Top 10 movies in 2010

I didn't religiously take note of the films I watched—and I know, I know, I should have. As I survey this list, something is severely lacking: Filipino movies. I don't know why, but apart from Kimmy Dora, I don't remember having been entertained by locally made films. Which brings me to RPG Metanoia, the first Filipino 3D animation film ever made. Have you seen it? How was it? I have a feeling it's going to be a blast. 

For now, here are my top 10 films for the year.

1. The Godfather Trilogy

Need I say more?

2. Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) (2006)

It's set in East Germany where a topnotch spy performs a round-the-clock surveillance on a playwright suspected of disloyalty to the communist government. The spy, Weisler, eventually realizes that the government he's working for isn't as perfect as it looks—and he begins to sympathize with the playwright, Dreyman. The ending is astounding.

3. The Autumn Sonata (1978)

A world-class concert pianist—beautiful and sophisticated—visits her daughter who's an exact opposite. In the course of her stay, she is confronted with her daughter's insecurities and her failures as a mother, giving us a moving picture of two people wanting to make things right, one more time. My first Ingmar Bergman movie has turned me into a fan.

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Who'd forget the Scripture-quoting Samuel L. Jackson?

5. Inglorious Basterds (2009) 

This is hilarious! Brad Pitt doing that funny Italian accent is a classic. I wonder how it feels to be part of that gang. 

6. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
The first Romanian film I've seen. Two dormmates arrange an abortion, and they show us how gory, bloody, and wrong it is.

7. Manchurian Candidate (2004)
What happens if you mess up with people's memories? You can turn them into presidents. Meryl Streep plays as an influential US senator and does everything to make her son the next head of the White House. Denzel Washington stops her from doing just that.

8. The Town (2010)
Basically: things you shouldn't do when you rob a bank. Ben Affleck's best performance in a movie.

9. Coco Avant Chanel (2009)
Audrey Tautou plays Coco, a woman who dares to make her dreams come true. And she started by making hats. For the fashion-forward, this will inspire.

10. Love Affair (1994)

Two people, each separately engaged, board the same plane which, because of a storm, makes an emergency landing. They fall in love right there and then. Just before they part ways and return to their own lives, they make an agreement: that if their feelings for each other remain, they should meet at the top of the Empire State Building after three months. If one person never shows up, they should never bother each other again. Three months later: the man waits for her on top of New York City, but she never shows up because, just as she crosses the street to finally meet him, she gets hit by a car and ends up paralyzed. It's borderline cheesy, but it works. And I won't mind if my wife would look like Annette Bening.

Here are the rest of the movies I watched.

Il Postino (1994)

L'heure d'été (Summer Hours) (2008)
Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) (2006)
Watching The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Belle de Jour (1967)
The Autumn Sonata (1978).
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959)
Coco Avant Chanel (2009)
Seraphine (2008)
Yaşamın Kıyısında (2007)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Rashomon (1950)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
Manchurian Candidate (2004)
The Town (2010)
The Godfather Trilogy
Watched New York, I Love You (2009)
Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Love Affair (1994)
Coraline (2009)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)