Syndromes of a century

The absence of Norbit may cause some moviegoers to quibble but the results for TIFF Cinematheque’s best-of-the-2000s poll comprise an indispensable guide to the decade in film. Released this past Monday (Nov. 23), the complete list is at www.cinemathequeontario.ca.

Eschewing the populist/Hollywood bent of lists by ink-stained wretches, the assembled international panel of curators, programmers, archivists and the like skewed toward much more challenging fare. At the top spot is Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s marvelously cryptic diptych Syndromes and a Century, with Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke taking the next two positions with Platform and Still Life.

Lucrecia Martel is one of many filmmakers represented in the chart, with multiple nods going to Hou Hsiao-hsien, Todd Haynes, the Dardenne brothers, Pedro Costa, Alexander Sokurov, Tsai Ming-liang, Claire Denis and Guy Maddin. (Along with Maddin, Canada is also represented by David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence at No. 17 and Zacharius Kunuk’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner at No. 29.) Most of the films will screen at a TIFF Cinematheque retrospective in 2010, by which time Eddie Murphy’s rage will have subsided.