Some Links to "The Directors of the Decade"

My first post on the past decade on film was something of a cliche. These lists pop up all over the internet and reading them all is as pointless as it is boring. Yet they can sometimes be interesting too. I'll admit that I got a little thrill when A.O. Scott, Manohla Dargis, Roger Ebert, and Andrew O'Hehir among others posted their lists. They offer a sort of distilled opinion. A way of easily matching yourself up, comparing your taste. Yet the films and lists do not exist in a bubble and a list constrained only by time and medium also has the power to say something more. I touched briefly, in a previous post, on how interesting this last decade has been if you view it almost as an independent chunk of time from the beginning of George Bush's presidency to today, which sees major health care reform becoming a reality and escalating wars in Afghanistan and possibly Yemen. It was a remarkably self contained period of time, defined primarily by 9/11, but not solely. Looking at film in the context of movements, time, remembrance, and history is tricky at best and impossible at worst. One of the best attempts though, and the only one I really admired, about this past decade was by Matt Zoller Seitz writing for Salon. I certainly don't agree with everything but he creates a consistent set of beliefs (both aesthetic and not). Besides, there's just something really ballsy about picking two writers for best director of the decade.

Matt Zoller Seitz's Directors of the Decade
10. Michael Bay
9. The Sensualists
8. Robert Zemeckis and Wes Anderson
7. Steven Soderbergh
6. Michael Moore
5. Steven Spielberg
4. The Dardenne brothers
3. The Coen brothers
2. Miyazaki and Pixar
1. Charlie Kaufman and David Chase
Image of the decade: Osama and the towers