Films of 2007

For me, one of the great pleasures of a New Year is compiling my annual list. For about 10 years now, I've been keeping a book, just an ordinary exercise book from Smiths, in which I keep a 'to-do' list which is updated weekly, and note down the films I've seen and the books I've read. Every New Year I make a list of both, and add them up. Now my children are grown up I have more time to go to the movies, but, as I get older, I read more slowly (I used to blast through an alarming number of books at what seems now like top speed - I really can't do that any more; the eyelids droop, the brain slows down....). Anyway, it's always fun to do, and makes a nice start to the New Year.
What I noticed this year was the sheer quality of practically every film I saw. Yes, there was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but that really was the only one I went to see that I found a bit tiresome, and that was me rather than the film - it really wasn't my thing. There were others, such as The Illusionist, which I wasn't sure about, but, on the whole, it was a vintage year.
Some highlights: The Last King of Scotland, featuring Forest Whitaker's superb Idi Amin; Control, Eastern Promises, The Assassination of Jesse James, and The Lives of Others, which some were ambivalent about, but which I thought fully deserved its Oscar. Plus a trip to the cinema to see The Seventh Seal, Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece, on the big screen - a rare treat; Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni died on the same day in July so there was much soul-searching in some quarters over the death of the auteur etc. etc. I don't believe it for a moment, as this year's crop proves. Cinema is changing, yes, but great films are being produced in greater quantity than ever, and are more popular than ever. I've sat in more packed houses this year than I think I've ever done before - there seems to be a real hunger for great cinema, and I'm extremely optimistic. The opening up of Eastern Europe and the Far East has released a flood of talent, and there's much to look forward to. I'm looking forward with excited anticipation to the coming year.