For the last episode of Cannesversations this year, Eliana, and Patrick are joined by critic friends Öykü Sofuoğlu (this marks Öykü’s second time on the podcast; check out our Cannes episode on About Dry Grasses and May December) and Lawrence Garcia to look back at their favorite films of 2023.

Follow Öykü & Lawrence on Twitter/X

Below, you first find all our honorable mentions, followed by our individual Top 10-6 films.

Honorable Mentions

Öykü

• Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorcese)
• Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
• Here (Bas Devos)

Lawrence

• Music (Angela Schanalec)
• The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)
• Notre Corps (Claire Simon)
• In Water (Hong Sang-soo)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson)

Eliana

• Amiko (Yusuke Morii)
• Music
• Sparta (Ulrich Seidl)
• Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude)
• The Human Surge 3

Patrick

• Forms of Forgetting (Burak Çevik)
• A Wild Roomer (Lee Jeong-hong)
• Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani)
• Music
• Eureka (Lisandro Alonso)
• De Facto (Selma Doborac)
• There Is a Stone (Tatsunari Ota)
• Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara)
• This Closeness (Kit Zauhar)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)

Top 10

Öykü

• 10 Yannick (Quentin Dupieux)
• 9 Orlando, My Political Biography
• 8 Riddle of Fire (Weston Razooli)
• 7 Notre Corps
• 6 La bête (Bertrand Bonello)

Lawrence

• 10 Totem (Lila Avilés)
• 9 Cerrar los ojos (Víctor Erice)
• 8 In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo)
• 7 The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)
• 6 Forms of Forgetting

Eliana

• 10 Passages
• 9 Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
• 8 Yannick
• 7 The Delinquents
• 6 May December

Patrick

• 10 Concrete Valley (Antoine Bouge)
• 9 Notre Corps
• 8 Cerrar los ojos
• 7 Here
• 6 La bête

At the end of the second episode, we asked Öykü and Lawrence about writings they are proud of or happy with. Öykü interviewed Radu Jude for Mubi’s Notebook, which you can find here, and Lawrence referred to his 15,000-word deep dive into David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Make sure to check both of them out!

We wish all of you a happy year of 2024 and are hopeful for many more episodes to come in the new year!

This week Eliana and Patrick delve into Lizzie Borden's 1986 dramedy Working Girls about a day in the life of a group of young sex workers in a middle-class brothel in 1980s Manhattan.

A milieu rarely ever depicted on the big screen in American cinema (in their Criterion essay So Meyer stresses that it was not until Sean Baker's Tangerine in 2015—three decades later—that the lived reality of sex workers would take center stage of a major US feature film again), Borden, with her observational eye and collaborative filmmaking process, circumvents the common dichotomous portrayal of prostitutes as either glamorized or pitiable, shedding light on the profession that proves both sympathetic to its characters and discerning of the mundanity of their profession—ultimately highlighting the autonomy women can exercise while embracing that the world's oldest profession is just that—a profession.

Resources:

• Borden, Lizzie, and Gordon, Betty. “Lizzie Borden and Bette Gordon on Working Girls.” Criterion, 2021,
• Da Costa, Cassie. Lizzie Borden Is Finally Getting Her Due. Vanity Fair, 15 July 2021,
• Felando, Cynthia. „4 Lizzie Borden.” Independent Female Filmmakers. A Chronicle Through Interviews, Profiles, and Manifestos, edited by Michele Meek, Rouledge, 2019.
• Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex. The Case for Feminist Revolution. 1970.
• Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.Free, Erin. „Unsung Auteurs: Lizzie Borden.“ FilmInk, 12 May, 2021,
• Gagne, Emily. “Director Lizzie Borden on Censorship, Community and the Movie She’s Kept in the Closet for Over 40 Years.” That Shelf, 1 March 2023,
• Hoberman, James. “Lizzie Borden’s ‘Working Girls’ Is About Capitalism, Not Sex.” New York Times, 16 June 2021,
• Huber, Christoph. “Whatever Happened to Lizzie Borden?” CinemaScope, 17 March 2018, 22 Sept. 2023.
• Isaacson, Johanna. “Hollywood Kills Feminism: the Work of Lizzie Borden.” Blind Field, 14 August 2019.
• Lane, Christina. Feminist Hollywood. From Born in Flames to Point Break. Wayne State University Press, 2000.
• Mayer, So. “Working Girls: Have You Ever Heard of Surplus Value?” Criterion, 13 July 2021.

Sound

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal and Nancy O'Doan and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Intro: CNN

On this episode of Cannesversations Patrick and Eliana discuss Tsai Ming-Liang's 2009 in-competition Cannes film, Visage (臉 | Face). Commissioned by the Louvre Museum and sprinkled with the ghosts of Nouvelle Vague and Truffaut's own muses, the Taiwanese director's own muse, Lee Kang Sheng, wades through halls of grief and desire while directing a film based on the incandescent and timeless biblical Salomé.

Through long durational takes, absurd situations, and a composed acumen of transience, Tsai's cinema captivates with just one face, leaving behind a body of work that lends itself in equal parts to theatrical and institutional dissemination.

Resources/Credits:

• Bordeleau, Erik. "The Care for Opacity – On Tsai Ming-Liang’s Conservative Filmic Gesture." NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies, 1 (2012), No. 2, p. 115–131. DOI: www.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15052.
• Bordeleau, Erik. "Soulful Sedentarity: Tsai Ming-Liang at Home at the
• Museum." Studies in European Cinema, 10:2-3, 179-194, DOI: 10.1386/seci.10.2-3.179_1.
• Hughes, Darren. "Tsai Ming-liang." Senses of Cinema, May 2003, https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/tsai/.
• Lim, Song Hwee. Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of Slowness. University of Hawai'i Press, 2014.
• Tsai, B. 2017. The many faces of Tsai Ming-liang: Cinephilia, the French connection, and cinema in the gallery. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 13 (2): 141–160, https://doi.org/10.21315/ijaps2017.13.2.7
• Villiers, Nicholas de. Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy. Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang. University of Minnesota Press, 2022.
• Visage - Press Kit Cannes.

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Intro Interview

This week on Cannesversations, Eliana and Patrick discuss Valeska Grisebach’s self-described "dance with the Western genre," the 2017 Cannes Un Certain Regard film Western. Considered by some to be part of the second generation of the Berlin School and by others to be one of the distinct voices of the New Austrian Cinema, Grisebach distinguishes herself through her filmmaking approach by favoring a collaborative process with her actors in the conceptualization of scenes.

Strangely enough, this does not take away from her directorial signature style, yet rather establishes her as one of the leading filmmakers of world cinema concerned with narrative realism. Western implements documentary-style filmmaking techniques to speak to the subsisting undercurrent themes of colonization and masculinity with contemporary panache and vigilant subtlety.

Credit/ Resources:

• Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School, Camden House, 2013.Martine Floch. „Western, de Valeska Grisebach (2017).” Histoire Politique, https://doi.org/10.4000/histoirepolitique.5350.Codruța Morari. European Auteurs Revisit the Western: Thomas Bidegain’s Les Cowboys and Valeska Grisebach’s Western.
• New German Critique: An Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. 2019;46(3 [138]):11-34.
• Tony Pipolo. Small Talk. “Tony Pipolo on Valeska Grisebach’s Western.” Artforum, February 2018.
• Peter Scheinpflug. „Western (Valeska Grisebach, 2017). Home is here the horse is, oder: Valeska Grisebachs respektvolle Demontage des Westernhelden.”
• Lola, Toni, Yella und die anderen: Der deutsche Film nach 1990, Brill | Fink, 2023, pp. 417-434.
• Victoria Steiner. „Der deutsche Weste(r)n zu Valeska Grisebachs WESTERN (2017) – unter anderem.“ Medienobservationen, pp. 1-20.
• Peter Verstraten “Valeska Grisebach’s Western: An Unacknowledged Remake of Samuel Fuller’s ‘Run of the Arrow.’” Senses of Cinema, Issue 87, June 2018.
• Catherine Wheatly. “Not Politics but People: The ‘Feminine Aesthetic’ of Valeska Grisebach and Jessica Hausner.” New Austrian Film, Berghahn Books, 2011, pp. 136-147.

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKAPNjgkNS4

This week Patrick and Eliana discuss Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 Cannes Jury Prize winner, Festen (The Celebration). The inaugural Dogme 95 film is filled with frenetic energy that put Denmark back on the filmmaking landscape as it attempted to break free from that which was mainstream and conventional.

Resources:

• C. Claire Thomson. Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen. University of Washington Press, 2013.Liliana Pedrón de Martín. “Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen (1998). An Attempt to Avoid Madness through Denunciation.”
• The Couch and the Silver Screen. Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema, edited by Andrea Sabbadini, Brunner-Rutledge, 2003, pp. 94-99.Götsch, Dietmar: „Schimmer des Vergangenen. Überlegungen zu Thomas Vinterbergs Film Festen.“ Mediale Wirklichkeiten, edited by Andrea Nolte, Schüren, 2003 (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium 15), pp. 19–26. DOI: doi.org/doi:10.25969/mediarep/14375.
• Jesper Jargil. De lutrede. Jesper Jargil Film, 2002Cast and crew interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24lXd8EmMA

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcveW3hH7gQ

Eliana and Patrick have decided to keep Cannesversations afloat by riffling through the abundance of films historically screened at the Cannes Film Festival. This week we discuss Bob Fosse and his 1979 Palme d'Or winning All that Jazz and give our take on the legacy of the unapologetically frank choreographer whose personal and professional brilliance gave us this timeless spectacle.

Resources:

• Jenai Kutcher: Bob Fosse. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006.
• Dara Milovanovic: “The Fosse Woman. Analysis of Femininity, Aesthetics, and Corporeality.” www.eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/42587/1/Milovanovic-D.pdf
• Vincent Canby: www.nytimes.com/1979/12/20/archives/the-screen-roy-scheider-stars-in-all-that-jazzpeter-pan-syndrome.html
• Martin Gottfried: All His Jazz. The Life and Death of Bob Fosse. Da Capo Press, 2003.
• Glen O. Gabbard, Krin Gabbard: “Vicissitudes of Narcissism in the Cinematic Autobiography.” Psychoanalytic Review, Summer 1984.
• Sam Wasson: Fosse. Eamon Dolan / Mariner, 2014.
• Shlomit Aharoni Lir, Liat Ayalon: “The Ethos of the Auteur as Father of the Film Craft – on Masculinity, Creativity and the Art of Filmmaking.” Creativity Studies, 15 (1), DOI: 10.3846/cs.2022.14258.
• Alvin J. Seltzer: “All That Jazz. Bob Fosse’s Solipsistic Masterpiece.” Literature/Film Quarterly, 45 (1), 1996, pp. 99-104.

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Intro: Bob Fosse Interview

Patrick and Eliana wrap up our coverage of the 76th Cannes Film Festival and discuss the closing ceremony, Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winner- Anatomie d'une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall), Catherine Breillat's L'été Dernier (Last Summer), and Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera.

Palme d'Or winning Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) & L'été Dernier (Catherine Breillat) and La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)

• 0:00 Intro End of Cannes + Closing Ceremony
• 13:26- Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall
• 36:46 - Catherine Breillat’s L’été Dernier
• 58:46 - Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera

You can follow Patrick and Eliana on Letterboxd!

~Until next time!

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive

Patrick and Eliana are joined by Giancarlo to talk about films on day eleven of the Cannes Film Festival: Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, Victor Erice's Close your Eyes (Cerrar los Ojos), and Pham Thien An's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.

Jonathan Glazers' The Zone of Interest, Victor Erice's Close your Eyes (Cerrar los Ojos), Pham Thien An's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

1. Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest -00:04:26 - 00:27:18
2. Victor Erice's Close Your Eyes 00:27:19 - 00:38:48
3. Pham Thien An's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell - 00:38:48 - 01:02:38

You can follow Patrick , Eliana or GC on Letterboxd!

Patrick and Eliana are joined by Öykü to talk about films on day nine of the Cannes Film Festival: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's About Dry Grasses, Joanna Arnow's The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, and Todd Haynes' May December.

Cannes 76: "About Dry Grasses", "The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed", "May December"

1. Nuri Bilge Ceylan - About Dry Grasses 00:04:10 - 00:21:03
2. Joanna Arnow- The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed 00:21:03- 00:27:30
3. Todd Haynes - May December 00:27:30 - 00:45:00

You can follow Patrick , Eliana or Öykü on Letterboxd!

Patrick and Eliana talk about films on day four of the 76th Cannes Film Festival: Steve McQueen's Occupied City, Wim Wender's Anselm, Wang Bing's Youth (Spring) 春 and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster. Excuses for uploading this much later than we had hoped!

Cannes 76: "Occupied City", "Anselm", "Youth (Spring) 春" & "Monster"

1. Steve McQueen's Occupied City 00:02:04 - 00:10:19
2. Wim Wender's Anselm 00:10:20 - 00:16:06
3. Wang Bing's Youth (Spring) 00:16:07 - 00:28:35
4. Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster 00:28:35 - 00:45:25

You can follow Patrick and Eliana on Letterboxd!