Film Comment - Film Review + Critics Poll
Two Film Comment items.
First, the January/February issue contains a complete review of the film. If you’re wondering, Gavin Smith’s comments about the film weren’t a formal review, rather, remarks about the Sundance Festival he had attended.
The review, written by Paul Fileri, opens with:
“With environmental documentaries like Darwin’s Nightmare, Our Daily Bread and Manufactured Landscapes appearing in recent years and many more looming on the horizon, any nonfiction film holding lasting critical value will have to do more than lay out a portrait of ecological degradation. At the same time it will have to avoid settling into reportage and exposé, retreating into nostalgic lament, or falling prey to easy solutions and wishful thinking. With her intelligent and formally accomplished debut feature The Unforeseen, Laura Dunn has shown herself to be up to the task, bringing clear-eyed reflection to bear on modern capitalism, urban development, and globalization, probing the systems of economic and social power that shape our everyday lives as well as our loftier sense of nature as a whole.”
To read the rest of the review, pick up a copy at your local newsstand.
Critics Poll
In addition, Film Comment released their annual critics poll of best films of 2007. The Unforeseen captured lucky number 13 on the “Undistributed” list.
http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/poll/2007pollcritics.html
FILM COMMENT’S END-OF-YEAR CRITICS’ POLL
For Film Comment’s Eighth Annual Critics’ Poll we invited our contributors and colleagues to rank their top 20 films of the year, plus the 10 best unreleased films they discovered on any festival sorties. (In the latter category, 11 had their U.S. premieres at the 44th New York Film Festival and at least three more will be shown in our annual Film Comment Selects series.) In each ballot from the 80-plus critical chorus, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on. We published the results for the Top 20 in the current issue. Here are the Top 50 released and Top 30 unreleased.
BEST UNRELEASED FILMS OF 2007
(*Currently without U.S. distribution)
1. Silent Light Carlos Reygadas, Mex./Fr./Neth. 175
2. Flight of the Red Balloon Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tai./Fr. 171
3. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. 134
4. Secret Sunshine Lee Chang-dong, S. Korea 127
5. My Winnipeg Guy Maddin, Canada 97
6. Useless* Jia Zhang-Ke, China/Hong Kong 95
7. Still Life Jia Zhang-Ke, China/Hong Kong 91
8. In the City of Sylvia* José Luis Guerín, Spain 76
9. The Last Mistress Catherine Breillat, France/Italy 70
10. The Romance of Astrée and Céladon* Eric Rohmer, France/Italy/Spain 57
11. The Duchess of Langeais Jacques Rivette, Fr./Ger. 68
12. Alexandra Alexander Sokurov, France/Russia 44
13. The Unforeseen Laura Dunn, U.S. 43
14. Go Go Tales* Abel Ferrara, Italy/U.S. 41
15. Battle for Haditha Nick Broomfield, U.K. 37
16. Mister Lonely Harmony Korine, U.K./France/Ireland/U.S. 36
17. The Pool* Chris Smith, U.S. 35
18. George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead George A. Romero, U.S. 33
19. Chop Shop Ramin Bahrani, U.S. 32
20. Encounters at the End of the World Werner Herzog, U.S 29
(tie) Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind* John Gianvito, U.S. 29
21. Reprise Joachim Trier, Norway 28
22. The Man from London* Béla Tarr, Fr./Ger./Hun. 26
23. The Edge of Heaven Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey 25
(tie) La France* Serge Bozon, France 25
(tie) The Silence Before Bach Pere Portabella, Spain 25
24. At Sea* Peter Hutton, U.S. 22
(tie) Boarding Gate Olivier Assayas, France 22
(tie) California Dreamin’* Cristian Nemescu, Romania 22
25. Chicago 10 Brett Morgen, U.S. 20
(tie) Dust Hartmut Bitomsky, Germany 20
26. Chronicle of a Chinese Woman* Bing Wang, China 19
(tie) I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK* Park Chan-wook, S. Korea 19
(tie) Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney, U.S. 19
27. Calle Sante Fe* Carmen Castillo, Chile/France/Belgium 18
(tie) Glue Alexis Dos Santos, Argentina/U.K. 18
(tie) SpaceDisco One* Damon Packard, U.S. 18
28. Frownland* Ronald Bronstein, U.S. 17
(tie) I Just Didn’t Do It* Masayuki Suo, Japan 18
(tie) Lou Reed’s Berlin* Julian Schnabel, U.S./U.K. 17
(tie) Snow Angels David Gordon Green, U.S. 17
29. Caramel Nadine Labaki, France/Lebanon 16
(tie) Import Export Ulrich Seidl, Austria 16
30. Actresses Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, France 15
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About The Unforeseen
The Unforeseen, executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Called "the best film at the festival, hands down" by Film Comment's Gavin Smith, the film documents the struggles between development and preservation of Austin Texas.