THE LISTS: Ranking Claire Denis

In case you've been wondering about where the grand scope of my film oriented focus has been for the past couple months, I have honestly been caught up in other things involving rigorous schoolwork. Somehow this semester has been drain, though I don't wish to burden you with the boorish details. Let's just say, my heart has been torn up through stresses of extreme panic. On the one end, I've been completely unwilling to give myself to a production assignment requiring a hefty sum of money towards 16 mm film, along with all the acquaintances necessary to make a film go off without a hitch. At a stage when college itself is proving a drain, this has been an unnecessary extra weight.

On the other hand, I've also been immersed in one of the most amazing class experiences I've had in my two years here, which has done quite a bit towards convincing me that critical studies is where it's at, rather than production. The past couple of months have given me a much desired crash course in the cinema of Claire Denis, whom I had become simply acquainted with last year via Netflix. How taken with her was I before? Well, I've owned the Criterion DVD of "White Material" since my last birthday, so I suppose that's something. But I had admittedly only seen that and "35 Shots of Rum" before the class I had on her this semester.

2 Years of 'High on Celluloid'!

It's kind of hard to think that I've only been working on this site for two years, but at a point it seems like time becomes a less solid thing. I map things out by experience, and I am still very dissatisfied with my work in my entire first year. It was mostly based on these minimalist and isolationist ramblings of somebody who hadn't lived, and therefore didn't have an opinion. I think that the film that really begged me to be more individual and self-assured in my dissent from the popular opinion was "Black Swan", which was oddly absorbed by the popular opinion. Society's sensual obsession with it seemed to minimalize the accomplishment.

If you brought it up to any average person who liked it, they'll say that Natalie Portman's performance is the film. Those who disliked it will narrow it down to being an average thriller. Both miss the point of the film entirely, and I kept reaching these emotional roadblocks in others' responses, and I simply balked at it. It suddenly became so apparent how flawed the public opinion is, which was further compounded by "The King's Speech" winning Best Picture at this year's Oscar race. I thought of the film's true merits, which were few, and it got me to scrutinize the other players in the race, and finding I wasn't as taken with "Toy Story 3", "The Social Network", or "True Grit" as I thought.

I owe some of that sudden change to my film professors, who've done an absolutely brilliant job of broadening my horizon, if feeding my ego a tad too much inadvertently. I owe a great deal more to "Black Swan", as those central themes of railing against your owners in defense of what you believe just ignited inside me. Realize that I gave 17 A-range reviews last year, and only four so far this year, two of which in the past two weeks. I raised my standards to what they should be, rather than settling for less. If I operated this year the way I did in 2010, I think I'd have lost more readers than I'd have gained. The readers I have now are at least more specific.