Charles Coleman’s Top 10 Films of 2023
FACETS’ Film Program Director, Charles Coleman, provides us a list of his favorite films from 2023. The list, which is not in order of importance, features Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, and Todd Haynes’ May December, screening at FACETS this January & February.
Fallen Leaves directed by Aki Kaurismäki
Award-winning filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Shadows in Paradise, The Match Factory Girl) makes a brilliant return with Fallen Leaves, a timeless, hopeful and satisfying love story about two lonely people and their path to happiness, accompanied by the numerous hurdles they encounter along the way.
Set in contemporary Helsinki, this film focuses on two middle-aged people, a supermarket worker, and an alcoholic, who together find love for the first time in their lives, in this romantic tragicomedy, with Kaurismäki’s typically playful, idiosyncratic style and deadpan humor. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Fallen Leaves screens at FACETS January 12 & 13. Get more info and buy tickets here.
Anatomy of a Fall directed by Justine Triet
The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet’s drama is a riveting procedural and a delicate inquiry into the impossibility of finding the real truth in human relationships.
When the husband of famous novelist Sandra Voyter (played by Toni Erdmann’s Sandra Hüller) is found dead on the ground outside their chalet in the French Alps, authorities suspect that she might have been responsible, as the impact and position of his body suggest a push rather than a fall. This leads to a murder trial that puts every aspect of their marriage under scrutiny, and Triet’s emotionally devastating film dissects the ways we create subjective narratives for ourselves.
Anatomy of a Fall screens at FACETS January 20-21 & 25, and has been extended to screen February 2 & 4. Get more info and buy tickets here.
Showing Up directed by Kelly Reichardt
Continuing one of the richest collaborations in modern American cinema, director Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women, First Cow) reunites with star Michelle Williams for this marvelously detailed portrait of a sculptor’s daily work and frustrations in an artists’ enclave in Portland. She is trying to complete her artistic pieces for a gallery show, dealing with administrative work, the ‘benign’ neglect of her well-meaning landlord, tending to emotional demands of her dysfunctional family and taking care of her cat.
The low-key style of Showing Up engenders a rapt fascination in a drama tempered by a delicate humor, while its protagonist is a creative person who must face the challenges of the everyday.
May December directed by Todd Haynes
An acting tour-de-force by Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in a complex identity drama, loosely based on the ’90s tabloid scandal of American sex-offender Mary Kay Letourneau, who at age 35 served a prison sentence when her sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy was made public.
Filmmaker Todd Haynes (Safe, Carol) has made an intricate work that looks at class, scandal, performance, within a society that is fascinated by celebrity status and trauma.
May December screens at FACETS February 10-11 & 17-18. Get more info and buy tickets here.
Passages directed by Ira Sachs
A psychosexual drama about a 15-year relationship between a German filmmaker played by Franz Rogowski and a British printer played by Ben Whishaw, whose marriage is thrown into turmoil when one of them begins a relationship with a woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos of Blue Is the Warmest Color).
This is a provocative work that features a toxic love triangle, that while being perceptive and intimate, does not avoid the authentic take on the complexities, contradictions and cruelties of love and desire.
Return to Seoul directed by Davy Chou
After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, twenty-five-year-old Frédérique Benoît (Park Ji-Min), aka Freddie, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.
Writer-Director Davy Chou has made a probing psychological portraiture from the perspective of a character whose feelings of alienation have kept her at an emotional distance from nearly everyone in her life. This is a remarkable film, featuring actress Park Ji Min (in her debut role) who have created an indelibly specific yet universal portrait of one woman’s struggle to come to terms with herself.
Monster directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what’s going on. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth gradually emerges.
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster is an intricate exploration of human complexity and societal expectations, as he creates a narrative puzzle, employing a Rashomon-esque structure to challenge our perceptions about how social pressures affect children, while portraying characters with hidden vulnerabilities, as well as examine the journey of self-discovery and the struggle to belong.
Afire directed by Christian Petzold
Acclaimed filmmaker Christian Petzold (Undine, Transit) has made a strange comedy of manners and sexual tension, in Afire, which is set in a summer home on the Baltic Sea, where a glum, struggling novelist and his more gregarious friend discover an unexpected house guest (Paula Beer) staying on the property.
Her presence creates a volatile environment, and as the sexual heat rises, with such intensity, that the only natural outcome is the eruption of a devastating forest fire, which encircles the cottage. Afire has a unique sensibility, bringing levity and tragedy to a story of unexpected encounters.
One Fine Morning directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
A poignant drama starring Léa Seydoux as Sandra, a widowed young mother raising her daughter on her own, while also caring for her sick father (Pascal Greggory). She is also dealing with the loss of the relationship she once had with her father, while she and her mother and sister fight to get him the care he requires. At the same time, she finds love with an old friend who she has not seen in a while and, although he is married, their friendship soon blossoms into a passionate affair, bringing more complications to her troubled life.
Mia Hansen-Løve (Things to Come, Bergman Island) has made vivid portrait of family life which is a powerful story of obligation and the search for happiness, which has an extraordinary performance by Léa Seydoux, as she navigates the forces of grief and desire.
R.M.N. directed by Cristian Mungiu
Based on real-life events, Cristian Mungiu’s slow-burn drama about Romania’s region of Transylvania, historically an ethnically diverse community, that is consumed by xenophobia and nationalism when migrants from the east arrive.
A sad commentary on a volatile issue which the world faces today, whereby intentional good will leads to irrational fears, resentments, and conflicts, as the veneer of peace in the community is shattered, providing valuable insights into the country’s socio-economic realities.