This is an idea I first saw on @bobfreelander‘s blog. The idea is to list your favorite films from the past year that you saw for the first time, but exclude new releases. This allows much more variety and creates a lot of great suggestions if you read many of them.

Since I tracked these films much more closely this year my list grew long. I will occasionally combine selections by theme, but there is enough for five posts. These choices are in no particular order.

Enjoy!

Tales from the Hood (1995)

There was a span of time when I was watching as many horror anthology films as I could stream. Most, as one would expect were inconsistent, on occasion one had one very memorable story. However, most surprising to me was that the most consistently excellent was the one I held out little hope for and watched on a whim; great unique takes, balanced with humor and social relevance.

Summer Interlude (1951)

If I got every Criterion release that intrigued me I’d watch nothing else. There are those that scream: “YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO BUY ME, RIGHT?” And and edition of a Bergman film I had yet to see is, indeed, one of those screamers. A really intrguing take that acts as a bridge from his early sensibility to the form we’re more used to seeing.

Brats (1930)

I didn’t catch too many Laurel & Hardy films in 2012, truth is when I was younger I saw most of them. This one where they play bratty little kids in forced perspective and composites struck me as new and humorous.

Always (1989)

One heretofore unseen gem from a legendary filmmaker deserves another. I saw this at an awesome outdoor summer screening series and I figured it was the best way to finally see Always in preparing my oft-delayed Spielberg ranking.

Jet Boy (2001)

This film is part road movie, homecoming, a tale of maturation and also of putting the past behind you. In a tale where a man and a runaway orphan cross paths by chance these bifurcated issues and wants can seem to be at odds, but they are combined in a very uniform way to good effect.

Student Bodies (1981)

If you miss old-school comedy parodies and have a sense of humor the horror genre this is for you. Works on both levels.

The Kingdom of the Fairies (1903)

It’s hard to keep your silent filmographies current especially when dealing with shorts but this Méliès seemed new to me, and is inventive even for him, especially being of such early vintage.

Planet of the Vampires

This sat around on my Netflix queue for quite a while. I’ve seen a lot of Mario Bava’s films and this one always struck me as an outlier, and not in a good way. I was delighted to be proven wrong. It’s an excellent, and as I later found out, influential work.

O Pagador de Promessas (The Promise Keeper) (1963)

This was one of the few films I was missing seeing to be more decisive about picking my most representative Brazilian film. It is also the only Latin American film to win the Palme d’Or and thankfully none of the fame or hype soured it for me at it. It is a brilliantly made film and a masterpiece of the Cinema Novo.



The Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Though I have my issues with the first installment, in the real of horror trilogies The Omen is one that gets overlooked far too often. Granted you’ll either buy how far this one takes it or not, think it’s appropriate or not, but at least it goes for it (no guts, no glory) and tries to bring the Damien chapter to a close. I think it does so very successfully.