2023 proved to be a year of some major hyped film titles which in some cases turned out to be useful and interesting but none were real standouts for me. I was hampered by not being able to get to the cinema that often and therefore reliant on MUBI and occasionally BFI Player for relatively recent titles. There are two factors behind the great drop in my cinema attendances – just 16 visits this year compared to an overage of over 100 in the years before the pandemic. The first is that three of the local cinemas that show specialist films alongside or instead of mainstream blockbusters have been closed temporarily this year. The second is that I now tend to go only to matinees (like most old people) and that has restricted my festival viewings. What then of what I did actually get to see?

At the cinema

Films which were much discussed by critics and journalists before and after their releases:

Tár (Todd Field, US) – impressive and enjoyable with a standout Cate Blanchett, but some questions, so I reserve judgement until I see it again.

Women Talking (Sarah Polley, (Canada-US) – I enjoyed the film, but it didn’t make as much of an impression on me as I had expected it to do. Many critics were very down on the film and it seems to have disappeared from view completely.

Broker (South Korea 2022) proved that Kore-eda Hirokazu can make films to his usual high standard in South Korea as well as Japan and France. I’m looking forward now to Monster (Japan 2023) which should get a UK release in 2024.

Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US-UK) – it was OK and technically well done, but I think I needed the screenings of the drama series and documentary on iPlayer before seeing it in order to place everything in context.

Past Lives (Celine Song, US-South Korea) – the surprise hit of the year. Again I found it enjoyable, but I wasn’t as overwhelmed as many audiences seemed to have been. Nevertheless, it’s good to see such a success for a début film by a still relatively young writer-director.

Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US) – in some ways just too much narrative. Good to see an attempt to involve the Osage community of Oklahoma in its own story, but in the end some questionable decisions about structuring the narrative and privileging the white perspective. Lily Gladstone as wonderful as expected but the story from her perspective might have worked better?

The Boy and the Heron (Miyazaki Hayao, Japan 2023) – a great way to end the year, the return of the great anime filmmaker.

Films at the cinema which I enjoyed and thought should have been seen by much bigger audiences:

La syndicaliste (Jean-Paul Salomé, France-Germany) and Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany) – I watched both of these films in the newly re-furbished 1914 Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds, Afire in the new screen in the basement. It’s great to have HPPH back in operation. La syndicaliste stars Isabelle Huppert and received very little critical support. The film has flaws but it was compelling for me. Afire proves my contention that Christian Petzold is the leading European filmmaker of the moment – this year’s Pedro Almodóvar offering was a short film that tantalised but I’d like to see a feature that maintains his rivalry, in my eyes, with Petzold.

I also wanted to mention The Blue Caftan (Morocco 2022) which I saw in 2022 but which was released in the UK in 2023. An excellent film, not to be missed.

Films I watched online that also made critical waves:

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, UK-US)

Nous (Alice Diop, France 2021) and Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France 2022)

Rien à foutre (Zero fucks given, Belgium-France 2021)

Archive screenings

I am certainly getting to a state in which I get more pleasure from Archive films from the 1930s to the 1970s than I do from most contemporary releases. In 2023 the following events that I worked on gave me a great deal of pleasure:

Jacques Becker featuring films such as Falbalas (France 1944), Casque d’or (France 1952) and Montparnasse 19 (Fance-Italy 1958)

The Twilight Western featuring The Power of the Dog (New Zealand-Australia-Canada-UK 2021) and featuring The Last Picture Show (US 1971) and Comes a Horseman (US 1979)

Douglas Sirk and Melodrama which upped my blog posts on Sirk’s early films: Hitler’s Madman (US 1943), Summer Storm (1944), Sleep, My Love (1948)

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger including Powell’s terrific The Edge of the World (UK 1937) and many others.

I also enjoyed adding to my scant knowledge of pre-Code Hollywood with Waterloo Bridge (US 1931) Red-Headed Woman (1932) and Of Human Bondage (1934)

Conclusion

2023 was a terrible year for global conflicts, climate change crises and the rise of quasi-fascist political parties, some of which have moved into government. Films have offered me some hope and relief from the misery but there are glaring gaps in my list this year – no films from South Asia, Africa or Latin America. I must try harder to find them in 2024.