Voted for by MoC readers

Thanks to all who voted — much appreciated. The voting was much more focused this year, the same titles kept appearing. Again, and rightly so, Criterion completely hog the poll with over 2/3rds of all votes cast. MoC Series DVDs are banned from this poll, but if all the 'dirtied' votes for MoC's Humanity and Paper Balloons had been allowed, it would have finished a pert 2nd. Many thanks for all those votes. Some of your comments run down the righthandside of this page.

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1st place

UGETSU

(Criterion, USA) with 31% of all votes

"It was a long, long wait for Mizoguchi to be given the royal treatment on DVD but Criterion certainly delivered with their exemplary transfer, Tony Rayns commentary, Kaneto Shindo directed Mizoguchi documentary on disc 2, and 72-page book. Here's hoping his many other masterpieces follow in swift succession because Mizoguchi's films need, nay demand, this level of attention and care. A landmark release." — Nick Wrigley

"One can only hope that Criterion does the same for Sansho the Bailiff, Sisters of the Gion, Osaka Elegy, The Life of Oharu, and Chikamatsu monogatari. " — Matt Severson

2nd place

L'ECLISSE

(Criterion, USA) with 12% of all votes

"Flawless transfer of a gorgeous print, insightful commentary and extras, but most of all a film with themes that remain relevant to modern existence in Western societies." — Ali Shashaani

"The missing third of the trilogy, my favourite Antonioni, finally out on DVD. The film begins with Vittoria arranging objects within a frame, and the film as a whole revolves around "objects" being in the right place at the right time, making Criterion's ill-advised cropping somewhat unfortunate. That notwithstanding, I'm very pleased to own this disc." — Trond Trondsen

3rd place

AU HASARD BALTHAZAR

(Criterion, USA) with 9% of all votes

"A deep and unique film that seems to shift focus and meaning with each subsequent viewing, Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar is finally given the grand treatment by Criterion. The gorgeous transfer reveals a film where each shot seems as fragile and sensitive as a newborn child's skin. Throw into the mix the rarely heard of — let alone seen — hour-long 1966 French TV programme, Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson, and a splendid and warm video introduction by Donald Richie and the result is one of the most essential purchases of 2005." — Jon Lomax

4th place

UNSEEN CINEMA: EARLY AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM 1894-1941

(Image, USA) with 6% of all votes

5th place

PICKPOCKET

(Criterion, USA) with 5.6% of all votes

6th place

HAROLD LLOYD COMEDY COLLECTION

(New Line, USA) with 4.6% of all votes

7th place

VAL LEWTON HORROR COLLECTION

(Warners, USA) with 4.1% of all votes

8th place

LOVE

(Second Run, UK) with 3.8% of all votes

9th place

VAN GOGH

(Artificial Eye, UK) with 3.2% of all votes

10th place

BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING

(Criterion, USA with 3% of all votes

11th place

PORTRAIT OF JASON

(Second Run, UK) with 2.7% of all votes

12th place

THE TALES OF HOFFMANN

(Criterion, USA) with 2.2% of all votes

[Thanks to all those who voted.]
MoC Series DVDs were excluded from this vote. Obvious organized voting rings were excluded too.
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Compiled by Nick Wrigley, December 2005
Copyright © 2005 mastersofcinema.org

ICI ET AILLEURS (Godard, Happinet, Japan)

Japanese DVD releases of some long-awaited films continued also this year to shock and please cinephiles. The only downside being the lack of subtitles apart from the removable Japanese ones. The Ici et ailleurs DVD is as exciting as the previous year's -again Japanese- Le Vent D'est DVD, with its superior image & sound quality than all the previous VHS editions.

— Baris Aksu

THE CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH (Straub/Huillet - New Yorker Films, USA)

Finally.... a Straub/Huillet film is on video in the English speaking world. I consider that a momentous event. Let's hope that New Yorker won't stop at one Straub/Huillet film.

— Michael Annand

TOUT VA BIEN (Criterion, USA)

Without a doubt my vote goes to the Criterion edition of Tout va Bien. Why?, because for a Godard release this late radical film is not such an obvious choice (only look at the other Godard releases of Criterion, you know what I mean), the DVD was jam packed with interesting and relevant extras (interviews and of course Letter to Jane, an even more risky choice) and one of the most comprehensive booklets ever. And all in a lower-tie price range of $29.95 !!

— Gijs van Wiechen, The Netherlands

VAL LEWTON HORROR COLLECTION (Warners, USA)

Nine of the strangest, saddest, most personal (and most Russian) movies ever made in Hollywood, by a master of cinema who wasn't even a director. Now we need Universal to release Lewton's B western masterpiece Apache Drums.

— Jonathan Sanders

ALEXANDRE ALEXEIEFF (Cinedoc, Paris Films Co-op, France)

Aside from Second Run's Love, Criterion's mighty releases (Ugetsu, Balthazar, Pickpocket, etc), and Artificial Eye's wondrous Van Gogh - my favourite release this year was this packed Alexeieff disc — showboating his incredible pinboard animation.

— Nick Wrigley

RENDEZ-VOUS A BRAY (box set) (André Delvaux, Boomerang Pictures, Belgium) All regions

— Jonathan Rosenbaum

PORTRAIT OF JASON (Second Run, UK)

My vote would've been for your two Mabuse discs (extraordinary experience watching the films back to back) But then I noted we can't vote for Eureka, so I'd probably go for Second Run's Portrait of Jason, which I'd never seen before.

— Geoff Andrew, London

RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER: L'INTEGRALE 18 DVD (Carlotta, France)

Very nice box set with the fundamental films of the late R.W. Fassbinder, from the early shorts and noir styled features to the Sirk style melodramas masterpieces. The edition is full of extras, mainly documentaries and interviews about and with the director. The films have been released in pristine copies in original aspect ratio (OAR) and spoken in English and German with French subtitles. A must for the film buffs of all over the world.

— Paulo Correia, Portugal

L'ECLISSE (Criterion, USA)

A definitive release in any respect. Brilliant transfer, informative commentary, tasteful packaging of a crucial modernist film. Addendum: But the real #1 for me this year was Yamanaka's Humanity and Paper Balloons from MoC.

— Charlie Trax

THE HAROLD LLOYD COMEDY COLLECTION (New Line, USA)

With the Silent Era mostly neglected or badly represented on DVD, this set of dozens of rare films (and some classics that aren't so rare) is a feast for film lovers and silent film buffs. Handsomely packaged, beautifully presented. Rejoice!

— Denti Alligator

EDISON: THE INVENTION OF THE MOVIES (Kino, USA)

A wonderful journey through Edison's cinema.

— Luca Fornasier, Italy

SERGE GAINSBOURG, D'AUTRES NOUVELLES DES ETOILES by Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Christophe Averty, et al (Universal Music France)

Five mint-condition hours of performances, music videos, and English-subtitled interviews with The Master. Integrating appearances from such figures as Karina, Bardot, Birkin, Darc, Dutronc, Gall, and Gabin, this set contains more magical (and provocative) moments per chapter than anything else I've seen on disc in 2005.

— Craig Keller, New York

UNSEEN CINEMA: EARLY AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM 1894-1941 (7 x DVD set, Image Entertainment, USA)

Although curator Bruce Posner pushes the definition of 'avant-garde' farther than I like, there is a wealth of fascinating and otherwise unavailable material here. I've spent (and will spend) countless hours digesting and re-watching this amazing collection.

"An atheist is a man with no invisible means of support." - Tom Waits

— Robert Edwards

KING KONG BOX SET (Warners, USA)

My one choice, although maybe a little too mainstream, is the Kong Collection by Warner Home Video. One of my greatest films of all time looks better than ever. With two great documentaries, plus Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young, it's my best collection of the year by far.

— Ron Simmons

THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (Criterion, USA)

My favourite DVD of 2005 is Criterion's release of Powell and Pressburger's The Tales Of Hoffmann, because watching it put me in a delirious state of exaltation, from which I will - hopefully - never recover.

— Thomas Rohnacher

IVAN'S CHILDHOOD (MK2, France)

The MK2 release of Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood. This is a stunning transfer of Tarkovsky's first masterpiece finally released in a form befitting it. Good deep blacks, excellent contrast, fine detailing, and the original mono soundtrack. Tarkovsky has been poorly served on DVD (excepting Criterion's Solaris). Now if only they'd re-do Stalker, Mirror Nostalgia, and Andrei RublevÉ

— Dave Greenham

WE WANT THE LIGHT (Opus Arte/BBC)

The most recent film by veteran music documentarist Christopher Nupen, WE WANT THE LIGHT benefits incalculably from being made with the DVD format specifically in mind: the original BBC broadcast was merely a trailer. Fully aware that a 60-minute timeslot is nowhere near enough to cover a subject as intellectually and emotionally challenging as the ever-thorny relationship between the Jewish people and German music, Nupen throws in a further four-and-a-half hours (!) of additional interview material, expanding the original documentary's brief soundbites into lengthy philosophical arguments of a kind rarely encountered outside the likes of Channel Four's open-ended 'After Dark'. And the musical case is also made through a supplementary cut-down version of the original programme, stripping out the commentary and interviews and presenting just the music remixed in 5.1 surround sound. It's a marvellous example of how the DVD format can really be stretched by an imaginative producer, and deserves a far wider audience than it's probably going to get.

— Michael Brooke, UK

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY PRESTON STURGES box set (Universal, UK)

Disappointing only in that there's nothing left to anticipate.

— JT Lea

SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (Paramount, USA)

All of Budd Boetticher's series of chamber westerns, beginning with this long-anticipated Batjac restoration, ought to be readily available on DVD, but I'm grateful that a large distributor has at last taken one small step to redress this problem. (Sony/Columbia executives, are you listening?)

Paramount's transfer is very good but not perfect; it at least captures the hues and textures of its director's favoured locations at Lone Pine. The extras, however, make it a genuine collector's joy beginning with Jim Kitses' exemplary close reading of the text throughout his commentary. The documentary footage assembled in separate sections intelligently honours all the major participants in 7 Men's creation-Boetticher, Randolph Scott, Burt Kennedy, and even the luminous, tragic, sorely-missed Gail Russell. Of the talking heads involved in this section, Blake Lucas's remarks provide a mother lode of information and precisely define Boetticher's importance and lasting influence on the western genre to this day.

— Noel Bjorndahl, Winmalee, Australia

UNSEEN CINEMA: EARLY AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM 1894-1941 (7 x DVD set, Image Entertainment, USA)

Make no mistake, this box set is absolutely essential for anyone with an interest in the avant-garde, the history of American cinema, and/or art in general. The films collected here display the potential of cinema to become an art form independent of both literary and photographic traditions. There are successes and failures here, but the films are never less than exhilarating.

Importantly, this isn't a box designed for elitist cineastes; curator Bruce Posner has given us a collection that is accessible to anyone interested in the pleasure of the moving image. Notes from scholars provide concise historical context and important information about the beautifully restored films, many complete with newly discovered musical cues. Importantly, the producers of this set don't treat the avant-garde like a hermetically sealed movement, but show how these films influenced the narratives and visuals found in the biggest crowd-pleasers of the time.

This set will no doubt be the cause of a reevaluation of early avant-garde in America, simply because many of the films have never been available to scholars in such pristine form. Watching the magnificent restoration of Ballet Mechanique, one can imagine scholars of the avant-garde rushing back to their published work, desperately revising their writing, because now, for the first time, one can truly _see_ these films.

I could go on and on, but it is probably better for anyone who hasn't seen this remarkable collection to just go and check it out.

— Kevin Lavin

HAMLET (Grigori Kozintsev, Ruscico, Russia)

Although, like all Ruscico discs, this DVD isn't perfect, it is very good and the film is a revelation. Easily the finest Hamlet on film, eclipsing even Olivier's classic, the script and acting are terrific. It's the cinematography, however, that steals the show. Brooding black and white "scope" photography with lots of great camera movement reminiscent of Welles' Macbeth. Don't let this release go overlooked.

— Craig Small, Maine, USA

EAST OF EDEN (Warners, USA)

My one vote goes to "East of Eden." This film has a palpable atmosphere, a taste, not quite like anything else: an impasto of soiled erotic nightmare on the edge of hallucination, mixed with rage at the world of one's elders. Dean is amazingly unarmored and vulnerable. Perhaps the enormous success of "On the Waterfront" that immediately preceded it gave Kazan the courage and clout to be this bold.

— Frank Bidart

THE ERROL MORRIS COLLECTION (MGM/IFC Films, USA)

Gates of Heaven is the best film I have ever seen, so my vote is on the sole basis of its availability on DVD. It's now among the very few titles in my obese collection that receives monthy viewings. I hope this release (this, after being out of print on VHS for over fifteen years) inspires others to watch this film, and perhaps to cherish it as strongly as I do.

— Rumsey Taylor

CAFE LUMIERE (Hou hsiao-hsien, Sinomovie.com, Taiwan)

Also on the DVD is an hour-long French documentary titled Métro Lumière that is subtitled in English. My favourite DVD, in spite of average transfer...

— Trond Trondsen, Canada

LOVE (Makk - SECOND RUN, UK)

A perfect DVD of the most wonderful film I saw all year.

PS If it wasn't against the rules I'd have voted for Humanity And Paper Balloons, The Naked Island or Punishment Park - thanks for the great films!

— Richard Embray

MAURICE PIALAT VOLUME 2 (Gaumont, France)

The wait was really worth it. Gaumont kept delaying the box but eventually produced a wonderful set comprising 11 DVDs including many rare shorts, plenty of interviews and the rarely seen TV series La Maison des Bois. The 4 of the 5 feature films are truly excellent. It is only a pity that Gaumont did not include any English subtitles.

— Arnaud le Saouter

UNSEEN CINEMA: EARLY AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM 1894-1941 (7 x DVD set, Image Entertainment, USA)

The entire history of "alternative" cinema (non-narrative, non-commercial, artisanal and personal) has been consistently ignored, overlooked, neglected, and here is a spectacular opportunity to acquaint oneself with the many pleasures and delights to be found in areas of cinema that are not "mainstream". Least one fear that this is an enormous amount of esoteric and "difficult" cinema, it should also be mentioned that the charm of this boxset is that there are so many varieties of movies represented, from impressionistic documentaries to famously inventive segments from Hollywood films, from the most amazing animation to the most fantastic of trick-films. And for sheer visual beauty, some of the films included can't be beat. So UNSEEN CINEMA may seem daunting, but once embarked on exploring its treasures, it's hard not to want more and more.

— Daryl Chin

THE HAROLD LLOYD COMEDY COLLECTION (New Line, USA)

First of all Thank you, Thank you, Thank you ......... because of your ongoing efforts to make us(hard-core cinephiles!) believe in what we are doing more and more everyday.

The release of this truly spectacular seven-disc box set (features and shorts, as well as numerous featurettes) represents this comic genius at his best. The DVD extras are amazing, especially footage of the speech Lloyd gave upon receiving his honorary Academy Award and a collection of 3-D photos that Lloyd took over the years.

What else do a Lloyd fan want? even if you are not a fan you will appreciate these great films that are now available on DVD.

— Maryam Foruhi

PICKPOCKET (Criterion, USA)

Pickpocket on Criterion. This wonderful edition features a pristine print, profiles and interviews with Bresson and each of the leads, critical commentaries, and an introduction by Paul Schrader that had me revisiting the Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street (also on Criterion) for an enlightening comparison of directorial approaches to similar themes. In yet another year of outstanding releases, this disc, worthy of Bresson's masterwork, is my choice for DVD of the Year.

— Ken Schwarz

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Fox, USA (and, er.. also MoC Series #19))

I first saw it at a packed arthouse cinema in the nineties. The entire audience was spellbound by the movie and its easy to see why. An existentialist film noir made by A level (Tyrone Power can act !) talent at an A level budget that isnŐt watered down in the least, Nightmare Alley takes you deep down into the characters dark troubled/troubling soul and leaves a feeling you canŐt easily shake off. Helen WalkerŐs face, half cypher, half succubus, is burned into my retinas. The movie has the same effect playing on my TV screen. The DVD with its gorgeous noir and white images and informative, amusing commentary does a terrific job of placing this picture as one of the best film noirs and best Hollywood films of the Forties. Kudos to Fox bringing a long out of circulation film to the attention of modern movie lovers. Long Live The Geek.

— David Cassan

MAURICE PIALAT - BOX SET #2 (Gaumont, France)

Especially the short film L'Amour existe.

— Philippe Delvosalle, Belgium

POINT BLANK (Warners, USA

Point Blank represents a unique cinematic experience. It exemplifies a blend of french new wave cinematic understanding, with the gritty edge of a film noir. The film is beautifully presented with impeccable image quality, and the audio commentary is a delight. This dreamy payback film deserves recognition for being one of the best DVD releases of 2005.

— Geoffrey Balasoglou, Australia