Top Ten films of 2009

More to choose from than with books, and pound for pound, quality is higher, along with the quantity:

1. Oldboy. D: Park Chan-wook. Sick, brutal film about revenge delayed, redeemed by the fact that it is brilliant in every way. It is important that there are still people this crazed and talented making films.
2. Darwin's Nightmare. D: Hubert Sauper. Lives of Tanzanian fishermen and the pending collapse of the lake's eco-system. Grim and objective account of human degradation and environmental destruction to sate western appetites.
3. Der Dritte. D: Egon Gunther. A woman seeks love amid the socialist realism. Stylish, nouvelle vague comedy drama from GDR. Yes, you read that correctly.
4. The Sweet Smell of Success. D: Alexander MacKendrick. Crackling script, brilliant musical score and ace performances as human louse Tony Curtis weasels his way about the screen. Brilliant.
5. Nackt Unter Wolfen. D: Frank Beyer. Concentration camp cat and mouse as prisoners conceal a child. Stark, brilliant, only slightly weakened by some clumsy pro-USSR propaganda.
6. La Chinoise. D: Jean luc Godard. Godard renounces radical leftism in charactertistically off beat tale of student terrorists. Alternates typically confrontational mis en scene with touches of casual brilliance.
7. All the Kings Men. D: Robert Rossen. 1950s take on political corruption. Swaggering performance by Broderick Crawford as sleazy politician.
8. Architekten. D: Peter Kahane. East German architects run up against institutional inertia. More interesting than it sounds, shot in a low key, realist style, with understated excellence in all areas.
9. Angelus. D: Lech Majewski. Weird fable about individuality, spirituality, shagging and the end of the world, set in communist Poland. Captivatingly strange.
10. No Country for Old Men. D: Joel & Ethan Coen. Film noir with cowboy hats. Impressive, but spoiled by a cartoon villan.

n.b. this is films I watched in 2009, not films released.