#vazante

My 52 Favourite Films of the Decade 2010-2019: The Complete List

Random stats:

52 movies chosen directed by a total of 57 directors. 5 directing duos, 4 of which consisted of a woman-man directing duo. Only 1 directing duo was made up of 2 women.

American cinema dominated with 28 films. I went with the country listings as provided by IMDB which leads to some strange results like how 2 Days in New York, filmed and set entirely in NYC is not a U.S. production but Wadjda, filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia is (it’s something to do with who gives money, don’t ask me how it’s calculated). This was followed by French cinema with 10 films and Israeli cinema (4 films) and then a smattering of other countries. 

15 directorial debuts. The high number didn’t surprise me so much. Studies have been done and it’s often much harder for women directors to make a second film than make their debut. Actually when it comes to the debut directors on my list about half have had runaway success and put out at least one or more films already, a handful have moved into TV work and a handful seem to have disappeared which is depressing.  What did please me is how many films were 3rd, 4th, 10th or more films proving that there are women directors with long careers who just keep getting better. 

5 documentaries. I always think of myself as someone who doesn’t like documentaries so this seemed surprisingly high for me.

2 sequels both of which I liked better than their predecessors and both of which I think stand completely on their own.

2 films by directors who are no longer with us. Thank you Agnès Varda and Ronit Elkabetz.

0 repeat directors. This mostly worked out that way naturally. The directors who came the closest to having 2 films on the list were Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone missed out) and Céline Sciamma (for Girlhood), both of which were ultimately fairly easy to cut.

The List:

Sundance alum Daniela Thomas' newest project Vazante opens on Friday, January 12.  The film is the solo directorial debut for the Brazilian director and screenwriter.

“Forced to marry a slave trader, young Beatriz faces physical and emotional unrest beyond her years in this lyrical and nuanced historical mood piece.

Upon returning from a trading expedition, Antonio discovers that his wife has died in labor. Confined to a decadent but desolate property in the company of his aging mother-in-law and numerous slaves, he marries his wife’s young niece, Beatriz. Separated from her family and left alone on the rugged farmhouse in the Brazilian mountains, Beatriz finds solace in the displaced and oppressed inhabitants around her.

Stylistically shot in black-and-white with English subtitles, Vazante explores the fraught intersection of feminism, colonialism, and race that has persisted across centuries and continents.”

Thomas’ first film with Sundance, co-directed by Walter Salles, premiered back in 1996. 

In beautiful black-and-white photography by Walter Carvalho, Foreign Land is a film about a generation and a country in crisis. In March of 1990, Fernando Collor de Mello, the first elected president in Brazil after thirty years of military dictatorship, implemented an extreme economic plan, which, in practice, confiscated Brazilian savings accounts. The country was thrown into chaos, and more than 800,000 young Brazilians had to leave to search new opportunities. It is a powerful metaphor for the reality of young people striving to find a place in the world — Patricia Cardoso-Reneau

My 52 Favourite Films of the Decade 2010-2019:

Vazante dir. Daniela Thomas (2017)

Top 10 films of 2018

You Were Never Really Here dir. Lynne Ramsay

On Body and Soul dir. Ildikó Enyedi

Private Life dir. Tamara Jenkins

The Kindergarten Teacher dir. Sara Colangelo 

Little Forest dir.  Yim Soon-rye 

Leave No Trace dir. Debra Granik 

Revenge dir. Coralie Fargeat

Vazante dir. Daniela Thomas

I Think We’re Alone Now dir. Reed Morano

I Am Not a Witch dir. Rungano Nyoni

Honourable Mention: