Best of first-half 2011

I am ridiculously late with this entry, which is strange, for this is possibly my favourite blog offering of the year: a mid-year stockage of my personal choices for the best films, performances an directorial and writing efforts without the suffocating immediacy of award ceremonies or the pressure of eligibility rules and dates. We are well past the mid-way point of 2011, so the long delay might well be due to an unconscious act of procrastination on account of a cinematic year that, at least in its first half, was low on genuinely impressive films.

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FIPRESCI names 'The Tree of Life' best film of the year

It's been three months now since I first wrote here about Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. I saw the film just a couple of hours after it had been awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I thought then, and I still think now, that it was a wise decision, forThe Tree of Life is an extraordinary film in every sense, worthy of that or any other award recognition.

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The Tree of Life wins Palme d'Or at Cannes

I was going to a late screening of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life last night when news reached me that the film had just been awarded this year's Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I therefore entered the movie theatre with an increased anticipation for a film that, regardless of the Cannes accolades, I had been fiercely looking forward to. I will certainly come back to the film in the following months, since the award at Cannes will most likely bring it some attention later in the awards season, but for now suffice it to say that, although I don't know most of the other entries aspiring to the Cannes trophy, I'm more than pleased with the decision taken by Robert de Niro's jury.

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