Meet some alternatives

By now we’re all a little sick of end-of-the-decade lists—yes, we’ve come to a consensus that Kid A and There Will Be Blood had plenty of artistic merit. But ask film industry insiders what they loved about the aughts, and a totally different picture emerges.

TIFF polled movie programmers and historians on which films they thought were most important this decade. They’ll be screening the highest scorers, some of which were pretty surprising, at this month’s Best of the Decade: An Alternative View at the Cinematheque. Here are five that are definitely worth watching:

Elephant (2003)

Written and directed by Gus Van Sant, mostly recently of Milk fame, Elephant portrays various students on the day of a school shooting. A part of Van Sant’s Death Trilogy, which also includes Gerry and Last Days, the film is loosely based on the Columbine Shootings in 1999 and won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film’s production was also wrought with controversy. As one of the first films about school shootings released after Columbine, the subject remained fresh in the hearts and minds of many. Additionally, the film was viewed by Jeffrey Weise days before initiating the Red Lake massacre. The film itself raises questions about what influences individuals to perform such heinous acts, but was also seen as a potential influence on Weise.

The film does not, in fact, solve anything. As the cameras follow various students—the golden couple, the troubled teen, the self-conscious wallflower–through their mundane high school day, nothing truly happens. Even the shooters, Eric and Alex, are depicted as having a pleasant family and lots of potential. As they troll the school hallways for more targets, completely and utterly emotionless, the concept of humanity itself is subtly and beautifully brought into question.

A History of Violence (2005)

David Cronenberg uses this film to explore violence from three directions—an individual’s personal history of violence, violence among mankind as a method of solving disputes, and the concept of the survival of the fittest. Cronenberg tackles a large and timeless dispute, attempting to place the viciously aggressive and overwhelming issue into the terms of the average life of one man, Tom Stall.

To an extent, he succeeds, all the while maintaining a fascinatingly realistic and understanding view of the subject. Tom simply wants peace and comfort, though he comes to see the necessity of fighting fire with fire, but the issue is left vague, confused, and unresolved.

Caché (2005)

Alfred Hitchock was obsessed with the topic of voyeurism, conveying it most famously in his film Rear Window. Michael Haneke’s Caché also explores the issue, albeit from a very different perspective. The film portrays a family being videotaped for long periods of time with a single camera, with the tapes then sent to their house with no attached messages or apparent underlying motive. At one point, the tapes begin arriving with drawings on them that depict a large part of the husband’s childhood.

The tapes do not appear to be threats, and are not taken as such by the police. Thus the film presents voyeurism through an almost neutral, microscopic lens, until it simply shows an average family is aware of being watched. In a society fascinated by the “celebrities” of reality television, we continue to blur the lines of what is considered appropriate when watching the lives of others.

The World (2004)

The World was Jia Zhangke’s first film supported by the Chinese government. It takes place in a Beijing theme park featuring miniature replicas of the world’s greatest sites, complete with matching cultural dance numbers. The theme of urban desolation carries through the film, but mainly to support the true heart of the story—the characters and their relationships.

The theme park is an attraction for young adults from across the country hoping to make some money and something of themselves—the classic tale of the big city. The deep and truly personal experiences of these characters are what make this one of the most intensely moving films of the decade. Along with the stunning beauty, it also incredibly telling look into the reality of modern China.

I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006)

The eighth film from director Tsai Ming-liang stars Lee Kang-sheng in a double role as a homeless man taken in by a stranger and a man in a coma. The urban setting is grim, but the camera never moves: each shot is framed and set up, and is then left to its own devices. This supposedly allows the viewer to feel as though they’re really in the film, a part of the hazy, smoky atmosphere.

I found this innovative approach neither haunting nor beautiful, and the lack of dialogue didn’t add much to the film. Its slow pace and emptiness have often been received as agonizingly sensual, expressing more accurately than any film to date that excruciating feeling of needing to be touched. I had only one word for it, though: boring.