My Favourites of 2013

It has been a ridiculously brilliant year for film and this list made all the more difficult by trips to FrightFest and LFF but I have stuck (as best I can) to 2013 releases. My favourite film of 2014, so far, is The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears (dir. Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani) and I implore all to see it when it is out in March. Anyway, I digress, in reverse order the films I have enjoyed most this year.

#13 After Lucia (2012, dir. Michel Franco)

#12 Lore (2012, dir. Cate Shortland)

#11 Laurence Anyways (2012, dir. Xavier Dolan)

#10 Stoker (2013, dir. Park Chan-wook)

#9 Wadjda (2012, dir. Haifaa al-Mansour)

#8 Simon Killer (2012, dir. Antonio Campos)

#7 Beyond the Hills (2012, dir. Cristian Mungiu)

#6 Bullhead (2012, dir. Michaël R. Roskam)

#5 Frances Ha (2012, dir. Noah Baumbach)

#4 Blancanieves (2012, dir. Pablo Berger)

#3 Before Midnight (2013, dir. Richard Linklater)

#2 Big Bad Wolves (2013, dir. Aharon Keshales & Narot Papushado)

#1 La Grande Bellezza (2013, dir. Paolo Sorrentino)

Special mentions:

• Django Unchained (2013, dir. Quentin Tarantino)
• Spider Baby (1968, dir. Jack Hill)
• Grabbers (2012, dir. Jon Wright)
• I Wish (2011, dir. Koreeda Hirokazu)
• Forbidden Games (1952, dir. René Clément)
• The Hunt (2012, dir. Thomas Vinterberg)
• Only God Forgives (2013, dir. Nicolas Winding-Refn)
• A Field in England (2013, dir. Ben Wheatley)
• Lake Mungo (2008, dir, Joel Anderson)
  
• The Act of Killing (2013, dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)
• Mud (2012, dir. Jeff Nichols)
• Oslo, 31 August (2011, dir. Joachim Trier)
• Where Do We Go Now? (2011, dir. Nadine Labaki)
• Holy Motors (2012, dir. Leos Carax)
  
• Blonde Venus (1932, dir. Josef von Sternberg)
• McCullin (2012, dir. David and Jacqui Morris)
• What Richard Did (2012, dir. Lenny Abrahamson)
• The Kings of Summer (2013, dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts)
• Head On (2004, dir. Fatih Akin)
• Bal (2010, dir. Semih Kaplanoğlu)

‘Twas also the year I ‘discovered’ Abbas Kiarostami. The man is, for want of a better word, a genius. I would highly recommend the following:

• Taste of Cherry (1997)
• The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
• Like Someone in Love (2012)
• Ten (2002)
• Close Up (1990)
• A Certified Copy (2010)
• Shirin (2008)