And because I again found it impossible to narrow down the list, I offer the Top Dozen Movies of 1999. Stanley Kubrick earlier this spring and French master Robert Bresson less than two weeks ago. Coincidentally, this was also the year I fell in love with Bresson's work, thanks to the Film Center's retrospective in March and April. Possessed of a purity and rigorousness found nowhere else in cinema, Bresson's films challenge the way we look not only at movies but at the world itself. His masterpiece A Man Escaped , which details the efforts of a French soldier to escape from a German prison, is an amazing display of power in minimalism.
Every sound reveals a world, every facial expression exposes a soul.
In Diary of a Country Priest , the long torturous decline of a young clergyman is contrasted with amazing discourses on the nature of faith. And Bresson's final film, 1983's L'argent , is an attack on materialism that is made even more scathing by its subtlety. Bresson's movies have the unfortunate reputation of being difficult, but don't let that stop you from experiencing one of the most important artists of this century. Nashville Robert Altman's masterpiece, this sprawling intersection of singers, dreamers and believers coming together in the country music capital is one of the finest films you could hope to see. With outstanding performances from almost all of its 24-member cast, beautifully haunting music and provocative direction, Nashville is a tour de force examination of relationships and loneliness.