Top Tens: 2005

The years 2005 and 2006 are an peculiar pair. Before now I viewed them as weaker years in the 2000s for cinema, although 2005 seemed the stronger between them. I no longer do, but its worth asking why I thought this. For one, both were sandwiched between 2004 and 2007 which, viewing the longer list for 2004 added to my post, and the link I'll add when I get to 2007, were exceptionally strong years themselves. The other issue, if you follow the link for the longer 2005 list here, is that films praised strongly critically, as cult films or by the many failed extremely for me when I got to them. Some deserve another chance, as with all the other lists, but it made a more pronouced dent with this year and 2006. That and the fact that, even now in 2014, the United Kingdom had to wait for films from the year before to get cinema releases in the year after, which muddles how one canonises a year in cinema completely a decade or so later.

What I can say if that, as most of the critically acclaimed films fell by the wayside, the dismissed works of auteurs, termite art (to quote Manny Farber), and out-of-the-blue surprises turned out to be the films that rose to podium status as this list shows. 

Ranking 2005

(In Order of Preference as of 26th April 2014)

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Dir. Cristi Puiu, 2005) 

Lunacy (Dir. Jan Svankmajer, 2005) 

Into Great Silence (Dir. Philip Groning, 2005)

Takeshis' (Dir. Takeshi Kitano, 2005)

Rabbit (Dir. Run Wrake, 2005/Short) 

Instructions For A Light and Sound Machine
(Dir. Peter Tscherkassky, 2005/Short) 

Avenge but one of my two eyes (Dir. Ari Mograbi, 2005)

The Sun (Dir. Aleksandr Sokurov, 2005) 

The Bow (Dir. Kim Ki-duk, 2005)

Time to Leave (Dir. François Ozon, 2005)