My Favorite Films of 2011

2012 was, to my mind, an excellent year for film, and an especially great year for film lovers: there were films that demonstrated the power of art to the alter lives (Marwencol, Poetry, The Woodmans), affect social change (Waste Land), and even shape history (Cinema Komunisto); films that celebrated the art of cinema and its ability to tell stories like no other media (The Tree of Life, Melancholia, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives); and, just as celluloid is dying and people have stopped going out to the movies, love letters to the cinema (Hugo, The Artist) that seem to have resonated with audiences. Hugo and Pina and Cave of Forgotten Dreams proved that 3D doesn't have to be a cheap gimmick. Rise of the Planet of the Apes proved that CGI can actually come to life. Looking back at the past year, I'm feeling pretty optimistic. Movies aren't quite dead yet. As any movie buff knows, there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

The criteria for my Favorite Films list is simple: movies that opened in Chicago in 2011. Some of the films below could be considered 2010 releases because they played in New York and Los Angeles in 2010, but the films on my list did not open in Chicago until 2011. My movie year began with Night Catches Us, which opened at Facets on January 7, and ended with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on December 28. Here are my favorites of the 2011:

Welcome to My New Blog.

Hello and welcome to my new blog. I tried this last year with the name The Front Row Chicago, which I had based on Richard Brody's excellent blog for The New Yorker, The Front Row. I blogged for a couple months but eventually but the site on indefinite hiatus because I just couldn't keep up with it. I would be writing a post and suddenly realize that two hours had gone by and I could have been seeing a movie instead of writing about movies, and so I just got frustrated and put the whole endeavor aside. I still like the idea of having a place to share my thoughts about movies, besides Facebook, so I'm trying a new, more casual approach: Obis Orbis. The Latin orbis means orb or orbit or "the world," so this blog will just concern things that concern me, and I will attempt to regularly update it with short, informal posts and only occasionally post lengthier critiques. So, we'll see what happens. Happy 2012. I hope you'll return and read my posts and comment on them. Thanks for checking out my new blog!

A Tribute to Roger Ebert (repost)

This post originally appeared on my previous blog, The Front Row Chicago, on March 1, 2011. I'm posting it again here mainly to help me establish the layout for my new blog, but also because I still like the post (and the music) and I hope people will read it and add their own soundtrack selections in the comments section.

Last Friday night I attended the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "A Tribute to Roger Ebert," part of the CSO's Friday Night at the Movies series. It was a lovely, jubilant tribute to Chicago's favorite film critic. The orchestra played Ebert's favorite theme, Anton Karas' bouncy "The Third Man Theme," for which they brought in a special zither player from Milwaukee; three selections from his favorite film composer (Nino Rota); themes from his favorite film (Citizen Kane), and themes from films featuring his favorite actor (Gregory Peck) and actress (Ingrid Bergman). There was Rota's gorgeous theme from Romeo and Juliet (the 1968 Franco Zefferelli film, my favorite film version), Henry Mancini's classic, jazzy Pink Panther music, and the epic horn music for Ben Hur's "Parade of the Charioteers" scene.