hey it was William’s idea, it seems to be taking off in all directions but if he wants to keep a handle on it, he has some sort of authorial right, surely?”
I’m happy to hand it over to Dimitris, or indeed anyone who will run it well and wants to run it. Afterall, the important thing is not that it is run by me but that it is run well.
Anyway, here’s the collections (that I know of) so far;
Greece;
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6682
India;
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6691
Argentina;
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6684
Iran;
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6663
Do we want to just let knowledgeable folks open related threads when they want to as Dimitris and Apursansar have done (a big thank you to both of you!) or do we also want as well for threads to be opened up for countries for people to post in as they wish as we did for Iran?
Sorry, didn’t want to sound like an asshole.
Sure William has some authorial right, and I appreciate his effort. Would be great to have a center of operations that catalogues all countries and lists that will be made.
Maybe this could be something similar to the auteurs World Cup?
How about “the auteurs neglected films from around the world”, or something similar, where some people take over “programming” for different countries, and try to make films available with subs?
“Sorry, didn’t want to sound like an asshole”
You didn’t sound like an asshole at all.
Hmm…it would be nice to have out own section of the forum like the World Cup does but we all know how long we had to plead to get that section of the forum added ;-)
The Singapore thread (http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6675) also need to be added, William.
Taiwan probably already gets a lot of attention, but maybe it still can still use more. :) Hey, I can’t help it, I just love their films. Will there be a Taiwanese thread?
“The best films the United States has made this decade have been much documented and it certainly doesn’t take too much effort to track down some top notch stuff.”
Actually, William, I would love to jump in on a U.S. thread an challenge the idea that the accepted “top notch stuff” is really the best the country has to offer.
@Mike
Sounds good. :-)
@Jimmy: I damn well hope there will be a Taiwanese thread. Feel free to start one if you know quite a bit about Taiwanese noughties output. The more the merrier.
@Mike: Sure, go ahead. I was probably jumping a tad too much to conclusions with that comment so if you think you can come up with a good list that defies the seemingly accepted ’00s canon that would be great.
Argentina; http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6684
Brazil; http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6699
Greece; http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6682
India; http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6691
Iran; http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6663
Singapore; http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6675
OK, I took the initiative :)
Taiwan: http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6701
Just a thought, as these multiply. It would be a very good thing to find some place on the website, more permanent than the fora, where all the lists could be stored together for reference after they’ve reached a certain level of stability. Anyone know if that’s feasible?
What I’m going to do is leave this be for three weeks during which time anyone who wants to start a topic on a certain country’s ’00s output and has the knowledge needed to start such a topic can do so. Please leave a link to your topics in here so that we can keep track of them all. Hopefully three weeks should be enough time for anyone who wants to lead a topic to scrawl together their lists and post them.
Once you’ve all had the oppurtunity to do this I shall start unleashing a tidal wave of topics on various countries that people can enter and provide suggestions in.
17 days left for you to start your topics before I start opening some.
13 days left! Come on guys and gals.
Ruritania
William,we actually need more participants for this,the few of us who already created a small number of threads aren’t enough but what can we do when ironic comments like the above don’t let anyone to explore further?
i hope this doesn’t die out or else i’ll start creating for Turkey and Serbia,and i won’t care if it’s close to Christmas,ha.
What would you suggest Dimitris? I’m open to any suggestions as far as getting more participants is concerned. I rather hoped people would be more keen to find out what the must watch stuff of the noughties that they haven’t seen consists of.
2 days and then I’m opening up threads…
Rich Uncle Skeleton
As 2010 approaches there’s a lot of talk about what are the best films of the decade, and I and I would imagine many others will be spending a good deal of 2010 catching up on noughties releases in an attempt to see as much of the great stuff out there as possible so that we can enjoy it, expand our knowledge, draw up varied and interesting best of the decade lists etc etc.
However there is a problem. The best films the United States has made this decade have been much documented and it certainly doesn’t take too much effort to track down some top notch stuff. But what about Italy? Greece? Egypt? Iran? Brazil? Sweden? or many other countries out there which for many of us, even us keen cinephiles, we don’t have much knowledge of outside of those few big hits that get their names plastered on every critic’s lists of greats.
Frankly there is a bit of me that isn’t that keen about making a best of the decade list without giving a decent look to supposedly great films from most countries, at least not without the added clause of “I’ve still got a lot to see”. And quite a few of you regularly complain about how UScentric our tastes our as far as the noughties are concerned. So over the next few weeks I will be opening up topics for you of greater knowledge to impart us with some names to track down if we want to give every country a good shot.
This topic is merely the centre of operations. Countries will get their own topics over the next few weeks and it is in those topics you post about the countries output. This topic is purely for suggesting countries that should be done, talking about this plan, maybe even talking about gems you’ve found thanks to this plan.
Let’s hope this goes well.