The critics groups are busily tucking presents under some people's trees -- those that have trees, that is -- and the ten-best lists should start flooding the press, tv and the 'net any nanosecond now. But for the Ira voters, the year won't end until March. That's when we will get together to vote on our awards, the ones that really count, the Iras. Of course, if you are a loyal reader of this blog, you know that. You also know, then, that I won't post my ten-best list until then.
Hey, the Jewish ritual year starts in the fall, the Jewish "new year for the trees" starts in late January and Tet, the Buddhist lunar new year starts in February. You got a problem with that, buddy?
All joking aside, 2007 has been a pretty spiffy year for film. I have only 85 films on my list of Ira-eligibles seen for the 2007 awards -- I expect to knock down another 50-60 before Ira night -- and I already have a very strong ten-best list with four or five honorable mentions that would be creditable additions to a ten-best list most other years. But that is a story for another time.
The real reason for this dithering is that the estimable Ira Hozinsky, the man for whom the Iras are named, passed along to me a link that I want to share. Back in the heady days of auteurism triumphant, there was a particularly trenchant magazine published by the Seattle Film Society, Movietone News, and one of their most elegant features was a year-end wrap-up column called "Moments Out of Time," a collection of the most resonant images, sounds, lines from that year's films. When they moved up the ladder to Film Comment, the feature migrated with them, but when they left FC it disappeared. Until now.
You can find a 2007 edition of "Moments Out of Time" here. Feel free to offer some of your own, either on their page or in the comments to this posting. I'll wrack my brain looking for some of my own favorite moments shortly.
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